So far today has been fun but busy; after the chat with the siblings-in-law, we volunteered to babysit our niece so her Mama and Papa could get some time to go see the new Sherlock Holmes film and have a nice afternoon in peace. We took her with us to the barn, where she got to say hi to several horses and many nice people, watch Fiona eat her lunch and then be groomed and tacked up, and she sat with the Doc and watched me ride for a while. It was less exciting then she hoped, since I was only doing a walk-trot ride (Fi had just had her lunch, after all) but she got to help brush her afterwards and feed her treats, so that seems to have made up for it. Fi, for her part, was wondrously kind to the small human- I’m not entirely sure she’s ever seen one before, to be honest- and nuzzled her and sniffed her at every opportunity, and even tolerated her belly being brushed without batting an eye (the moment before she had been brushing her leg- that’s what I get for turning away for a second, I guess :) Fi was also great about being ridden, despite it having been a while since her last ride; she did a little bit of unsolicited trotting away from the block, then she kept staring at the arena doors, which were banging in the wind (!) but she relaxed and began to work in less than ten minutes, and we got some nice forward work done. All this on a very cold and windy day. I am so very lucky to have Fi in my life; I find her more an more amazing each time I work with her.