Long weekend

Well, here I am, back from my long weekend. The good news—Cruiser’s hives healed up enough that I was able to ride him the whole time. He was great, of course, he always is.


Cole was both good and bad. I took him down trail each of the 4 days. The first day, we did trotting by ourselves. It was his best day, I’d say. He did nothing terrible except rushing down the first hill.

Day 2, the river was higher and muddy, and I decided to solve the hill problem instead of pushing him with the river. I lounged him and rode him in the arena, to start. It was the best he ever was in the arena, by far. In fact, he seemed like a whole different horse. I think all the trotting on the trail has settled him down to trot in the arena like a gentleman. I was very please. We did the hill 3 times. He got better each time. He stopped rushing down the hill, but he did show some reluctance, a few times. That is normal, of course. We worked through it pretty easy, since my sister was walking with us. I would ask him to go, and when he wouldn’t, she would walk ahead and he would follow.

Day 3 was a bit tougher. I headed out by myself, and he was very balky on the hill. I had to grab a stick and use it, fortunately very lightly, to get him to finally move. He didn’t want to go down the river bank, either, but a tickle with the stick got him to change his mind. When we got across, I trotted immediately and he liked that. A couple times, when we were walking, I think he tried to turn around, but I was able to intercept him easily and keep him going. We trotted to the next river crossing, and then waited for my sister to catch up with us on her horse, Ranger. We then rode home, passed it up and headed out to the challenging Lagoon area. I have led him there several times, but never ridden him. It is a very active area that goes along the road and everything is all out in the open. He was very nervous and reluctant to go forward. We suspected problems that are why we brought Ranger along. On the way home, he hit something in one of the river crossings—and took off trotting across! He charged up the river bank, too. Not good. He was wound up the whole way home.

Day 4 was both good and bad. We went with Ranger though the Lagoon, up a very, very steep hill to ride in the back trails in the show ring area. He was fine on the way out, except for extreme reluctance on the same river crossing that he panicked the day before. He went up the big hill like a champ—no rushing or stalling out. He was great all through the back trails—except when that branch swung at him and hit him in the private parts. All I could say, is you aren’t bucked off if you land on your feet, are you?

I led him down the big hill on the way home. He was fine all through the Lagoon and over the problem river. Our biggest problem occurred when I rode him down a small, but steep hill. When he got close the bottom, he decided to trot the rest of the way down. I got him to stop at the bottom, before he went into the street, and when I tried to get him to go back up the hill, he had a temper tantrum that wasn’t pretty. I got him to settle down and then dismounted and led him up and down the distance he trotted 3 times for practice. He did that, perfectly. We were fine the rest of the way home.

So, where he was surprisingly awesome much of the time, he still made me remember that he is a green horse and we have a long way to go.

Tonight, I will ride him in the arena. There is only enough time in the evenings to take one horse down trail, and that is Cruiser—a horse that I can relax and just ride. Someday…