This is the group as we were heading out from the barn. There was well over 50 I guess. Quite a few of them were already over the hill...
A good bit of the ride was like this, just riding around the edge of cotton fields...
But some of it was through the woods and along creek banks so that was nice since it was pretty darned hot...
Here's a pic of H.L.'s barn. I LOVE it. The stalls and such are in the big center section and there's tractor and equipment storage in the smaller section to the left. The overhang to the right is the run-in area for all the stalls...
Here's another view showing the equipment storage side better. He keeps his smaller equipment like the lawnmower, the Gator and stuff like that in those smaller bays. That's his house next to the barn. His two daughter's houses are farther on up the driveway. He also has a grandson who nas a house down below the barn. I started to tell him that he could just adopt me and build me a house right there too! ;o) This is looking in the south end of the barn. Notice the big roll-up door. I thought that was really handy. There was one on either end and when they were open there was the nicest breeze blowing through there. Of course in the wintertime you could close them and keep it warmer...
6 stalls to the right of the door...
The shop just inside the door to the left...
Just beyone the shop area was the wash area with the white walls and a storage room next to it, the stairs to the loft and then the kitchen area...
This was taken at the north end of the barn looking back the way I came. You can see the hay storage up above the stalls...
This was just the other side showing the loft storage. He had all this old antique stuff hanging on the wall that was kinda cool looking...
And here's just some pics of some of the cute little minis that he had. Isn't that mane incredible?!...
Oh, and one of the cute little goat that was in with the minis...
And this was a little filly he had that had broken it's leg shortly after it was born. It seems to be doing fine in that cast and is of course spoiled rotten from all the handling. You can see the run-in area of the stalls better in this pic too...
And while I'm posting, here's a pic I took on Sunday of this cute little team of ponies that was pulled up at the Chevron station by my house. I see mule-drawn wagons all the time, but this is the first team of horses that I'd seen in a while. They weren't exactly ponies, but they weren't really full-sized either. They may have been 14 hands...
