Cody and Little Louie in Susie's trailer ready for an adventure!
Today Susie and I trailered up north east to ride with Allie. I'm not sure what town we went to but it was up Ellsworth day and a 2 hour drive. It was yet another cold windy day. I was meeting Susie at the Exit 46 gas station. From there she trailered us up. Louie loaded well at home. I was a little early arriving at Exit 46 station. So I gassed up and had just parked when Susie pulled in also a little bit early. Louie jumped right into Susie's trailer happy to be going on an adventure with Susie's horse Cody. The drive to Allie's was uneventful and we arrived in good time. Allie bought a horse from Susie last year. A 16 yr. old Marie named MacKenzie. The farm where Allie is boarding MacKenzie is lovely and the owners seems to be super nice people. A 4th person, Diana, was riding with us. A friend of Allie's that Susie and I did not know. Susie and I got tacked up. Louie was gawking around pretty hard but seemed quite relaxed. When we were ready to go, Diana had not yet arrived so we just went down the road a little way and came back. Diana was there when we got back. She'd had trouble loading her horse Harley which is what caused her to be late. Harley is a 7 year old Morgan gelding. Diana was soon tacked up and we were on our way.
Getting ready to ride. Allie with Mackenzie, Cody and Little Louie
Allie has started out riding with just a bareback pad. But, MacKenzie was not behaving well so when we'd returned to the barn while waiting for Diana, Allie borrowed a saddle from the farm owner to put on Mac. It was a good think as Mac's behavior did not improve during the ride. Cody was being ....... Cody. Both Cody and Mac wanted to be in front and were being quite the handfuls. Diana's horse Harley was a bit stirred up at first due to the behavior of Mac and Cody but he soon settled down. He is a real nice horse. Louie did extremely well. He was not sure what to make of Cody and Mac but he minded his own business and listened to me very well. We'd had hard rain the previous day and there was a lot of water on the trails. Louie was great about going through the water. Quite a few times I was in the lead with Louie. He did not hesitate at all and was very steady. He was not looking for mule eating monsters behind every rock today. The only thing he balked at was a stream crossing that was a bit funky looking. There was snow and ice right in that spot and it was a bit "ditchy". The ice was soft so not slippery but it was breaking and scary to the equines. Cody hopped right over but none of the others liked it. I ended up leading Louie over. He was doing his best to work up his courage to cross but couldn't quite do it with me mounted. I was pleased with his "try" even though I ended up leading him. There were several blown down trees along the trail I cleared out of the way. But, we finally came to one that was too big and we couldn't get around it. So, we headed back. When we came to the stream crossing, Susie once again led the way. Cody made quite a leap over it but Susie rode it out perfectly. Then Allie crossed with Mac. She too took a huge leap that threw Allie off balance a little and Mac bolted down the trail. Allie got her balance and quickly got Mac under control. Then Diana crossed. Harley also made a huge leap. Diana too got off balance. Thankfully Harley stopped when he got to the other side and she slowly slid off him. I decided to lead Louie over once again.
Allie and Cindy on Louie convincing him to cross a ditch
On the way back we took a side trail and had to cross another funky looking ditch. Louie was not happy about it but did do it with a bit of encouragement. And I was very pleased that he did not make a huge leap but rather negotiated it carefully. This piece of trail was quite muddy but Louie plowed through gamely. We went also went down another dirt logging road to see where it went. At the end of this road was a steep slope that was deep in snow. The deep snow also worried Louie a little but he went and was good about it. This turned out to be a dead end and we had to slog but up the hill through the deep snow. A boot came of Diana's horse in the deep snow. I was wishing that I had refined Louie's new fetching skills so he would pick up the boot. Guess I'll have to work on this. No one wanted to get off in the deep snow. So, I had Diana give me her riding crop and I was able to snag the boot with the crop.
Cindy on Louie and Diana on Harley riding in the snow
Cindy on Louie and Diana on Harley rescuing Harley's boot
Allie on MacKenzie, Cindy on Louie and Diana on Harley
Susie on Cody and Cindy on Little Louie
Mac, continued to be a very naughty girl. She bolted off on Allie a number of time. Once when I was in the lead she flew right by me. Allie did a wonderful job of riding MacKenzie and Louie was SOOO good about this and did not attempt to follow her. I was extremely pleased with how Louie handled being with horse that were behaving this way. And it was good to see how he would be in this situation before getting to a competition where you know you will run into this kind of thing. So, I had a great ride though I don't think poor Allie enjoyed herself much. When we got back we loaded Louie and Cody onto the trailer. Louie just looked as happy as a clam and it was so nice to see him so relaxed and content. Diana was having trouble loading Harley. We went down to see if we could help. We really weren't much use so had a quick lunch and then headed home.
Cindy on Little Louie
Diana on Harley, Susie on Cody, MacKenzie and Cindy on Louie
No comments:
Post a Comment