Ride daze

Today DeeDee picked me up at 8 am and we went out to Madam Dorian for a ride. Linda met us there. We had a very nice ride in the dunes and even saw an Eagle up in a tree! There was less gunfire today, although it is the last weekend of duck-hunting season.

At one hill DeeDee pulled over so I could go up it first. She wanted to walk up and I figured I would let Sinwaan trot up it. Well he really wanted to bolt on up and I let him until about 1/2 way it felt like he was bucking, so I verbally scolded him and slowed him to a trot and we made it the rest of the way up without incidence. As Linda came up I said "Rodeo!" and she replied 'No, I think he was slipping, I don't think he was being bad intentionally.' That section is more dirt than sand and it has been wet lately. She commented that she could see his skid marks as she came up behind us.

We did some trotting and some cantering, which is really fun, I hadn't realized how much I had missed that. I don't canter on the road rides and haven't lately with Ruth either since her horse is a youngster. Sinwaan was full of it, he was second in line and wanted to GO. Once in front however he was not very consistent in his gait. Trot, spook, stop to poop, trot, canter, spook. Oh brother. So we didn't lead much. He does best in the middle, where he doesn't have to worry about being on the look-out.

Almost to the end (going out) we encountered a man setting up fake people and contraptions for training hunting dogs. We rode on out to our end point, took a break to feed the horse treats and give them a breather and then headed back the other way. We stopped to talk to the man and ask more about his equipment. The contraption was remote-controlled dummy launcher to throw out a 'dead duck' in the training process. We took the horses over to have a look and it wasn't really a duck it was just a dummy. Sinwaan walked right up to the fake person, it didn't phase him at all.

Had a nice ride back and all told we were in the saddle about 2.5 hours today. Weather was a little gray and overcast but clear on our level, saw the sun trying to peek through in spots. Rain is predicted the rest of the weekend so I was very thankful to get in a ride now.

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Forgot to blog about last weekend. Sunday five of us went out to Madame Dorian - Ruth, Heather, Hope, Cheryl and myself. We also had a nice ride, with Otto leading a lot of the way. A couple of the gals had never ridden out there and were glad to discover it. It was a gorgeous day for a ride. We did not make it all the way out to the end because we ran out of time, Ruth had to be back so we turned around early. Sinwaan did some leading on the way back to the trailer and we did some trotting and then he broke into a canter for a short spell and I was just pulling him back down to a trot when I heard someone yell and I turned around and Ruth was on the ground. Unseated, but landed on her feet. Naughty Otto. Needless to say he is now at the trainers.