Weekend update

It was supposed to be a rainy weekend, but we managed to get our rides in. Friday night, Kevin and I had a quick ride before sunset. We have to make it fast, now, if we want to get a trail ride in.




Saturday, I took Cole with Ellen and Dante. All went well until we wanted to cross the second river, and he didn’t. Just getting him down the bank was tough. She finally told me to ride on without her. I left reluctantly, and met her on the way back. She had to lead him across, and she was still on foot and not very happy. Of course, she had to cross on the way home, too. She was wet and on foot, so she led him down the bank and across the river. Although he didn’t do it readily, he still managed to get into the water in just a couple of minutes. Once he is in the water, he is fine. We don’t really know what the problem is, but it may be the steep, muddy banks. He has crossed this river quite well a number of times until last week. We are very perplexed about it.



She then rode Ranger, and I went hiking. She met Kevin with Starry, and we all came home together.



It rained on Saturday night, and the river was elevated, but not bad. We took Cole and Ranger out on a really nice ride. The second river crossing was too high—as it is normally deeper there to begin with—so we crossed on the ford.



Ellen didn’t feel very good about taking Dante across the river—it was just a case of nerves. It really wasn’t very high. She told me I could take him on a ride, instead. I jumped at the chance. She walked with me down the hill and crossed the river on foot with us. Dante was just fine. Once on the other side, I took off trotting and barely stopped until it was time to turn around. Even then, I continued to trot home until I caught up with Ellen. We walked from there. Dante was very good the whole ride. The only thing that bothered him is when the wind would gust very hard—and then acorns came flying off the trees. It was like we were under attack. I just made him stand each time until the crisis was over. We had 3 gusts like that.



Now for the sad part of the weekend. Cruiser was off his feed. He was only eating about half his grain and half his hay cubes. He was just fine on Friday, off on Saturday, improved on Sunday and much better on Monday. Ellen checked on him this morning, and he ate all except about ½ pound of grain. He seems all right in all other ways. There was another horse just 2 stalls down that went through something like this last week, so maybe there is something going around—I don’t know, but it sure does put me out of sorts with worry. It might be a dental issue, and the vet is scheduled to come out next week for shots and dentals, so we shall see.