Second Son

Here is our trainer riding Bean, our other 2 year old horse from our farm.

Bean took to the saddle well. He will always have a bosal bridle since his wolf tooth refuses to descend.

It is inhumane to put a bit in his mouth when his tooth would clank on it.

Bean looking for the next part of the lesson. He knows he gets grained after his lessons.

Bean stands calmly as the trainer dismounts. Bean has a long way to go before he is safe, but he is doing well for the first time. And he has a nice Fox Trotter gait just like his half sister.

Travelers

Can you guess where my round bales came from? Oklahoma!

Ah, look how cute little prickly pear cactus growing on top of my round bales.

I will have to transplant these guys to a high and dry place. Cactus can grow in Missouri, but they prefer the heat of the southern zones. I do like prickly pears so this will be a nice treat growing these.

Turtle Wars

This is not the way turtles make baby turtles. The plain green turtle is trapped by the fancy shell turtle.

The light green turtle's foot is inside the mouth of the painted turtle.

You can see he is trapped. I saw these guys in the morning and decided to rescue the trapped one that afternoon. Otherwise both turtles would become a snack for my dogs.

I flipped the bad turtle over hoping it would release its victim, no luck. I had to use the base of my knife safely separate both turtles.The victim lost a toe in the battle but escaped. 

You can see the blood from the victim's foot in the upper right of the shell.

I moved the aggressive turtle to the other side of the farm. This was the first time I have seen different type of turtles fighting like this. They usually keep away from each other. All this rain has the turtles on the move getting ready for winter.