Easter Egg Hunt

So over at DIY Horsemanship, there is an easter contest running! You can easily enter by just commenting, but you get BONUS points and potentially an extra prize if you do an 'easter egg hunt' with your horses using homemade treats from a recipe by DIY Horsemanship.

That was my plan for today!

I used the Peppermint Horse Treats recipe. I made a few modifications since I couldn't find flax seed (it's probably in the deep freezer, honestly). I omitted the flax seed and horse feed. The horse feed was because I didn't want to run out to the barn to grab it and leave the kids unattended in the house. That's how things get destroyed.

I also really didn't measure exactly. I just eyed it. The recipe ended up being more of a guideline, hahaha.

I got distracted easily.

I picked these silicone muffin pans from the dollar general when I also grabbed easter regalia. $3 each!  Since I had some mixture leftover but not enough to fill my big silicone muffin tin, I also used my swedish horse small cake form and a dolphin cookie cutter.

I baked as directed for 45 minutes only to find when I pulled them out that someone had turned the temperature of the oven to OFF.  Gosh, I wonder who that could be (my bet is the 2 year old...)

Rechecking that the peppermints I had were not the easily melted kind, I bumped the temperature back up, stuffed the cookies full of peppermints, and threw everything back in for another 20 minutes+.

No regrets

It worked. Though I think it'd be really hard to screw this recipe up, honestly. So if you're scared of screwing up, don't be! I changed so much and it still all worked out and made treats that my animals were mad at me for leaving without giving them more.

Once those were made, and the tiny terror (2 year old) was down for a nap, we headed outside to 'hide' the 'easter eggs'

I took six, figuring three treats per animal since they were fairly large, would be sufficient.

I also made the decision that the zombie garden gnome would become a jump decoration

Paying VERY close attention.

After I decorated the animals with easter regalia Gwyn got mad and I had to entice her back into the arena.

Saffron wore the bunny ears

Their easter best, mud and all

Saffron figured out the game immediately.

So did Gwyn

She ended up knocking the treat off the standard and into the dirt

"Okay lady, where are the rest of them?"

"Hmmm, this isn't a treat..."

"AHAH!"

"The Tiny Human does not, I repeat, does not have treats at this time"

Kaylee wanted to speed things along so she ended up feeding Gwyn's third treat by hand. I had to seriously point out the second. Her smartness finding the first must have been a fluke, LOL

But then she had to investigate ALL the jumps to make sure she didn't miss any more.

"There was one here BEFORE!"

In Which I Was Guilted...

This is my view when I get home from work. I pull into the driveway, stop by the road and grab the mail. The left and the right pastures are currently resting and waiting for summer. Also, keep getting longer days, keep it going!

What you can't see though, maybe in this picture, is now zoomed in below...

We see you.

I was watched. The whole time. So after dinner I went out to feed before the kids were ready for bed. Because they had seen me come home.

I still want to get Saffron at full blast when she's impatient about food. But this is her "I'm excited I'm about to be fed" sounds. It's so much softer than the typical donkey bray. It's kind of sweet. I've really fallen in love with donkeys because of her. It's a soft, breathy thing.

I like my nights in the barn. It's peaceful. And Gwyn checked in with me, just a nose to my hand as I said good night, but she stepped away from alfalfa to do it, so that's a pretty big thing in my book, lol

Saffron's kind of aloof, but she doesn't jump under my touch anymore. And I try and work it into the normal routine whenever I go into her stall. A rub on the neck, patting her back. A soft pressure to move her out of my way when I come in to fill her water because she's an ass like that. (har har)