The Adventures of Ardena

Hello everyone! Today’s post I decided to call ‘The Adventures of Ardena’ because she had quite the day recently. I have seen foals visit another band before, but I have never seen one foal spend a good 45 minutes interacting with every band in the area as I did with Ardena. It all started when Applewood, of Ollie’s band, walked over to Ardena and tried to get her to play. She was not interested so he left. About ten minutes later, he decided to try again but this time brought his sister, Aqua. They were all very sweet but Emmylou didn’t like them interacting and quickly chased off Applewood and Aqua. I walked away briefly to check another band. When I returned, Red Face’s band had moved a few hundred yards away behind a small hill except Ardena did not go with them. Instead, I found her standing with Juniper of Copper’s band. Juniper allowed her to get somewhat close while they grazed and surprisingly didn’t chase her off. A short time later, Juniper walked up the hill towards Daisy and Ardena began to look for her family. They were not that far off from her but just out of her line of sight because of a hill. As she was walking away, she got distracted once again by Raven and her new filly. She stopped to watch them but Mystery was nearby and tried to push her away. She was like a running back faking right and then going left to get away from him. Mystery did not harm her but unfortunately, he pushed her in the wrong direction. She started to get further from her band and that is when she spotted Applewood. She ran straight to him which did not make Ollie, his sire, very happy. Now she had Ollie pushing her out of the area. I was worried that Ollie would move her in the wrong direction and she would go over a hill and be even further from her family. As she ran off, she turned and faced the right direction but was still not seeing her family. Finally, Lakota took notice of what was happening. She had been standing on the hill blocking the rest of Red Face’s band but Ardena did not notice her at first. Lakota called out to Ardena but it was very quiet and took a couple of calls before she figured out to head that way. On her way back, Ardena had to run through Mystery’s band again! This stressed her out and I could see her preparing for the mad dash. Suddenly, she took off running right by Raven and was past them before Mystery noticed. You would think she would run straight to Lakota but she got distracted once again by Strawberry’s colt, Amite and stopped to stare at him for a bit. When she realized he wasn’t interested in interacting with her she walked away towards Lakota and finally found her mom. Talk about a stressful afternoon! Sometimes we have to just let it all play out but there are times like these I wish the horses would listen to me lol! I could have saved her a lot of trouble. Below are some photos of Ardena’s adventure. I will write under each photo to help explain the story so be sure to scroll through. Thanks, everyone!

Ardena (Pretty Girl x Red Face) and Applewood (Stormy x Ollie)

Ardena was not interested in playing but Applewood kept trying.

This time, Applewood brings his sister Aqua (Sapphire x Ollie) along to see Ardena.

Aqua, Applewood, and Ardena

I have to say it was pretty adorable to see all three of them nose to nose.

Three gorgeous youngsters – Applewood, Aqua, and Ardena.

Ardena’s big half-sister Emmylou didn’t think it was very cute and heads over to break it up.

Emmylou sends Aqua and Applewood back to their sire, Ollie Jr.

After checking on Thunder, I came back to find Ardena now with Mare Juniper of Copper’s band.

Ardena, on the far right, grazing with Juniper and Copper’s band like she belongs there.

Ardena works her way past Mystery but in the process runs even further from her band.

After figuring out where her band was Ardena still makes one last stop to see Amite. He is out of Strawberry x Thunder.

Finally, after visiting four other bands, Ardena makes her way back to her family and her dam, Pretty Girl.