A Blog-Free Ride

A Blog-Free Ride

If you are looking for some exciting reading here, you can just give up on it.  There is nothing to write here, and I am so happy about it.

We decided to take Trifecta on a ride in the "other" direction.  Yes, when he crossed the river, we planned to go to the left instead of the right.  Going to the right is a much easier ride.  It is also prettier and has better places to trot.  Another advantage is that you can go further without having to cross the river a second time.  For all these reasons, we ride to the right more often then we ride to the left with all the horses.

I have only ridden Trifecta to the left once and that was about a month ago.  It wasn't the greatest ride.  He did well until we were going down the hill that leads to the second river crossing.  We were partially down when someone came galloping up the hill at top speed towards us.  I didn't know how Trifecta would handle that, but he managed to do it with much composure.  The rider struggled to stop before reaching us, but she did stop in time.  She warned us that there was a man on a horse that was going to be coming up right after her, so we were braced for it.  A minute later, we could see him down by the river.  We yelled down to him to not run his horse, and he struggled to keep him at a walk in vain.  Finally, he jumped off his horse and led him up the hill.  We thanked the rider for his consideration, and we proceeded down to the river.

I have no problems running up hills, but I will only do it when I know I will be able to stop my horse.  Also, I make sure my horses understand that we will only run up a hill when it is my idea.  They must know how to walk up a hill before I will ever let them run up it.  Some horses just love to do it too much--and there might be someone with a green horse coming down the hill...

That morning, Ellen and I were a little shaken up after that experience.  When we got down to the river, we discovered the bank was very muddy and the weeds were very high on both sides, making the river bank very narrow.  I asked Trifecta to go down it, and he was hesitant about the mud.  When he got to the bottom, he skirted along the narrow edge of the bank--doing everything in his power to avoid stepping into the river.  I wasn't going to make a big fuss about it--as I didn't plan to cross that day, anyway, but Boy did I struggle trying to get him to turn around to go back up.  After that, we just went back home.

Now, for our second trip on this trail.  Ellen was joining me on foot once again.  As we were leading down the driveway, Simon, our lovely barn cat friend, jumped out of the bushes to greet us.  He then wanted to follow us down the driveway, so Ellen picked him up to bring him back to the barn.  I decided to just go on without her and let her catch up with me.  

I led Trifecta down the driveway and down the street with no incident.  I mounted Trifecta from the ground, asked him to go forward and away we went.  As we got to the first slope, I looked back and saw that Ellen had caught up with us, but she was staying back so I could do everything on my own.  He was perfect all the way down the hill until we got to the river bank.  It was very muddy from some recent rain, and he decided he would go around the mud by going to the right.  Now, I know from experience that it is extremely muddy in the direction he wanted to go.  The best way to go is all the way to the left side of the bank.  I was struggling with him.  Ellen saw and called to him and clearly pointed to where we wanted him to go.  Not for the first time, Trifecta followed her hand directions and corrected his course.  I have never known a horse to be so in tune to his people.

He was a little slow to step into the water, but he has been lately.  When he did go in the water, he walked right across without any fussing this time.  He got clicks and treats for doing so well.

Trifecta was very excited when we turned to the left after crossing the river and marched down the trail; looking everywhere.  After a short distance, we have to cross the street.  There was no traffic, so we went straight across.  On the other side of the street, there is a short but very steep hill to go up.  He marched up the hill in perfect form.  At the top, we stopped so he and Ellen could catch their breath.  We walked across the top and headed down the other side.  This is where we had the problem with the running horse.  This time, the trail was clear so we rode right down to the river.  I didn't plan to cross it, but I wanted to see if he would step in it this time.  The path was still very narrow, and the bank was muddy, but he went straight down, paused at the water and stepped right in!  Hurray!  He got a click and a treat.  I asked him to take a few more steps, which he did willingly and he was clicked again.  I slowly and carefully turned him around in the water, and we walked up the muddy bank and headed up the hill.

Partially up the hill there is another trail that just goes out to the street that we like to take just to get a little longer ride.  Trifecta had never been on it, before, so we gave it a try.  We weren't that far along when a group of about 10 runners came flying down the trail towards us.  We asked them to stop and walk past, and they did--warning us that there were a lot more coming.  No sooner did they say that when we saw another group--and then another.  Trifecta was perfect for all the runners.

We got to the end of the trail, turned around and headed back towards home.  Our next big challenge was riding down the short, steep slope that leads to the road crossing.  He has struggled from day one with going down steep slopes, but recently he has learned how to control his feet.  This would be a huge test for him.  He was amazingly perfect.  We crossed the street and went to our first river crossing.  There he went right down the river bank and crossed like a dream.  We rode home with no incidents.  Trifecta was nearly perfect on a challenging ride.  All the pieces are starting to fall into place...

I am still smiling...