The day dawned a lovely light blue with something we hadn’t seen for almost a week – the sun! It was time to bring our horses home. They’d all been stalled now for 24 hours, giving them time to rest and dry off.

Tropical Storm Fay was still taking her time to exit our state but we were on the end of the bad weather now. She caused so much flooding. We were lucky to be mostly dry.

Pasture clean up had to be done first. Big Baby B would be in danger of hurting herself on broken limbs and Cassidy would be tempted to eat any type of vegetation within reach.

Underneath their tent was in the worst shape. The old, wet hay was stuck in the mud. From their hooves the ground was all tousled. I raked it clean the best I could.

We set off to go get our babies! Left to Right: Benito, Trish, Gayle, Kathleen. Shaila is beyond us with her truck and trailer.

Quote of the day: “I hate backing!” Shaila did a great job, despite all her protests and despite all the side-of-truck drivers she had.

Loading up all her supplies. We sure did a lot of work for one nights hotel stay…

Jingles and Baby Echo were up first.

Jingles is an old pro at loading into a trailer…

Echo is another story. This was going to be only his 2nd time doing this. We were ready to head him off if he decides to make a run for it.

Benito is gently coaxing and brave Gayle is pushing his rump.

I wish I knew what he was thinking at this very moment…

Trish helped him get his leg up, Gayle did more rump pushing and we all were giving him words of encouragement. He did good!

Becca had obviously been underneath the hay rack. Good thing her momma didn’t realize she had hay on her or she could have been in trouble.

Shaila had already driven out with Jingles and Echo so it was now time for us to walk Teddy and Prince…

with Cassidy and Becca. Isn’t the momma horse supposed to lead the baby horse?

They are two sweet, kind geldings.

I think I’ve mentioned it before – Cass doesn’t feel the need to get anywhere quickly.

What a big girl, Becca is! She wasn’t scared at all.

We’re coming up to the street and preparing to cross. Traffic stops for us.

I asked Cass to please go a little faster…

What a parade!

See the brown metal thing on the sidewalk? When Cass and I got close she stopped walking. Looked at me, looked down at it and looked at me again. Her nostrils were flared a wee bit. I changed from her left side to her right so I was between her and the “thing”. She then continued politely walking.

Big Baby B led her momma the entire walk, never seemed nervous, never looked back at us.

Of course, Ms. Cassidy April had to stop to eat some grass.

Whew! Almost there…

Now Becca thinks to see where her mother is…

and Cass snags just a little more grass before I shut the gate.

The work’s not over. Now that most of them are home, we have to clean the borrowed barn and bring the last three horses back.

Everyone was working hard. Gayle is such a trooper. She didn’t have to do any of this. Her horse, Sam, had stayed in his usual stall at Trish’s barn. She just loves all the horses so much she has to help with them. We love her, too.

This will be our last trip (until the next hurricane!).

You better believe the traffic stopped for us.

The paint horse is Elu, they bay next to her is Layla. They are two recent boarders. They joined our barn the night before the storm began.

Belle is the paint bringing up the rear.

We are back home, safe and sound. We survived the week known as historic Tropical Storm Fay. I’m with a fantastic group of horse people at our barn. Everyone helps out for the good of the horses, no matter how sweaty, dirty, tired and cranky we may get. I’m so proud of Cassidy and Becca. She is an exceptional baby, that’s for sure. Both are amazing but I may be a bit biased. Have I mentioned just how much this auction-bound horse means to me?