Long weekend- but a good one!

This is some of the folks who showed up for Ted's birthday party; we had a bonfire, plenty of food, lots of collies to throw the ball for including Tess's littermate Luke, and a Dairy Queen birthday cake:



Of course, I totally blew my diet for the occasion (I've lost 16 pounds, but don't dare weigh myself for a few days!). The weather held out; although it rained in the morning it cleared off and was lovely by the time the party got rolling. Since we're all old folks now, we wound it down around 10 PM. Thanks to all our friends and family from Alberta who spent a lot of hours on the road to make this a special day for Ted, and to everyone else who helped us celebrate!
Since we reconfigured the horse pens, I now have my round pen back, and I worked Chickory today. Threw the saddle on her, led her over to the pen, and longed her a little in the bosal (she is shedding caps now, so no bitting for a while). She worked just lovely, you'd never know it was August last year when she was last worked. Ted came along after a bit, and I got on her and had him lead her around. She is pretty cautious when I'm on her, I need to build her confidence and get her moving out freely. When I can get her moving out nicely at all gaits, and stopping and turning well, it will be time to move on to the big arena, and some trail riding. I might try ponying her from Gussie too.
Breeding season is done here, we bred Belle on Easter weekend, and Gussie May 12-16. So I really need to get Chickory going well this year, as Gussie gets next summer off. Beamer is still available for other mares, but I'm not really advertising especially with the EHV problem.
Ted got to see another littermate of Tess's today, this one I sold to a lady who is a caretaker for a mine that is shut down, and it's bear country; the dog, which she named Wallace, has done a good job of protecting her. There are feral cats there too, and apparently Wallace thinks it's his job to round them up and keep an eye on them.