Happy Halloween

A Halloween photo shoot with the horses was so much fun this week!  Lena O'Brien took these photos, big thanks for the images!  I provided costumes from years of collecting for costume classes at horseshows, and Nova and Miss Pea were our equine models.  Kathy dressed up as a mermaid and had Miss Pea as a sea horse.  Nova, Mahzi and I were clowns.  

We also brought out my horse skeleton!  I used this in years past when I was teaching clinics, since so much of good riding and training is understanding anatomy and how the human and horse affect each other with such comparable parts.

Though the skeleton is super fun as a prop at Halloween too!

Nova was a champ about me moving around her all dressed up, and she was so good about wearing her own festive clown leggings and the red wig. When I first started to put things on her I let her sniff each thing, then when she'd touch it with her nose I'd give her a cookie.  It didn't take many repetitions before she was all in for costumes and cookies!  Not bad at all for a youngster, and another solid reason to work with an ex-racehorse!  They've seen so many different things at the track, by the time they're done racing even an elaborate clown costume is no big deal.

Big thanks again to Lena and Kathy for doing Halloween photos.  It's good to remind ourselves we're not overly dignified, and always good exposure for a new horse in training to experience a portion of the Bit of Honey Circus.