Parade Pimpin'

Every year, we try to come up with something "cool" to do to the horses for the parade.  The first couple of years, it was skirts behind the saddle.  Each year, we added something new.  In 2009, Mom added red, white, and blue ribbons to Jesse's mane.

2009

In 2010, the year the parade didn't happen, we painted glitter paint on the mares' hooves.

2010

Last year, I went bareback and we added butt bows and glitter gel to the mix.

Red, white and blue sparkly feetsies,
Butt bow,
Glitter gel
2011

This year, I had a totally different vision.  I had seen the coolest mane weave on a draft horse and I had to do it this year.  Never mind that I was going to have to tangle my fingers in Estee's hair, it was going to get done.  And then Nebalee and I started talking and for some of Autobot's meets, Nebalee glues small jewels to the weave.  Oh boy, that really started my little brain a workin'.

For some reason, the parade organizers decided to push back the parade an hour, for an 11:00 start, which worked out perfectly - it gave me plenty of time to try to do Her Highness' hair (since I hadn't bothered to practice doing it).  Nebalee is pretty much our hair and butt bow expert, so she started in on Jesse while I started on Estes.

Nebalee whipped right through.

It took me a little longer.

While Nebalee and I worked on getting the manes done, I put Ashinator to work "Bedazzling" Estes' butt.

Estes and Ranger really got into it,
she's got marks all over her.

When Ash finished Estes, she went to work on blinging out Jesse's butt.  We've got Nebalee, who is the hair and butt bow expert, and Ashinator, who is the bedazzler/butt blinger.  Wonder how that'll look on a resume?

I had planned to ride bareback-bareback, but since Ranger was bad, Her Highness has a bit of swelling on her back, so I rode on one of Mom's bareback pads (which saved me from having the whole diarrhea-looking butt after the parade).

It took us just over an hour to get the horses ready (we didn't do a pedicure this year), but the effort was well worth it!

Jesse's mane ROCKED!

Estes' mane wasn't nearly as neat as Jesse's
but it looked pretty good anyway.

Parade Pimpin'

Them's some fine-lookin' mares, yessir!

Finally, it was line-up time and we rode over to our place in line, with Nebalee and her kids in Ripley.  Yes, we put our Korean car in the 4th of July parade, and she looked good!  Nebalee will probably never be able to listen to Party Rock Anthem again, as she and the kids were blaring it along the parade route.

Estes and me shuff-ff-ff-alin'

Stopped along the parade route,
have no idea what the hold up was.

Estes and Jesse were great for the parade - they pranced right along to Ripley's music and were pretty much rock stars until the end.  The turn-around is always tough - the Homecoming Queen makes her appearance and it's always a much more fun ride back to the Lodge.  Estes found a nice collected canter (yes, I did it bareback and on asphalt - and I didn't die!), while Jesse settled into her running walk.  This, of course, after some pretty dramatic shows from both mares of spins, sidepasses and moving on the diagonal.  Jesse is perhaps the best backer I've ever met and she gave one hell of a backing demonstration when it was time to come home.

This year was a huge success for the Bionic Cowgirl - in the past when Jesse started putting on a show, she'd have to dismount and walk back because she just didn't have the hip/leg strength to stick with Jesse's little temper tantrums.  This year, though, she stuck it all out.  Those bionic hips are kind of a cool thing (but Jesse may not agree, as she doesn't get her way a whole lot anymore).