Another Long Rainy Weekend

A long weekend for us, at least this year, means rain.


The weather was great on Thursday. My sister and I planned to go on our favorite ride with Cole and Ranger up to the show ring.10 minutes down the trail, we had to turn around. The electric company was trimming the trees under the wires by the trail. To make matters worse, the trail that we would take to get away from them goes out to the street by a bridge—and there were construction workers repairing it. They were blocking the trail. we turned around and went the other direction on the trail. (Later on, they were using a jackhammer on the bridge—I’m so glad we didn’t try to get through the construction.)

We went on a nice ride, just the same, for about an hour and a half total. We did a lot of trotting and managed a little bit of cantering. The foliage was gorgeous and the temperature was moderate.

When I got back with Cole, I took Cruiser out for an easy ride for about an hour.

Thursday night, it rained pretty hard, and the river that is close by the start of the trail was too high to cross. We rode Cruiser up and down the hill leading to the river 3 times. I then worked Cole in the indoor arena. He did pretty good, and he earned a lot of clicks. I woman that I know was visiting our barn, and she had never seen Cole in action. I told her to watch him trot, and she was stunned. I love seeing people’s reactions to his trot. She is going to have some of her dressage friends come out to see him. It is amazing that the horse I bought for a trail horse has so much natural talent. I tried to canter him with no success. I then took him down to the river to cool off.

Saturday was extremely windy. My sister was hesitant to go out, but I talked her into a short ride with Cruiser. They were fine, and no trees fell. (We have experienced so many tree falls while riding, I have lost count.)

I then took Cole on the same distance ride with the plan of working on our canter transitions. I planned on clicking him for the transition. Well, that didn’t work. He slammed on the breaks so fast to get his treat that we went sliding! We had to stick with “good boys” after that. We had some good ones, and we had some bad ones. The bad ones consisted of big bucks from excitement. We were going on the same trail over and over. I moved down to a different section of trail, and I got a good transition but more speed than I wanted. I rode it out, tried it again and he was more reasonable. My last transition was excellent and the speed was right. I hope he remembers our lessons that we had this day.

Sunday, my sister and I decided to go on our show ring ride that we wanted to do on Thursday. After about a half hour, it started to rain lightly. We figured it wouldn’t last. We rode on to our destination and all the way home in the rain. It rained all day…Cole was in a funny mood, so it wasn’t the best of rides. Every now and then, he gets that way. He bolted/spooked a couple times and tried passing Ranger without permission. He wasn’t as relaxed, either. Still, he went down the big hill the best, ever.

Since it was still raining, Cruiser got the day off. we just led him in the indoor arena for a half hour to help with his insulin. He seemed happy just to follow us around. He likes to walk with me on one side and my sister on the other side, so he can take turns nuzzling us.

I’m riding this evening after work, so I am hoping the river isn’t too high so I can get Cruiser out for a bit. There isn’t enough daylight to ride both on the trail, so I will work Cole in the indoor.