Trick or treat! Pick my feet!

Best. Halloween. Ever! Me and one of the little girls (Jo) who I teach at my barn went "trick or trotting" in her neighborhood.  I took Riley of course and she took her saint of a pony\QH mare Summergirl (yes named after me. The little girl is the sweetest youngin' I swear!) and we had a BLAST! We had cool little reflector vests so we were very visible. We didn't get to dress up as anything(it was a last minute plan!) but one of my friends who took her mare 'trick or trotting' painted her like a Zebra! It was sooo cool! She used safe washable hair stuff and did an EXCELLENT job! Next year I hope to do something like that with Riley.
We pulled the horses up and Jo's mom hauled us to her neighborhood and we unloaded and off we went! She saddled SG up, as the mare can  be a little hot sometimes, but I just went bareback.  We cruised over to my granddad's house first and met up with my family and friends. Every ten seconds we had to stop and let some kids (and teens and adults) pet them. It made a lot of kids extra happy so it was totally worth it! Plus it was a lot of fun. The horses did not spook at ANYTHING! Riley eyeballed this one weird sign on a curb but that was it. Nothing, nada! Have I told you how much I LOVE my Riley?! Probably the coolest part of the entire night happened about halfway through our ride. We came across a group of two families with their kids, one of which was a tiny baby girl in a stroller. We walked over to them and the little girl began reaching for Riley. Riley put his head down and at first I became a little nervous. What if he accidentally nipped her or bumped her with his big head or with his headstall or something? She was just SO little. But he didn't. He reached down and she put her head against his muzzle and Riley nuzzled her as gently as he could and let her feel him all over and pull on his nostrils. It was the sweetest, cutest thing I have ever seen in my life. It reminded me of that cute cartoon movie 'Spirit: Stallion of the cimmaron' where Spirit nudges the little kid and lets her pull his nose. The parents of both groups couldn't believe how gentle he was and how he understood how little and fragile the girl was. I couldn't believe it myself at first but than smiled and thought how I shouldn't be surprised at all. Nothing should surprise me when it comes to Riley anymore. He never ceases to amaze me!

After about ten minutes of talking to those people and watching as Riley would gently touch his nose to the baby who would than brush her face and head against his soft fur and muzzle, we finally said bye and they thanked us, and we headed down the road. We went down a few more streets before heading back to Jo's house. At her house we took 2 crappy pictures with my phone under her carport and than loaded the horses up and took them back to the barn to feed them and turn them out. It was definitely a fun time and something I look forward to doing next year! Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween!!!