A Different Trio

A Different Trio

So much for being the reunited trio of horsewomen.  Dante seemed lame, and we were worried.  My gut said it would just be an abscess, but we didn't know for sure.  For a few days, it was so minor that we didn't even want to call the vet.  Once he was obviously lame, he obviously had an abscess.  Instead of calling the vet, we decided to wait the few days for the farrier to come out.  Dante blew out the abscess the day before, and he is well on his way through his healing.  Unlike Ranger, whose last abscess took weeks to work out (and we did call the vet), or Mingo, who took years to work out his abscess, Dante acquired and got rid of an abscess in relatively no time at all.

But that didn't help with Ellen's trail riding!  She missed the whole long Memorial Day Weekend.  I've looked forward to trail riding with Ellen so much, that I was extremely disappointed that we couldn't ride together.

I wasn't alone, though.  I still had Shari, and our rides keep getting better and better.  Bella has calmed down, a lot.  Cole can still be fractious, but we have more good times than bad--by far.

I also have Kevin and Starry.  We were already doing well--and then the bugs came out.  This has been a very bad year for mosquitoes in Northeast Ohio.  Bugs make Starry crazy--literally.  We were having some miserable rides.  Starry would just take off!  I then had to struggle to keep Cole calm.  We spent some rides leading them.  Kevin started going by himself because Starry was so bad.

So then came a weekend when I both Kevin and Shari were available.  I wanted to ride with them both.  Kevin had been avoiding ridintg with us because he didn't want to ruin the ride.  I thought it was worth a try.

On Friday evening, Shari and I went out towards the Lagoon.  There is always less bugs that way, and we wanted to avoid them just as much as Kevin.  This was only my second trip that way this year, and it was Shari's first. Cole was a bit bouncy--Bella was better.  We went to the end of that trail, turned around and started heading home.  It wasn't long before we saw Kevin on Starry in the distance.  We rode up to them, and then they joined us on the way home.

Starry simply loves Bella.  He loves her more than Dante.  Once he saw her, he seemed to forget about his bug phobia.  He was happy just to follow her home.  He didn't take off to get away from the bugs a single time.  I saw a few belly kicks and head tosses, but that was it.  Single-minded Starry could only think of Bella.

This gave me hope.

The next day, Shari and I headed the other direction on the trail.  We didn't get too far when we came across a huge tree over the trail.  We could neither step over it or go safely around it.  So, we had to turn around and go the other way.  As we passed our river crossing to go home, we found Kevin and Starry.  We invited him to come along with us as we headed the other way towards the Lagoon, again.

He came.  Bella led with Starry right behind him.  Cole stayed in the back; out of the way.  We did some walking and some trotting.  Things went very smoothly.  Once, Cole got revved up and wanted to shoot past everyone, but I warned them, and we all stopped before Cole could do it.

We went farther down the trail, this time.  When we got to the big hill, we talked it over and decided to ride up.  Kevin had been up there this year, but Shari and I hadn't.  In fact, Shari didn't make it up last year, either.

Sometimes, Starry gets feisty about going up the hill--he doesn't want to.  Not this time.  He followed Bella right up.  We walked through the pine forest, and once we got out, we started trotting.

Starry just followed Bella--he showed none of his bad bug behaviors, at all.  We got to the end of the trail, turned around and basically walked home.  It has been impossible to walk home with Starry for the last few weeks.  Kevin was delighted.

We were able to get Starry in the lead once.  The rest of the time, he resisted.  That frustrated Kevin because Starry has gotten so much better when he goes out with Cole.  We had a training project.

The next day, we decided to do it all, again.  This time, Kevin left with us.  He wanted to see the tree that fell, so we trotted that way.  It was still there.  We turned around and headed to the Lagoon.  Bella led, Starry followed right behind and Cole stayed in the back.  This time, Cole was much more relaxed and happy to stay where he was.

The first step of Starry's training was to get him to stop following directly behind Bella.  It is dangerous becasue Bella could stop suddenly and Starry would run right into her.  Our trails are wide enough that he could position himself to one side and Bella can take the other side.  It isn't as easy as it sounds with a horse like Starry who is determined to stay directly behind his friend, but Kevin was just as determined.  In my position in the back, I could easily watch the progress.  In the beginning, it was a big fight, but after a while, I could see both Kevin and Starry relaxing and trotting along behind Bella--offset.

We got to the end of the trail and turned around.  Since I was in the back, when we turned, I was in the front.  We walked until we got to a spot where I could pull off the trail.  Starry walked right past us!  We all started to trot, and we got pretty far!  Bella followed Starry--which is another training project we have been working on--getting Bella to follow.

Eventually, we decided it was just time to walk to cool them off.  We used our walking time wisely.  We just kept putting Starry in the lead.  Since Bella is a faster walker, it never would last long, but then Shari would just turn around and go behind Starry, again.  We did this a number of times, and each time it got easier.

Throughout all of this, the bugs hardly bothered Starry at all!  It is all about Bella, now.