Rio the Mustang

We have a new/returning character at the Homestead. Rio.

Rio is my Mustang baby who had been living at boarding school while we got the pasture fenced and is now finally back where he was born 12 years ago. Thanks to Buck and his fence building stick-to-itiveness we have Rio back where we can play with him every day.

I adopted his wild Mustang mom from the Warm Springs herd in Eastern Oregon in 1999. She is a beautiful blue roan I named Cielo. She turned out to be pregnant
when I adopted her and Rio is the result.
Cielo is happily living with a professional trainer gal in Montana now.

 

I have been handling, hugging and squeezing on Rio since he was born, so he is more like a dog than a horse. He is actually a very beautiful and athletic horse but he is such a clown, always mugging the camera and snotting on the lens, or eating my hat while I try to take pictures of him, that he looks goofy in most photos. He's like that goofy cousin who is doing something weird in every family photo.



On the couple of cold days we had last week, we all had a good time playing in the snow.
Rio made great big horsey snow angels here and there and he and I played a little kick ball. But what he really wanted to do is play with Mr. B.

Rio is best buds with Mr. B and they had a grand time poking at each other through the fence. At our old house they had a fence running game they played all day long. It wasn't a worry since the fence there had no way for Mr. B to get into the pasture. We are trying to train Mr. B to stay out of the new field though, because horses play rough. Rio even more so, since sometimes he doesn't really get the fact that he outweighs us by about 800 pounds.