Full Bella

Full Bella

It is a real rarity to be able to go on a trail ride in January.  Usually, the river is frozen.  We have been very lucky, this year.  It was forming some ice, but then we had a big rain.  The river rose and washed all the ice away.  As soon as it was crossable, we were on the trail, again.

Shari tried to take Bella out by herself, and she was just terrible.  The worst part of the ride was when Bella refused to cross the river!  When Shari insisted, Bella became rebellious and was trying to rear.  Since she was alone, Shari decided she better not push the issue, and turned around to go back home.  Bella was so bad that Shari had to dismount and lead her up the hill.  Bella was still bad, but at least Shari was safer.  When she got back to the barn, she worked Bella.

I got the call the following morning.  Shari wanted to ride with me that evening.  She wasn't sure when she would escape work, so I said I would start down the trail, and she could catch up.

I was almost to the bottom of the hill, when we saw someone we know walking his dogs.  They were off the leash, but they are good with horses.  One dog was up ahead, and Cole was watching him.  The dog looked up, saw Cole and ran back to his owner.  Cole jumped, spun and tried to run up the hill.

As I was going through the spin, I heard Shari calling me.  There was Bella, speeding down the hill in search of Cole.  She didn't stop when she got to us; she just kept speeding by.  Bella was "Full Bella."

I asked Shari if I should go in the river first to encourage Bella to cross, but Shari declined.  She wanted to do it without a crutch.  Bella put up a fight.  Cole watched, quietly.  After about 5 minutes, I asked Shari if she needed a crutch, yet.  She was determined to do it on her own, and a few minutes later, Bella was in the water!

Once we got to the other side, we walked for a few minutes; hoping that Bella would settle down.  She didn't.  We decided to try a little trotting.  Now, it was time for Cole to get excited.  He kept encroaching into Bella's area--threatening to pass.  That was the last thing Bella needed.  We worked on trotting short stretches, walking a minute or 2 and then trotting, again.

One of the times, as Cole was doing his encroaching, Bella slammed on the brakes and spun away from something.  Cole immediately did the same thing, so it looked like we were doing it in unison.  Cole trotted a few steps, and then I spun him back.  There was Bella--head high and blowing--but we couldn't see what she was afraid of.  Cole was unperturbed.

Shari asked Bella to take a step, and she said she couldn't.  Something very dangerous was ahead.  We waited until Bella was a little more relaxed and tried again.  Finally, she stepped forward, but daintily as she danced around a strip of bark laying in the center of the trail.  A strip of bark!!!

We walked for a while until she calmed down and tried to do some more trotting.  They were both very hyper.  When we got to the end of the trail, we turned around and decided we would be best off to just walk home. 

Cole calmed down much quicker than Bella.  Actually, Bella never did calm down very much.  Her head was way up in the air, and she was doing a lot of prancing about.  She gave the strip of bark the evil eye as she passed it.  I was teasing Shari.  "Look how I can ride with a loose rein; and with only one hand."  "Look, my other hand is in my pocket."  She was laughing, of course.

We crossed up the hill, and rode about half way up, and decided it was just time to bail.  We led them home with no more difficulties.  As we walked, we made our plans to ride together the next day.

Early the following morning, I met Shari at the trail head.  Bella was a completely different horse.  She walked with her head low--for a National Show Horse, and Shari had a loose rein.  Just goofing around, Shari showed she could ride with no hands, at all.  Bella didn't care.  The ground was frozen, so we walked the whole ride.  Both horses were perfect.  Bella redeemed herself.