Today was a good solo ride for Sinwaan and I. We rode out from the barn and headed east this time up Stovall. The first mile Sinwaan gave me a little snort, prance and head tossing - but overall I have seen worse, so I think we made a little progress today.
Going past Jenee's is always interesting, Sinwaan finds plenty of things to look at that he thinks are going to jump up and get him - the creek, and agility equipment in particular, so we walk past.
Then it was back to trotting, around the bend and then thankfully we had slowed to a walk again because I saw a plastic bag in the bush...thought Sinwaan must have seen it, but no! At the last minute he notices, jumps and whirls around. I lost a stirrup on that little antic. Nerves slightly rattled we continued on. More trotting and then he even wanted to canter, so onward we went for a short stint to the stop sign.
Decisions, which way to go today? Heading south would have put me on our usual loop, only going in the opposite direction. I decided to turn left, and an immediate challenge was the bridge. Sinwaan balked away from it twice so I dismounted and led him over. I did not want traffic to come upon us at 40-50 mph when he is acting senseless.
Mounting up once over we headed on our way, down to Mission road and here we headed west. I heard a chain-saw in the distance and noticed a man trimming his tree. He was not running it as we went by, thankfully. Back into a trot, and Sinwaan was really extending himself today, it felt like he was moving out much better than usual with a nice long stride. Then I glanced down and saw a piece of carpet in the grass on the shoulder. Sinwaan saw it too. Another leap sideways and again I lost a stirrup. That will get your heart rate going! We walked then, for a short section, as there was a horse in a pasture across the street trying very hard to get our attention.
More trotting.
Down at the bend we were approached by three noisy dogs. Hmm. I am never sure what to do. Sinwaan stopped to check them out and the two larger ones stopped coming towards us although they kept barking. I talked to Sinwaan a little and we walked onward to the intersection.
Turning right now onto Majonnier we had about 1/4 mile until we came to another bridge. This one we crossed without a problem. Just after that we had a motorcycle come at us, but Sinwaan wasn't bothered. This road turned into Frog Hollow and just before the historical cemetery we had a large blue heron rise up on our left. It was really neat. I love encountering wildlife on my rides.
Half way down Frog Hollow to our turn, I heard something coming up behind us, so I pulled Sinwaan over to the next driveway so he could turn around and have a look. It was two men, one on a 4-wheeler and one on a 3-wheeler, driving side by side (taking up more than one lane) and each of them with a beer in hand. This must be a country road. They were not going very fast so I gave them a couple minutes to get ahead of us since we were going the same direction.
We also passed an orchard, and heard lots of voices from within and saw a lot of cars but did not see any of the people.
Heading back down Last Chance and then back onto Stovall completed the lollipop portion of our ride. Sinwaan was doing great, he was still moving out with a big trot and we even interspersed some cantering. No acting up, we just had a really nice ride at our own pace. All told we covered 7.8 miles in about an hour and a half.
Next weekend I am planning to put the saddle bags back on and use the HR monitor so I can get a better idea of where we're at, and how much I need to step it up to have him ready for the Home On The Range ride, our first of the season, March 27th.
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