June

June

June was a great month for riding.  There was a fair amount of rain; but very few days that we couldn't cross the river.  Cole didn't get many days off.  The more I ride him, the better he gets.

That causes a problem--he gives me little to write about.  He has a bad moment from time to time.  This week, he did get startled, took off running, tossed in a buck and did one of his sliding stops when I asked him to "Whoa."  It is the stop that is the hardest to stay in the saddle.  Still, that doesn't give me much to write about. 

Another problem--Bella has been really good.  She was always a great source of writing material.  Not so much anymore.  She is just so consistent.  She has even learned to relax her naturally high head to the verbal command of "relax."  It is amazing what clicker training can do.

And then there is Starry; the horse who didn't want to take the lead.  Last year, he really started to improve.  This year, he is doing great.  He still doesn't want to go in the lead, but he will when Kevin asks him to.  Nothing to write about, there.

Dante has been great, too.  Ellen is anxious about things, but those things are in her head.  He hasn't spooked at an airplane, yet, this year.  He hardly spooks at all and has been terrific most of the time.

That just leaves me to write about Ellen and her anxieties.  Sorry, Ellen.  You are my only good source of writing material.

The park had closed the road where we ride to help people social distance during the Covid-19 pandemic.  That was great because there wasn't any motorized traffic on the street, and we were able to cross the fords instead of the river.  (Except for the first crossing to get into the park--there is no ford there.)  We loved it.

As Ellen started to ride in the park, she was nervous about riding across the ford.  She had always led Dante when the street was open.  After leading him across a few times, she decided to ride across.  Her nervousness was wasted.  Dante was fine.

Unfortunately, she only had one opportunity to try it, and then the park opened up the road.  We were back into traffic.  Our only other option was to cross the river.  That river is higher, though slower, than the first river crossing.  For her first time, she wanted to be able to see the bottom.  We had just enough rain to keep that from happening.  The rest of us could cross it, but she wanted it to be perfect.  She preferred to lead Dante across the ford.

A couple weeks ago, Shari and Kevin were way ahead of us on the trail, and Ellen and I were crossing the ford on our own.  I was riding Cole in the lead.  As we neared the end of the ford, she told me there was a large van coming up behind us.  I was fairly far ahead of Ellen, so I pulled off the road as soon as I was able to and waited.

Behind the van there was a loud motorcycle, too.  As the van passed, Dante spooked and stepped out into traffic.  The motorcycle rider had to have been able to see that Ellen was having a problem, but he kept inching up to pass; he just didn't want to wait.  In frustration, Ellen ended up waving him to  pass--and it caused Dante to spook, again.  

Cole stood like a statue.  One more car came past, and Dante pulled Ellen into the street, her legs got tangled up and she fell right on her tailbone.  Dante immediately calmed right down.

If you have ever hurt your tailbone, you know how painful it can be--and it takes forever to heal.  It is still hurting Ellen just as much as the day she fell.

Shari heard the ruckus, and they turned around, headed back and got there in time to see Ellen on the ground.  We were all shaken up.

Dante was fine on the way home until we got to the end of the trail and dismounted. There were several other horses there, and once again, Dante scooted out to get away from the horses--just like he did on the ford.  He even had the same expression on his face.

Later, as Ellen and I played the incident over and over; trying to figure out why Dante was so bad; we had an inspiration.  The spot that it happened had a barrier on Dante's right side.  Ellen was on the left.  Most of all Dante's problems stem from the fact that he is claustrophobic.  He can't abide being crowded by other horses.  He thinks he can't fit through door ways and he doesn't like being crowded by the traffic.  Normally, he would have just scooted forward--but why didn't he this time?  Because I was standing with Cole; blocking his path.  I almost never ride in the lead across the ford, but this time I did and when Dante felt crowded and wanted to rush forward, there I was--and Dante hates to pass other horses.

We had the solution.  Dante needs an escape route.  I will not block his path, anymore.

Unfortunately, Ellen's anxieties don't care if we have a good plan.  They caused her much anguish until the next opportunity to ride across the ford.

Well, she isn't the only person nervous about going across the ford when there are cars--Bella used to be very bad on the ford, and Shari doesn't like it, either.  The first day that Ellen was going to lead Dante after the fall, Shari was going to try to ride Bella across, too, for the first time since it opened back up.

Good thing Cole is pretty reliable.

On the way out, Shari hopped off Bella about halfway across because there was a fisherman close to the road.  Bella was fine.  There were no cars, and we made it across with no incidents.

On the way home, Shari decided to try riding, again.  Ellen went first, followed by Shari and I took up the rear.  There was a fisherman that cast his rod.  It caused Bella to jump. Dante took a fast step, but since no one was blocking his path, he relaxed quickly.  There were a number of cars that then passed us, but everything went perfectly.  We breathed a sigh of relief.  What happened with Dante on the previous ride was just a fluky thing.

That still left us with the river.  When the river is low, it is by far the safer way to get to the other side.  That is particularly so in the summer when there is a lot more traffic than in the off season.

One day, Ellen rode to the edge to look at it.  It was too muddy for her to try.  The next time, it was clearer and she decided she would cross.  She carefully rode down the bank to the edge.  Dante stopped and stared.  He didn't want to cross.  He tried to do his slow spin to go home.  Ellen kept him spinning.  She told me to go ahead and cross to the other side, which I did.  

Dante still just stood there.  He wasn't going.  The longer Ellen waited, the more nervous she became.  The more nervous she was, the less Dante wanted to cross.  When she was literally shaking, she told me she couldn't do it.  I told her to at least try to get all of his feet in the water so he didn't learn that turning at the river's edge is an option.  She did, and I rode back over to her and we went home. 

She felt terrible.  After much discussion, we decided that the only way she will be able to do it is to get him to march down the bank and right into the water with very little hesitation.  She had to get him in before she lost her nerve.

We had a series of days where we didn't have any rain.  The river was in a very crossable state.  It was time to get it over with.  She had to ride him across the river.

Shari and Kevin crossed first.  I stayed with Ellen and let her cross ahead of me.  She got Dante to march down the bank.  He kept trying to grab things to eat, but other than that, he did well.  At the river's edge, she let him look at it and asked him to go forward.  He did and then stepped into one of his slow spins.  She kept him spinning until he faced the right way then tapped him with the whip.  He stepped in and stopped.  She tapped again and he started across.  He walked slowly and carefully and before she knew it, she was on the other side!

We had a nice ride, turned around and headed home.  It was time to see how he would do on the return trip.

At the top of the river bank, he refused and went into his slow spin.  As he was turning, he grabbed a branch.  A light bulb went off in Ellen's head.  His stickiness there in the past has never been about him being afraid to cross--it had been about food!  She got tougher, he walked down the bank, into the water and crossed to the other side.

The horses were great on the way home.  When I talked to Ellen about how she felt after the fact, she said that she was surprised how easy it was and realized that there really wasn't anything to worry about.

Seems to me that I won't be getting many more blogs about the scary river crossing from Dante, anymore