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.