Spartacus Goes To Sullivan Canyon

On Wednesday the 22nd, Spartacus, Pippi. Lovable and myself went to Sullivan Canyon and performed for the kids of Hoover Elementary. It was a fun event filled with many activities for the kids. It was a day with horses for them. The end of their visit was spent with Spartacus and myself. Here are some snap shots of the day.


A quick pep talk before the kids get ready to sit and watch.

Spartacus introduces himself.

We start things off with a BANG! My favorite behavior. He looks so awesome!

Woo Hoo! The kids love it!

He gets so excited to Hoola!

Our Basket ball star rises up for a pretend slam dunk! Look at him raise that basket ball above me!

You can't keep a good horse down! Here he is racing for that jump!

And JUMP!

Look at that form!

We take a moment to demonstrate how important it is to throw our trash away in it's proper place. Hankie in mouth, he approached the trash can.

One carefully placed hoof and the lid flips open and ....

YEAH! The hankie gets thrown away in the trash! That deserves a standing ovation!

And now the difficult, lay down and roll over!

Great job Spartacus! Take a bow!

Now it's time to meet and greet the adoring public.

Phew! It's time to take a breather now that it's all over and just relax... Spartacus style!

Credit needs to be given to Pippi. She was a great example of the difference between horses and donkies.

This is one of her best behaviors... she can really push that ball far!

It time to meet and greet the kids.

Ah! So much love!

I'd like to thank my good friend Lee M., who rescued me by showing up with camera in hand, ready and willing to take these great photos! Thank you Lee. As always, clicking on the photo will make it larger. I would also like to thank the lovely people at Sullivan Canyon for having us! It was a lot of fun!

Lucas Goes To Preschool

This week, Lucas visited Little Steps Preschool. I loaded him into the back of the truck and we were a short drive away. First, we introduce ourselves to the kids.

What a good boy sitting so nicely while I talk about him to the kids.

A quick walk through the hoola hoop.

Now it's time for the kid's to get up close and personal with Lucas. Can you find him? He's in there somewhere!

They just love how he's always "talking"!

They loved petting him and some of them wanted to play with him too.

It was a warm day and Lucas let me know right away that he was getting too hot. The kids loved this part. They screamed in delight as Lucas splashed about and then shook off his water onto everybody.

"Ah, that feels good!"

And now back to playtime!

It was a wonderful 2 day visit. A great experience for Lucas and the kids. He was so well behaved the whole time, even with kids surrounding him, running around and screaming! At the end of the day, Lucas was given a blue ribbon.

Well deserved I think!

I'd like to thank Patti F. for taking these pictures for me. We had a great visit. Thank you for having us! As always, clicking the pictures will make them bigger!

Camel Saddles!

When I had first been told that we would be recieving a camel saddle as a gift, I have to admit that I had this, pictured in my head ...

But to my surprise, Windy Hill Ranch has aquired a beautiful, handcrafted, Tuareg Camel Saddle! Here are some pictures of the saddle.

Forked horn Tuareg Camel Saddles are made by lashing wood together with rawhide and covering it with colored leather, then adorning them with silver, copper and brass ornaments. Most were made in Agadez, Niger, by blacksmiths... Much Tuareg art is in the form of jewelry, leather and metal saddle decorations, and finely crafted swords.

The Tuareg camel saddle sits on two to four saddle-cloths in front of the camel's hump, over its strong shoulders, while the rider sits cross-legged with his feet on the camel's neck... This also gives the rider more control over the camel with the use of shorter reins and pressure from the riders feet on the camels neck.

The Tuareg camels are extremely nomadic. They must constantly travel in order to find food and water, so it is no surprise that the camels are significantly thinner there. The Tuareg camel saddle is fashioned for these thin camels.

Compared to the lovely Tallulah of Windy Hill Ranch.

A Tuareg camel saddle just won't do for such a strong camel! :)

Notice how it sits perched on top instead of nice and snug against her.

Some of the information on this entry was taken from this website. If you would like more information on different saddles from around the world just click this site. As always, clicking on the pics will make them bigger.