Riding Night

I took Cruise on his first solo ride across the river for the year. He was so excited! It took him a while to walk, instead of gait. I did do a little trotting. He went fast and sound. We were able to get by the first fallen tree, but when I saw the second, I figured, no way on an older horse with vision problems. I had to go down a rooty, steep hill and make very tight, sharp turns. We headed back. I did do a little back and forth at a trot in the area that wasn’t washed down to gravel. He never settled down.




I rode Cole in the arena. He was awesome. Everything is just falling in place. One of the boarders was riding, and she had a friend with her. The friend clicker trains her dog and cats, but never saw it done with horses. It was so nice to talk to a fellow clicker. Cole showed off his trot, and everyone was duly impressed. It just keeps getting better. I need my sister to take some more video. I showed off how I can trot, drop the reins and say “whoa” and he stops suddenly. I didn’t have a mitten for him to pick up, though. This woman was so thrilled that horses do so well with clicker. Well, why not? If you can train a cat with clicker, you can train anything.



The weather is going sour, so I don’t know how much I will be able to go on the trail in the next week or so. I won’t ride Cruiser outside unless the ground is thawed and snow and ice free. My mantra is, “Protect the Tendon!”



He got accepted into a research program on Metabolic Syndrome for the University of Michigan. I think they may have picked him because he actually never got laminitis. I’m sure they don’t get many subjects like that. Most people don’t know their horse has it until too late. He really was lucky to bow his tendon and have a vet that thought there might be a connection. I have all kinds of information that I need to gather for it. it will be work, but I like the idea of being able to help horses in the future with his condition.