June 7 2007 Ride

Today I left the house about 6 pm and headed out to the barn.

I went out to catch Sinwaan and he stood for awhile observing my advancement towards him and then took off trotting. At least it was in the direction of the gate. He reached the "exit" and then waited for me to halter him and lead him out.

I noticed there was a port-a-potty by the barn today. It was good training for Sinwaan. I was sure to use it before we left. :)

I took my time grooming, trimmed his bridlepath with scissors and moseyed about. I removed my saddlepack for the ride today, as I anticipated it would be short and I had forgotten my water bottles anyway.

Dale had decided to ride Misty today, his paint mare. She is a nice mare, similar in size to Sinwaan. I was tacked up long before Dale so I walked Sinwaan down to the mounting block by the front gate. Dale had dug up a section next to the barn for a wash rack, so there was a new pile of dirt and rocks, with a cat rolling in the fresh earth. All kinds of new things to booger at today but Sinwaan didn't do too bad. Had to look at everything twice.

I mounted up and rode back to the barn. Realized my tank top might not be enough warmth once the sun hit the mountains so I asked Dale to hand me my zip up sweatshirt. Sinwaan eyeballed that too but stood still nicely for me to put it on. We walked the horses down to the front gate so Dale could mount up. He rode back to the barn for some reason and then Misty would not come back down the road to the gate. So he decided he needed to ride her in the pasture for a bit first. So I headed up there and joined him. I figure it never hurts to warm up.

After about 20 minutes of doing some circles and figure eights and walking about in the pasture Dale was ready to go. So we headed out. Sinwaan led the way so Misty would follow. That seemed to work pretty well.

Sinwaan was a little edgy about the pickup parked practically in the lilac bush, and who knows what else but he WALKED ON.

We crossed the road and headed up Cache Hollow.

At one point Sinwaan stopped and started peeing again so I took up the cue and whistled.

It was a lovely evening, just the right temperature with the sun shining. We did mostly a walk today. A little trotting uphill at one point but that was about it for any higher speeds. It worked out fine. A few times the horses (mostly Misty) balked and tried to turn around and go home but we pressed onward and before I knew it we were at the 1 mile point.

This was my goal for the day and the sun was quickly setting so we turned around to go home.

The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful except at one point we came across the cow pasture and calf was loose, on our side of the fence. He seemed a little panicked when he saw us coming towards him. Dale urged Misty on and got to the right point in the calfs safety zone to head him back the other way. He popped right back through the "gate" and galloped over to his momma who had been calling to him to git home!

Sinwaan had no trouble with the cows, but then he did spend quality time with Kims Dexters.

As we were coming in the drive, Dale stopped to talk to Kittee at the front pasture and I continued on down the drive. Suddenly there was a sound (who knows what, a goat banging against a feed bucket?) and Sinwaan jumped. It was quite a start! No harm done. Onward we walked to the hitchin' post.

I untacked, gave him his token carrots and grain, brushed him down (no sweat today, it was an easy & cool ride) and pulled out the weight tape for kicks. He looks to be about 950 lbs.

Turned him out in the pasture and he started grazing right away.

Then I gave Justice some grain (not that he needs it) and a pat and called it a day.

Another successful ride. Now to start adding more distance and then speed. I will go out again Saturday to ride with my mom.