I took a bunch of pictures on this ride...but I am sad to say my camera is tired; most of them were blurry; and the color was off. Guess I need to start saving up for another one and I need to start doing a little bit of research. You all know how I just love doing that....ptooey!
It was another beautiful evening, the rain was not supposed to start until the next day (which it did) so I took Wyoming out. Tripp had been out three days in a row and I figured he was feeling abused about now. Ha ha!
This was a great evening! Wy was very relaxed when I unloaded him. I took my time brushing him and pulling off as much dried mud as I could, then I saddled up. I didn't know if we would meet another rider or not so I used my big saddle. The last time Wy saw another horse he turned into a basket case, and the other evening when Tripp got ahead of him, he got very worried. My big saddle is adjusted right, so that was the safer bet this time.
This whole ride we did not see another rider, Wy did not whinny once, and he walks almost twice as fast as Tripp does! Yep, if I can get Wy's brain to slow down and stay with me, he is going to be my endurance horse! Well, he will anyways...but it would be nicer if he would keep his mind with me. :-)
This is a perfect example of my camera doing weird things...we were not even blasting thru the muddy creek bed. We were just moseying along...
When I looked at it big on the screen, I got dizzy! Ha!
I took the trail that follows the dirt road a ways, and Wy did great...then all of a sudden he thought it would be quicker if we just went thru the woods, hit the road, and go back the other way. I think every three or four feet of distance we made forward he actually traveled eight to ten feet total. I was wondering if the GPS picks that up. Ha ha!
Wyoming said if we go this way, we can skip all the small trail talk and get back to the truck quicker. We did not go that way...I was in the mood for 'small trail talk' so we went across the road and took the scenic route. So far he just makes suggestions...and if I pull rank he tries very hard to be good and go with it.
We are getting ready to go down the hill to my favorite part of the trail. This is the place with a rocky creek, rocks in the side of the hill, lots of fallen logs with moss, ferns sticking out of everything, and it just has a different feel than the rest of the trail. I took a lot of pictures to show that Spring is springing but they were blurry. Low light maybe? User error? You would think I would know how to use it by now...ha ha! I need to quit complaining and I need to be happy instead. This camera has outlived it's life expectancy, and it is already taking more pictures than it should. It really has been great.
Wyoming was excited....another road! That means civilization! This was a great view! The road goes down the hill to the dam of the lake, and the sun was kissing the tops of the trees on the far hillside. It was magnificent!
Wy started to get a little nervous here. He could hear people hooting and hollering but couldn't see them yet. There were several people on the other side of the lake fishing; enjoying the evening.
WYOMING: "Oh finally! Just one country horse block from the trailer. I will get brushed and massaged....then my favorite part! Eat grass! I meant to say my second favorite part. My first favorite part is the Girl. Shhhhhh, I say that to make her feel good. Nicker snort nicker!"
We rode the big loop and we made pretty good time. I got back to the parking lot and checked my GPS. I wanted a little bit more distance so we moseyed around the parking lot a few minutes. It was good for him because he thought we were done...we were, but he can't act like we are. So we worked a bit more, THEN we were done.
This was a fantastic ride! I was very glad we didn't see any other horses because that would have put his brain on another track. This way we got to work on a few things. Stop - NOW! Flexing - NOW! We did serpentines (much much better than last time). Backing - NOW! Whoa - NOW NOW NOW! Whoa and staying there is a huge challenge for him. So I had to break it down. We would Whoa, stand there a couple seconds, then I would ask him to walk again. I will keep adding more seconds to his Whoa time because he does need to learn to stand still for a bit if I need him to.
And we trotted! The first time I asked he was not sure what he was supposed to do. I had to laugh out loud because he really tried to give me 'something'. On the ground I say "TROT", then I cluck, then I ask with the nose end of the lead rope, and if I need too I twirl the end of my lead rope. On his back he can hear "TROT" and the cluck, but a twirl isn't in the same place. I loved on him and told him he did very good - which in my opinion he did. He gave me a try. I don't like to get in the habit of having the horses trot up the hills too early because I don't want them to anticipate it every time, but I needed something to help me with our trot. The next small hill I asked him to trot which he was happy to do. That was all it took! After that he picked up the trot pretty good so we got to work on our trot to walk transitions.
I was so proud of him!!! It has been a long time for both of us and I am remembering how much fun this big guy really is! It is hard to believe but Wy will be 7 this year! Where does the time go?
Until later...Karen and Tripp who says "REALLY? You call him Big Guy? Hmpf snort!"
No comments:
Post a Comment