It must run in the family

and this time, I am not talking about the foul mouths, bad attitudes and various other wackaloon attributes, but this horse thing.

We already knew that Gabi was totally into animals, as her big show with Fonzie yesterday demonstrated. Today we all went riding together, and she got to sit on Twister, Gyro, and a few others. Because she is so tiny, someone always has a hold of her and it makes her so angry that she cannot go by herself. Yes, all 23 pounds and 20 months of her. She pushes people away, tells them no and cries when you take her off. It is ridiculous. Yesterday, she clapped most of the time, but today we were able to get through to her that she needed to hold the horn so the horse could move.
This is her kissing Barry, but then telling him to go away so she could ride. If she was not on a horse, she was constantly saying "up, up, up". When she was on one, she said "go go go". If you asked her what a horse says, she would neigh and crack up. It was so cute. I give them two years and she will be riding her own pony behind us on these rides, instead of waiting at the trailer with Leo, waiting for us to come back.
This is my cousin Kim. She rode Gyro on one shift.
This is my aunt Jana, Kim's mom--she is my mom's little sister. Twister took good care of her. He still looks a little bit like a zebra. He does not care. He is losing weight for no good reason lately, so I am keeping an eye on him.
This is Edward, the brother-in-law. He does not normally look like a thug, I think it is that crazy hat he had on. He is not, not by a long shot.
When we came back from one ride, Gabi insisted on going up up up, then raised her arms up and shrugged her shoulders, like she did not know why she was having to share the horse. Funny kid.
This is Barry and Jack. Jack is Kim's son. This was Jack's first ride with us, except for on Marvin the donkey a long time ago, and that does not count. Jack had a blast and if he said thank you once, he said it ten times--it is nice to know how much he appreciated it. I was amazed at how well he did, he followed instructions well, he did not get bothered by anything, and did a great job with Rock. Even though she is 26 years old, she is plenty opinionated, and is blind in one eye, so we had to think carefully about who we could pony her from to start his ride--so that it was not someone she would feel obligated to beat up on. That left us with Playmate, who Barry is riding, and is 27 years old. She has probably not been ridden in at least a year, and it might well be a couple of years. She was PERFECT, as was Rock, we could not have asked for more out of any of our horses that the behavior we got from these girls today. They did so well that we were able to let Rock loose in the woods, and Jack handled her really well up and down the hills and through creeks--all in all, it was a perfect family ride.

This is the second shift of the ride--me, Mandy and mom.
And Edward was part of that group as well.
This is Barry and Jack on their first entry into the woods--I like how good these old bay mares look, and knowing how much fun Jack had and that Gabi has to look forward to over the years made it more fun for everyone else too.

When that was over, we came back to my house, and had chili that Aunt Jana had hauled all the way down here from Chicago. We had ten people here, I think, and played some crazy Dominoes game that brings out some nastiness in this bunch. Evidently they played this game last nite too as I took my nap, and Barry was not kidding about how insane these people are--not that that is news to me at all. That he willingly hung out with my family is a little strange, which just goes to show you how much better things were this year than they have been in years past. We did not have any real screaming or arguments of any significance, which might be the first time every in the history of family doings in this bunch.

It is amazing how much easier the days are when you know the person calling you a SOB, or a MF'er is not doing it in anger!

Tomorrow is back to business, as Kim and Jack, Leo and Jana head back to Chicago, and Mandy and Edward head to his hometown to do his class reunion, then back to Houston on Sunday.