Note Goes to Horse Yoga

A friend of mine has a fundraiser in lieu of a birthday party every year.  This year we had an afternoon of horse yoga (humans doing yoga with horses, not the horses doing yoga).  Everyone who participated gave a donation to help the family of a colleague who was a horse person and yoga person, who passed away a few months ago from a brain tumor.

Tao the Haflinger went with his owner, Kathy, and Darby the Quarter Horse type went with Jasi, and I took Note for the traveling experience.  He's not yet reliable enough for me to actually do yoga with him, but he needs as many field trips as he can get, so off to yoga he went!  I loaded Tao in the trailer first, then Darby, then I left an open stall to leave room in case Note got silly, then Note went in last.  It was partly an experiment to see how he would haul with horses other than Fason, his roommate.  We had success again!  Note loaded right up, traveled well, and settled once we arrived even faster than he had settled at the show the previous weekend.

The other two horses are very seasoned travelers and are accustomed to such adventures.  Highboy was left behind since I was taking Note, and boy was he upset!  He knew there was one more spot open in the horse trailer, and when I emerged from the tack room with Note's leather halter Highboy was falling all over himself declaring, "Pick me!  Pick me!"  Unfortunately he had to stay home, so he had to content himself with bucking a little in his paddock.

Once everyone had arrived, we convened in the muddy arena to have introductions.  I kept Note a safe distance away from everyone, since he's not opposed to throwing a few kicks in here and there to spice things up. 

Once everyone had introduced themselves and we recognized our friend who had passed away, the yoga began!

There was all kinds of stretching performed by the humans, and Darby kept trying to steal the show by smooching on Jasi mid-pose.

I couldn't always make out the names of the yoga poses, but after looking through photos I dubbed this one Starfish:

These others were interesting to watch as well.

Since Note needs more mileage before he can be a yogi himself, we spent our time walking around the other end of the arena, hand grazing, and having a good look at both the elderly stallion and the broodmares.

I suspect Note is taking in the view and pondering how much wetter and greener it is here than where he last raced in Arizona!