We’ve had a wonderful week of firsts at Morning Bray Farm.

On Saturday, Ellsworth rode with his new headstall, bit and reins for the first time. One day later, Patrick was wearing his first fly mask and loving it. Then, on Monday, Ellsworth and I had our first riding lesson together. We even got him ever so briefly up to a trot.

Despite all of the excitement and activity here, Don and I always make it a point to spend time with every one of our critters every day… even if just for a few one-on-one uninterrupted minutes.

For the very first time on Tuesday, Nigel let me really brush him. We’ve brushed him before, but he never allowed us to brush him for more than a few minutes… and definitely not all over. 

This time, Nigel allowed me to brush him until the comb ran cleanly through his hair… about 20 minutes. We took a medium-sized dog’s worth of hair from him.

I throw the boys’ hair over the fence so that the birds can nest with it, and so Bernard doesn’ t eat it.

Yesterday, Nigel graduated to a dandy brush and the FURminator. Again, he stood quietly while I brushed and brushed and brushed him.

It looks like he has a gorgeous black coat underneath all of his old, dirty hair.

Being that Nigel is four years old this year and this is the first time he’s accepting regular grooming, we can’t wait to see what the boy underneath really looks like.

Beautiful, for sure. ♥ ♥ ♥