Riding Trinket

The highlight of our summer so far has definitely been the girls getting to ride our friend Stacy's horse, Trinket. Trinket is an amazingly kind, well-behaved horse, and Stacy is equally as kind--and is amazingly good at sharing her horse enthusiasm and knowledge with the girls. I can't think of anyone Adam or I would trust more with our girls on a horse. Anna started by getting to brush Trinket down, including her mane and tail:

Grace wasn't so sure at this point, preferring to take care of Trinket's carrot and apple we brought for her:
I have never, ever seen Anna smile as big as when she was on the horse. She absolutely loved it. It was so good for her to learn to HAVE to be loud enough for Trinket to hear her, and "click like she means it." Anna got it, and Trinket listened. A good lesson indeed for her to use with everyone in this life.
I wasn't really sure if Grace would ride Trinket on this trip, because she usually prefers to check things out first, but she got right on--without even a pause. She liked riding her and also had a smile on the whole time, but didn't want to go again after her first ride. That's okay. She, of course, is ready to go again, as she says, "now that she knows what to expect." All good training for her life as a farmer (still what she wants to be when she grows up). :-)

In other, much sadder news, this week, we had to put our cat, Oskar, down on Saturday. Although we all loved Oskar (including everyone who has ever come to our home, because he had such personality), it was time. He had been peeing on our carpet downstairs last fall, stopped, and then started peeing again last week. We did all the tests, and he was perfectly "healthy." He was also attacking our dog. Whenever he barked. Even in front of company. Not good. He also tended to walk around the house moaning more often than not. We really think that although he was physically healthy, his mind wasn't. So, it has been sad and a bit empty not having him around, but the house feels much calmer (and I'm finally starting to get the smell out of the carpet...). Both Tycho and Celie (our other cat) are much, much happier. And I'm not kidding. I think it was for the best. But a really, really hard decision to make. And a hard thing to explain to the girls. They're doing pretty well, though, and giving lots more love to the pets we still have than they ever have before.