Today, Louie and I went on our second trail ride since my fall. Bonnie came over around 10:00 AM. Louie was happy to be caught and was very quiet while I tacked up. He was quiet when I mounted also. For a few minutes he was a bit jazzed up and jumpy, startling when branches brushed my helmet. But, he just did the usual head high, hurried few steps. Very quickly he started to relax. We followed behind Bonnie on River out to the Dead River/Lewis Hill road crossing. From there Louie took the lead with his nice fast walk. He was just wonderful today. He was not to thrilled about all the water crossings though but did not make a big fuss about them either. I let Bonnie and River lead us through some of them but made Louie go though many of them first. It took a bit of encouragement but once he got his feet in, he would walk across quietly and VERY carefully. There were a lot of water crossings so Louie got lost of practice. And while he continued to be worried about them, he was better at each crossing. We got into some slightly overgrown places and once we'd been out for a short time, he did not keep startling at the branches hitting my helmet. I was so pleased that he was fine with it today, progress for sure. We met an ATV and dirt bike and he didn't seem concerned about that either. He also did great up and down hills. Once again keeping a nice steady pace on all terrain. For just a short spell when we got out on the John Tarr Rd. he got a little jazzed up for some reason and wanted to trot. But, he was no trouble to check back to a walk and soon settled right back down. We were out for about 3 hrs. It was a lovely day and a great ride.
Cindy on Louie going through a puddle
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