The Return of Bella

The Return of Bella

I haven't been able to ride with Shari and Bella much in the last year.  Between Shari's work schedule and Bella's bout with laminitis, it has been hard to get together.  The laminitis is under control, now, and Bella is doing very well with her new low sugar diet. 

Shari called and told me she is quitting her second job--which means she will be able to ride with us more often.  Hurray!!  We have so much fun when we ride together.  Bella loves her boys, Cole, Dante and Starry--and they love her.  They may love her a little too much.  Starry doesn't like anyone between them.  He forgets all about his "bromance" with Dante--he will follow Bella anywhere.

Cole likes to be close to Bella, but he knows that she is unpredictable.  He prefers a little distance--just in case.  Dante doesn't seem to care.  He thinks she goes too fast.

Well, Cole and Bella got to see each other this weekend--the first time in a few months.  We didn't know how Bella would be.  Unfortunately, the river was too high to cross.  Shari and I decided that we would just ride up and down the hill together. 

I was just bringing Cole out of the barn when I saw Bella trotting down the street--all excited.  When she realized that she was coming to our barn, she knew she was going to ride with at least one of her buddies.  Cole seemed happy to see her, and we headed for the trail.

As we walked along the street, a jogger came up behind us on the other side of the street.  I warned Shari.  She thought Bella saw him, but if she did, she thought he was a jogging monster.  She jumped and danced in the street.  Yes, Bella was feeling good.

Bella led as we walked down the trail to the river.  On the bottom part of the trail, it is flat and smooth, so we trotted.  Bella was excited and fairly fast, but she listened.  When we turned to go home, she became more energetic.  Instead of walking quietly up the hill, like Cole, she tried trotting up the hill.  We didn't get too far before we turned her around to demoralize her.  If she is going to hurry up the hill, she has to go back down.  (Of course, we were going to go back down, anyways--but she doesn't know that.)

At the bottom, we asked them to trot, again.  This time, about halfway to the end, Bella decided cantering was a better idea.  While Shari regained command, I told Cole to slow down--so as not to add to the problem.  To my delight, he did.  When Bella started trotting, again, I asked Cole to speed up--and he trotted in a quick but gentlemanly fashion to catch up.  I was so proud of him. 

After that, we just kept going partway up the hill, turning and going to the bottom.  Bella continued to try trotting on the way up, but each time, she did it less. 

It may sound like a boring ride, but it wasn't.  Shari and I had a lot of catching up to do, and the time went very quickly.

Finally, we decided we would head home if Bella was good on the way up.  She was.  She only did a few steps of trotting and came right back to the walk when Shari asked her.

We are hoping to do a lot of riding together in the future.  It depends on the weather and the footing of the trail, of course.  Ice is our enemy.  But time goes fast, even in the winter.  I think that we are going to have a lot of fun next spring.