An Evening on the Hill

Last night was Cruiser’s birthday—he would have been 27. I went out to the barn, but unfortunately, we had so much rain the night before that the river was too high, again. I took Cole Train on 3 trips up and down the hill to the river. He was fast—that horse has rockets on his feet when he trots. I didn’t dare canter—not enough room—the trail was too short for him when he is in that kind of mood. We had fun.

I had a lot of time left before I had to feed, so I saddled up Dante for a ride on the hill. It seems like Ellen always finds a way for me to do things with him first before she does it. Dante has never been ridden multiple trips on the hill all by himself, before. He is either with another horse or one of us is walking along. Well, it was his night.

As I led him to the trail, he started crying—he has a horrible voice—sounds like a mule. Once I got in the saddle, he stopped crying and was a delight. I used Cruiser’s old saddle, and when I looked down and saw the long chestnut neck with the lighter mane—well, it made me feel right at home. I thought to myself, I gotta get me one of these horses…

Anyway, he did very well for his first truly solo trip. He was so much better than Cole was for about the first 20 solo trips. We trotted at the bottom and he had a little zip to him. He really seems to get into this game—just like Cole. He just doesn’t have the rockets that Cole has. He was just a little sticky at the top when I would try to stop and turn around, but assertive legs fixed that.

I dismounted before the end of the trail as a reward, and that’s when he got all wound up because he knew he was going home. He rushed at a walk, tried trotting and was very hyper. (Not nearly as bad as Cole was for the first couple of years.) He even tried prancing on the street—and that got me mad—we worked too hard on manners on the street for him to do that. I immediately turned him around facing away from home and made him stand there until he settled down. He did better on the driveway, but then he tried to rush into the barn (circle) and trot down the aisle (go back outside and do it again.)

He was probably hoping his dinner would be in his stall because it was right about that time—but he didn’t figure out that I was feeding, and he wouldn’t get dinner until I was ready. I didn’t feed right away, but cleaned Ranger’s stall, first.

It was a fun ride on both horses, even though I couldn’t cross the river. It was also fun to ride 2 horses in one evening, again. I think I may be ready…