Ride on the dirt trail

Today the weather was about 10 degrees warmer than yesterday. The bank said 49 at noon but it didn't feel quite that warm!

After lunch I went out and hooked up my trailer. It was really windy out at the barn so I was glad not to be riding on the road today! Loaded up Sinwaan and trailered over to Heather's.

Ruth, Heather and I did the loop(s) around near the water treatment plant and young trees. There is a short loop that we did about six times, 3 each direction. The horses were slightly better behaved today. Sinwaan seemed really happy overall, although there were a couple times that I had to fight him for his head, he just wanted to run!

The interesting thing I have noticed about him this winter is that he is no longer content to just follow along. He used to be the sort of horse that I could envision in a string of pack horses, just follow the one ahead of you. Lately he wants the lead, he will fight for it and even cop a slight attitude about it. I don't know if he would be this way in other company, but that is the position he intends to hold with these two geldings. His movement is even more extended, really covering ground. I made him follow a couple of times to force him to slow down and try to collect and he hated every minute of it. But we dealt with it and I think it's good for him to listen and slow down when need be.

We tackled the BIG HILL again today. Last week I got off and led Sinwaan down it. It looked pretty steep, not to mention narrow. This time I rode him down behind Otto. He did really well, until the end. It widens out and Otto had stopped to relieve himself. I rode Sinwaan around him since there was plenty of room. At the very end of the hill there was a steep bank. I told Sinwaan "easy," and gave him his head to see what he would do. I was hoping he would sit back on his haunches and ease down it. Nope. He jumped off of it. I had put a hand back behind me to hold the cantle and keep my balance. We hit the bottom and Sinwaan had a buck or two. I am not sure if that was because he was trying to regain his balance or because my position in the saddle bothered him. It was awkward and I am glad I stayed on.

We rode around the grid of trees multiple times, really enjoying the trail, weather and company. It was a really nice ride.

I checked the time when we got back to the trailer: 4:30. We had aimed to tack up at 2:30 but I think I was a couple minutes late. Even with a time allowance we still had a solid 90+ minute ride. Hard to know what the milage is (forgot my GPS again) but I would guess 7-8 miles today.

New trails

There was some concern last night about Sinwaan not eating his hay at feeding time, but I was relieved to hear he dove right into it this morning. When I drove out to the barn he was laying down taking a nap in the sun but when he heard the truck he got up and shook himself off and watched me hook up the trailer. I grabbed his halter and headed to the gate. "Sinwaaaan! Hey buddy, want to go someplace today?" He came galloping up to me. He was eager and ready for a change of scenery!

We trailered over to Heather's and met she and Ruth for our weekend ride. This time they showed me the trails that they frequent out back by the water treatment plant. They are double-track dirt roads that wind around through a grid of trees. It is really neat back there! Footing was great and it was probably mid to high 40s today. It was so glorious in the sun that I only wore my t-shirt and breeches, although at times I wished for my jacket.

The horses were really feeling good today and Sinwaan was testing me quite a bit. On one hill I let him go into a collected canter and heard a shout behind me, Otto was bucking and Ruth gave it a valiant effort but did eventually come off. After that we did more walking and trotting all around and trying to get the horses in a better frame of mind. One loop we did three times and then reversed and did it another three times going the other direction. There was a bit of a hill so it helped to work the horses.

The trails looked so inviting that Sinwaan was pulling me really hard. A couple times I wanted to just let him run but with the earlier misbehaving figured that wouldn't be very polite. :) So we worked on slowing down instead. My arms got a work out today for sure!

Beautiful ride, beautiful trails, and by the end of a solid hour the horses were all doing much better so we ended on a good note and walked them home.

Road ride

Road ride today, new loop from the barn, lots more rock/gravel and harder on the horses without shoes. Thankfully Sinwaan has a new set so he wasn't affected but the other horses were getting tender by the end of the ride. 9.5 miles today. Great weather.