A Few Shots from This Weekend

Chloe had a horse show on Saturday.  She had quite a breakthrough:  Won two first place ribbons and had the high score for the show.  Thanks to her new instructor, Jeffrey, she broke through a stubborn plateau of her learning curve that had been really frustrating her.  She has really taken her canter to a new level--huge improvement!  I'm sure she's on cloud nine at the moment.  Here are a couple of moments from the day:

Chloe and Shela in the canter.

First Place (Twice)

Went to check on the owls today and found two of the babies had ventured well away from their nest. Here is Sleepy peeking around a tree branch at me.

Sleepy venturing out of the nest!

Mama keeping a wary eye on her babies.

Mom was nearby watching over the two that had ventured away from the nest (middle photo).

Grumpy was way up there (bottom). Only mama was higher up. This appears to be part of the fledging process. First they venture out of the nest. This requires that they flap their wings to keep their balance and to help them jump to higher branches. Next they will start flapping their wings while firmly gripping a branch. All preparatory to first flight.

Grumpy is definitely on the fast track to first flight!

Happy, meanwhile, was keeping warm in the nest, not venturing out yet, apparently.