We are back to our familiar, busy routine working hard to support ourselves as horse owners. It is not a cheap habit, especially when things go wrong.The first day of our return from Finland we rushed to the ranch to see the horses and poor Madeira, obviously happy to see me kept nickering while she dragged herself to greet me hopelessly limping.
My heart dropped. What a "great" home coming.
Since then it has been a big up and down lameness roller coaster for us. The vet has seen her a couple of times and is coming back this week.
I'll elaborate on her lameness later on when we have determined the cause of the problem.
All the other horses were happy to see us back too. Especially Kim and the Baby. Kim let out a loud whinny as she heard our voices and the baby paced around her paddock excitedly. Steal was the only one who was upset. He kept giving Virpi his hind end in his introverted way saying "That's for abandoning me!" He forgave quickly though. The next day he was back to his own angelic self.
So after all that rain in Finland we came back to a sweltering heat wave in California. A perfect surfing weather, however the horses, who certainly aren't accustomed to such heat on the coast, and who already have started growing their winter coats, since the daylight is getting shorter, were sweating just standing still. Labor day weekend was one of the busiest weekends of all summer and for three days the poor ranch horses (as if they didn't work hard enough in an ordinary weekend) slumbered back and forth the trail in a record heat.
We bathe Madeira, Steal, Kim, baby Leila and little Candy. Mama pony also came to be sprayed by the fence and several ranch horses splashed around in their man made waterhole.
The ponies, Candy and Leila have been turned out together and they absolutely LOVE each other.
Candy is the boss of course. She is the biggest little horse on the ranch. 
They all are fine in the arena together playing their horsey games. Steal and madeira especially enjoy practicing the seven games on the little ones.But the ponies think they are totally outsmarting the big horses playing the "you can't catch me" game.
On Sunday last week the fog finally rolled in and pleasantly cooled us off, so we decided to saddle up Tuff and Cruiser for a little ride.
On Sunday last week the fog finally rolled in and pleasantly cooled us off, so we decided to saddle up Tuff and Cruiser for a little ride.
Me on Tuff and Beverly on Cruiser.
In "Kim's story" last January I mentioned Nevada, the horse who became Kim's eyes and her protection out in the pasture and then was bought and moved away. Well, he is back! We brought him over to Kim's stall to see how they would react to each other. Kim was upset. It was almost as if she was mad, that he had left her there. Nevada was excited to be back though, and is loving it out in the pasture again. And Kim has a new found life. She is doing fantastic and loves hanging out with us.
We also had time to visit Sunrise in his Pacifica home. He was very pleasantly surprised to see us.
