Another Rainy Weekend

Another Rainy Weekend


Friday, Cole I went on a chaotic ride with Kevin on Starry. With the bugs so bad in the evenings, Starry is frantic—and Kevin has been letting him just take off to get away from them. He knows I don’t like when he does that—and I struggle to keep Cole at the speed I desire, but even good horses have trouble when their friends take off. Finally, I had enough of it and told Kevin that I was going to lead and Starry had to stay behind us. It worked. Our speed was moderated and Starry was less frantic.

Saturday found us with a very high river, again. My younger niece came out, so she got to suffer with us. We started out our morning by riding Dante in the arena. Ellen rode him a little while and then my niece got to ride him for the first time. She mostly walked and did a little trotting. Dante didn’t see why he should trot for her, so most of the time, he just didn’t. It is funny how horses instantly know a beginner is on them and listening is optional.

We then did the hill with me on Cole and my niece on Ranger. To make it fun for her, we trotted a lot on the level part on the bottom. We just go back and forth. Ranger likes the game and gets very enthusiastic, so my niece got good posting practice. We did the hill 3 times.

Sunday, the river was lower, but not low enough for Dante to cross. Well, we know he could cross it, but we just don’t want to have any problems. Ellen skipped arena riding and we went right to the hill. She did it 2 times with a lot of trotting at the bottom. They practiced stopping, and he is doing so much better than he did just a few rides ago.

We then took Ranger and Cole up to the trails by the show ring. It is one of our favorite rides, but it has been about a month since we’ve been there. It was a leisurely ride and we all enjoyed it.

Yesterday, I took a solo ride on Cole in the evening. We did a lot of trotting and cantering—and it was fast cantering. I got the elusive right lead on our favorite sharp right corner. This time, there was only a small buck—and since I was ready for it, it didn’t matter. We trotted a lot on the way home—mostly to avoid the swarms of mosquitoes. It was the best he ever did trotting homeward—and we got pretty close before I decided he needed time to cool off. It was a fun ride.

He has sure turned into a great horse to ride. I can ride him on slow rides with geriatric horses, and anyone else can ride him. Yet, on the days I want to blast down the trail all by myself—we do. He’s getting pretty close to perfect. If only that right lead wasn’t so elusive…