What a Blast

My 4th of July was great. I spent the day with my family at the Painted Creek farm. That night, we went over to their neighbor's for some Independence Day festivities.

My Boy would've been proud. I played a game of horseshoes and I got this:

A ringer! That brought my partner and I up from behind and we won the game.

There was also good food. Well, I wouldn't call oysters good food. Of oysters, I am not a fan. To each his own. But I was happy with the brownies.

And then there were these little blue drinks. It is called Hypnotiq. Some kind of passion fruit liquor. Aren't they a pretty color?

My sister took this picture. It made me chuckle when I saw it. Because I am in my element. Lounging in a chair. Messing with my camera. Taking pictures. Of what?

Of the campfire. I love campfires. Speaking of hypnotic, they can induce you into a campfire coma. Have you ever been in one?

The horses were very nervous when all of the fireworks started in the neighborhood. There were no fireworks going off anywhere near our horse pastures or even on the property. Most of them were on other properties, and luckily due to it being a heavily wooded neighborhood, out of sight. But they could hear them. The neighborhood is full of horses. We locked up the cats and dogs. I read on Horse and a Half's blog that it is best to keep horses in their familiar surroundings and routine during the 4th of July. Our horses are in pastures with run-in sheds. If we had locked them up, I think they would have been more upset about being confined. Having the space to spook and run if they felt like they needed to seemed to be better.

Regardless, I did not like seeing them so upset. We checked on them often and gave them treats and extra flakes of hay. One of my sister's mares seemed fairly at ease, but My Boy, Brandy, and the goats were more agitated. I can only imagine that is must be extremely scary and confusing for horses to hear so many loud sounds and see such strange lights.

Has anyone used a tranquilizer such as Ace to help keep their horses calm on the 4th of July? What would be the pros and cons of doing this?

Today, I felt like My Boy was a bit off. He probably did not get a good night's sleep, that's for sure. So I decided not to ride. I just longed him out and played some games with him. He settled down and seemed his old self in no time, trying to steal my granola bar from me. Then I let him graze in the meadow of dandelions and daisies.

He was happy.

I was happy. I love summer. I could spend all day BBQ'ing. And having bonfires. And watching my horse eat dandelions in the meadow.

And eating brownies.