The weather was lovely today! A great day to get out for a ride. I sold my mule Buckshot so right now I only have Marie to ride. My granddaughter is here for the weekend and I wanted to take her out riding but needed another horse. Well, my boarder was busy this weekend so I gave her a call and she gave me permission to take her horse. Wooohooo! The ride was on! I would ride Tinkerbell as she is the younger less experienced horse. Madison would ride my horse, Marie, who is 23 years old and has "been there and done that". It would be the first ride that Madison would be on her own with no assistance from me. She is more than old enough for this now, I've just been the over protective grandmother for too long.
Madison groomed Marie as I got Tinkerbell ready. Madison had the harder job. Marie still had some sweat marks on her from my last ride. Tinkerbell was nearly spotless as her owner, Cierra, is a bit fussier about grooming than I am. Tinkerbell was a perfect lady for me while I groomed her and put her front boots on. I tacked them both up, after a bit of a scramble to get the tack together I wanted to use on both horses. Fred was setting a shooting target up on the back lawn and I had to have him take it back down as I didn't want either horse spooked by something different on the lawn. So Fred then started up the lawn tractor to mow the lawn, the noise made Tinkerbell a little bit nervous so I had to tell Fed he couldn't do that until we left. Poor Fred...... Tinkerbell's nervousness was really very minor, but my concern about something happening to Madison was making me take extra precautions.
Tinkerbell was a little excited when I first mounted her as I've only ridden her once so she is not used to me. I immediately took the lead with her and we headed out onto the trail. When Cierra and I ride together, I always take the lead so Tinkerbell is not used to being the lead horse. She took the lead with no fuss to start and was good though just a hair over enthusiastic and walking out very fast. Marie did her usual saunter down the trail. Madison did a great job though of keeping her moving so she didn't just stop to eat. When we got just about to my mother's house, just a short way down the trail from mine, Tinkerbell stopped and decided she would not lead. I asked her to go and she gave me a little bit of attitude. We had a very short discussion about it and I quickly persuaded her she indeed would lead down the trail and she did. She never hesitated again and was absolutely wonderful in the lead moving out with confidence. And it wasn't long at all before she was relaxed and going on a nice loose rein. I was very impressed and pleased with her. The only time she took advantage of me was when I'd been riding twisted backwards for a while snapping pictures of Madison. She knew I wasn't paying attention and a couple times waked off into the woods in search of some juicy tree leaves to eat. Once I put my camera and phone away, she was as good as gold.
There is one spot on the trail where there is a tree fallen across the trail. A few weeks ago we cleaned the branches off it so we could use it as a jump. It's just that right height were they will jump if you trot or canter it, but low enough so they can walk over it too. Well, not Tinkerbell. I walked her slowly up to it...... and she just HAD to do a big jump anyway. I was happy that, though Marie enjoys jumping, she walked over it quietly and carefully with Madison. And when we got to the little stream crossing, Tinkerbell took a leap over that also. She caught me off guard on that one. I had my camera out and wasn't sitting straight. Her leap was smooth though so I had no trouble. On the way home, when we got to the logs across the trail, Tinkerbell again just could not resist making a jump of it. She did stop and consider walking over it but in the end, just could not help herself and jumped. She is such a great little horse and we had a very nice ride!
