Lots o' Photos, including wild ponies

This weekend was free National Parks weekend, where entrance fees were waived.  So, naturally, had to get out!!!

We went to Assateague Island - I have never been there or Chincoteague before, but figured this was the weekend to hit one of them!  Supposedly the summer is when to really see the horses out and about, but we still ran into a number of wild ponies, some so close that they were only a few feet away.  I never saw wild horses before - that I can remember, anyway.

This little (not so little) foal was pissed and threw a tantrum.  Mama wasn't letting her nurse like she wanted.

She was a complete ham, there were a ton of people just beyond a short barrier beside the road (traffic jam!) and she just posed and posed for us.  I felt like paparazzi with a particularly patient starlet.  Mama just grazed and didn't lift her head.

They weren't the only mammals around.  We rarely see mammals at wildlife preserves (a fox, a raccoon, a muskrat, a beaver, a cat...), but this time they were everywhere.

Of course there were birds too.  And the ocean.  And the bay.  And woods.  And marsh.  And dunes that basically turn into a desert.  It's quite a place.

And closer to home, we had a silly squirrel in our bird feeders (we don't mind them, we never see them otherwise).

And an unusual visitor, a Carolina Wren.

On Saturday, Kate visited my not-so-wild ponies and rode a horse for reals for the first time.  Despite everything against her (my treeless dressage saddle, stirrups too long, Peanut not really being a beginner horse, etc) she did well!  Afterwards, I plopped on and took him for a spin around the ring.  I'm glad to see these pictures to see the complete lack of concern in Peanut's face in every shot.  That makes me happy.