The last few weeks I have been having so much fun jumping Toby in the field. In this clip, I am working on keeping the canter collected so he has a good approach to the jump. I tend to get nervous and squeeze with my legs. This makes Toby go faster so his canter is longer and more strung out. He then has a hard time clearing the jump. By doing rhythmical half halts and having loose legs, I am keeping his canter packaged so he has lots of spring in his step and he can clear the jumps easily.

Yesterday was a very exciting day. My husband and I have been enjoying date night on Friday nights. We have been frequenting Mike's Pub in the Hume Hotel. The Hume Hotel is a historic site in Nelson. Due to this age old history, the hotel has a reputation for being "haunted."

My husband and I were sitting at a table (on the right of the closest red post) near the billiards table enjoying our dinner. We were both facing the pool table so we could watch the game. Then something caught my eye. It looked like the eight ball was hit off the table. I followed it with my eye to watch where it would land. It curved down under the table where a nearby couple was sitting. I lost sight of it, so I looked to the men who were playing with the expectation that they would fetch the ball. But they didn't. So I said to my husband "I just saw the weirdest thing, a ball went flying off the table to the left." He asked "Was it white?" I said: "It had a little bit of white on it, like a white butterfly surrounded by black bubble, it looked like the eight ball but out of focus." He said " I saw a white ball fly off the table to the right." I was gobsmacked! We saw two different balls fly off the table at the same time!

I asked if he thought it was someone playing with a flashlight. He thought not because the quality of the light was in the middle of the room rather than against the wall or floor. So it seems we both witnessed an apparition of sorts, an eight ball apparition and a cue ball apparition. It is exciting that we both witnessed this phenomenon for the first time in our lives, together.

The Autumn days in the Kootenays have been glorious! The day began with an 8 ton hay delivery. Thankfully there were 5 us helping to unload so we did it under 2 hours. The chaff went to the boys. As you can see Toby enjoyed using the hay as a bed. He laid himself down while snacking and I couldn't resist cuddling with him. We had a super fun lesson today in the cross-country field. It has been a couple of months since Toby has been in the big open space. He was really good, just a little resistant to slow down after a jump at times. Enjoy the photos and the brilliant colors.