Tina on Houdan in the lead, Sally and Jezebel in front of Lily and me as we wound through the woods
Tina, Sally and I went for another ride on the trails. I'm happy to report that Jez, despite being in race horse mode (head up, snorty, and prancy) did AWESOME on the trails, and even crossed the stream! Sally had to get off the first time and lead her across, going away from home, and Jezebel decided that she was just going to jump across...almost knocking her mom over! She then wouldn't hold still long enough for Sally to get back on, and I got off Lily and held Little Miss Racer so her owner could get a foot in the stirrup. The rest of the ride was uneventful, and we even trotted a bit on the way back. Jez put in two canter strides, but responded right away when Sally brought her back down to a trot. We then arrived at the same creek crossing from earlier, and this time Jezebel followed Houdan right to the water's edge. And then it was like time went into slow motion. From our position in the rear, I watched Jezebel lower her head to look at the water more closely, then gather herself and LEAP across, all 4 feet leaving the ground. I gasped, watching. Sally did an awesome job, instinctively following Jez during the jump. They landed hard on the incline on the other side, almost colliding with Houdan's butt. Sally almost lost her balance for a split second, but Jez swung around in such a way that Sally regained her seat perfectly and they both came to a halt next to Houdan and Tina. "Good save!" Tina and I exclaimed. "What was that?? What did she do??" Sally asked in bewilderment. Tina and I laughed. "Jezebel JUMPED!"
Lily and I crossed the creek behind our leaders, and we continued on our way. Thankfully, there were no more acrobatics from any of the horses. We were on the trail for almost an hour, after which Lily was particularly tired and quite sweaty. It was in the upper 50's; a beautiful day. We even saw a butterfly and there were little gnats pestering the horses. It's SPRING, really and truly!
We FINALLY made it back on the trails again yesterday! The day dawned gorgeous-you never would have guessed a snowstorm was going to blow in last night...
It was somewhere in the upper 40's. I had dressed for pre-snowstorm weather despite it being sunny and bright outside for the first time all week, but when I got out of the car at the barn, I started shedding layers, as I promptly got hot moving in the sun. I was soon down to a thermal underwear shirt, and had removed one of the two pairs of socks I was wearing under my snow boots.
Lily was easy to catch in the big field, and came quietly until the moment the herd stampeded through the chute. After that she was quite prancy coming down the rest of the way, and I knew I'd have to lunge her for sure before riding. There is a new pony mare who has just been turned out with the rest of the herd after her introductory period in the medical paddock, and she was being quite silly about other horses being pulled from the herd-she came trotting up to Lily and me several times, inviting both of us to play! This didn't help Lily settle, but the little pony was just so cute about it. She used to be a therapy horse, and is her new owner's first horse.
Lily was extra antsy in the cross ties, which always drives me nuts. I quickly groomed her, put her rope halter on, and took her into the empty outdoor, where I let her run around and get it out of her system. She actually just chose to canter-no real goofiness. She came to me when she was done, and I took her back into the barn to tack up.
I'm still worried about her weight. She has dropped another girth hole. I talked to BQ about adding the rice bran to her grain.
We finally had our group ride, too: Sally and Jezebel came, and so did Heather on Nate. We chose to go the route with the bridge, since we knew Jez would cross, but Nate still wouldn't go over it. Again Heather attempted getting off and leading him over the bridge. After 15 minutes trying, Heather gave up and so we all accompanied her and Nate back to the barn. This was a small mission-Nate was SO excited about going back that he almost rammed into Jezebel's butt several times in his anxiety to go faster. We offered to let them go first, but Heather decided to keep him in the back to see if it would stop him. It didn't work-she ended up dismounting him and leading him home. Jezebel got a little antsy with his antics, but behaved really well overall, much better than Lily when I had tried to ride out with Heather and Nate by ourselves.
Back at the barn, Heather went into the outdoor with Nate, and we continued on past the paddocks next to the field-this is an alternate route to the trails that avoids the ditches entirely (I had a feeling Jez would refuse to cross them, since this was her first time out). I didn't know about this route, and Tina had just learned about it too. This trail looped around and ended up at the big creek crossing, where Tina and I had crossed on our 2nd ride together, and where Lily and I had gone on our first solo trail ride since moving to this barn. Both of those times, I had had to dismount and lead Lily across the creek. A beaver had apparently been working on building a dam over the little stone crossing I had used before to lead Lily, and the water was much deeper. I didn't have time to wonder whether Lily would go through or not, however, because she became very impatient to get up behind Houdan as we neared the water, and since the footing wasn't too muddy, I let her. She went right into the water behind him!! Without me having to dismount! The stream that had once been pastern-deep was now knee deep thanks to the dam. Lily didn't care. :)
Jezebel, however, did not want to cross, and the water was too deep for Sally to dismount and lead her, so we ended up having to turn around. Lily crossed the stream again! I wish I could have gotten photos of the dam, but I didn't need my phone falling into the water while trying to get a photo from a frisky mare...*lol* This is the first time I've ever seen a beaver's work in real life.
We tried one more stream crossing: the trail where Lily mangled my foot back in November while training her to cross the creek. The creek here is tiny, and the banks are not steep at all, but the mud was still fetlock-deep. Jezebel has Lily's same fear of deep mud, and refused to cross repeatedly. Sally knew she wouldn't go even if she tried to lead her across. She attempted several times, but then Jez planted her feet, and when Sally nudged her with her heels, the little mare tucked her tail and gave a tiny buck with only her back feet. Just popped her rump up 4 inches, no kicking out, no aerial display. It was the most polite "F you" I've ever seen coming from a horse. *lol* Sally stopped insisting, and spoke for Jezebel, "That was a "NO". We'll try another time."
Houdan, the superstar trail horse, was starting to get really impatient by now with all of the stopping and starting waiting for the more inexperienced horses. He even turned his head around to look at Tina and nickered at her, "Mom! Why can't we just GO?!"
We rode back, and took the branch of the trail with the ditches. Houdan trotted most of the way back. Lily and I were second, behind him, and I had her do a long walk on a loose rein, so as not to get Jezebel excited with trotting. Thankfully, Lily didn't care about the increasing distance between herself and our leader. The ditches were even steeper than the last time we practiced them, but Lily followed right behind Houdan's heels and didn't even bat an eye at them. Like I'd suspected, Jez didn't want to cross. Sally had to get off and lead her through the first one, which Jezebel willingly did, but she balked at the second, smaller ditch. The one advantage of this area was that it connects directly to the side paddocks by the barn. Sally ended up turning around and taking Jez back to the barn.
Tina and I continued onto the bridge trail from the beginning. We made it all the way to the track that runs in front of the houses, and then turned around because Tina had to be in Virginia by 6:00 pm, and it was already close to 3:00. Both horses were fairly frisky on the way back, Houdan wanting to trot, and Lily either prancing or trying to canter! She piaffed and passaged the last half mile back to the barn. She refused to extend her stride when I asked her, which was pretty funny-instead of using all that energy to go forward, she was just going up and down in place, which meant Houdan, with his long ground-eating trot, was getting way ahead, creating more impatience in Her Goofiness.
Who said my mare can't do upper level dressage?!
Ever since Nate canter piaffed his way back to the trailhead 2 outings ago, Lily still tries to break into a canter as soon as we reach it. I actually made her stop this time, and asked her to walk. She pranced and jigged, but the closer we got, the more she relaxed, so by the time we were within view of the barn, she was walking with her head down on a loose rein. Silly mare! Once back, I took her straight into the arena, where we trotted and cantered for about 10 minutes, just so she'd realize that coming back to the barn didn't necessarily mean that we'd stop working! Maybe some day she won't look forward to coming back so much. Her and Houdan were quite sweaty, so we hand-grazed them while they dried out in the sun. Afterwards, Lily got groomed, I put her sheet back on, and turned her out with the herd. By then the temperature was starting to drop and the clouds were rolling in.
Nate had gone back to his usual self once back home, and had given Heather a really good ride. She was thrilled with the final outcome. Sally had had a successful ride on Jez once back in the arena, too-she cantered her herself for the first time, and it went really well! She was very happy. We were all really proud of Jez-she did FANTASTIC on her first ever outing on the trail. I think she's going to be an awesome little trail horse.
Tina and I had made an arrangement to go trail riding together yesterday. Between one thing and another, we had not been able to do this for over a month! The weather forecast had said snow for Monday night, but the day dawned overcast without any of the white stuff in sight, so the ride was still a go.
We met at the barn before 1:00 pm-I had arrived early because I wanted to do a bit of groundwork with Lily before tacking up, and I'm so glad I did...Goober Brains is still in heat after our 1 day "heat" wave last week (temps soared to almost 70 degrees for 24 hours, which made ALL of the mares go into heat!), so she was "up" again and flighty just coming out of the field. A great mindset for a trail ride... I took her into the barn, brushed her, put her rope halter on and took her down to the outdoor. One of the ladies was turning her pony out into the field as Lily and I walked to the arena, and the pony took off at a mad gallop as soon as she was released. This caused Lily to snort, attempt to spin around, and then proceed to prance in place while I opened the arena gate. Piaffe, anyone?
I took her to the far end of the arena, and let her blow off steam on the lunge in both directions-she bucked and did bicycles in the air with her front legs, then tore around as fast as she could go. After 2 minutes of this, I started to ask her to pay attention. Bow, and she'd stop almost instantly. Good girl! Change direction. More galloping; only allowed her to do this twice around, then bow again. She stopped and took a couple of steps towards me. We did this several times, until suddenly, when asking her to stop, she halted then walked all the way up to me. I had her stand, then asked her to disengage hindquarters and front end. Mind you, I did not have a whip in my hands. I simply pointed a finger silently at her butt or her shoulder, and she moved the appropriate body part away from me. It was like a dance. After this, I sent her on the lunge again, and she trotted off calmly. I had her circle once one way at the trot, then the other, then I bowed and she came all the way up to me. Her whole demeanor had changed after less than 10 minutes of ground work.
We walked back up to the barn, where I tacked her up (I put her back in the halter bridle with the low port pelham, but only a single set of reins on the shanks-this has always worked better for both of us on the trails than the double reins), and met Tina and Houdan outside.
We had been warned by other boarders that the ditches have only gotten worse since the last time I had seen them a couple of days ago, so we decided to go the bridge route. As it turns out, I had the actual trail all wrong: you get to the trail by crossing the road straight ahead (vs going down the little road to the bridge) and going through an area where a reforestation project is going on. There is no marked trail through here-just ride between the baby trees, cross through an opening in the brush, and there is your trail.
The trail winds through the woods, following Rock Creek (this is the little stream that has been our nemesis so many times-I finally found out its name!) Our first obstacle was a bridge crossing a little branch of the creek. It looks like it flooded with the recent rains and partially dislodged the bridge-it's basically a trail obstacle-type bridge (no rails) like the one back in the outdoor arena. Except it was partially tilted to the side and looked very unstable. I held Lily back so we could watch Houdan tackle it-he went right over, but one of his hinds slipped when the bridge shifted under his weight. Lily had already been giving a firm "NO" at the mere suggestion of going over it, so I didn't even attempt to ride her for this one-I was afraid of the thing myself and figured we'd both do better balance-wise if each of us walked over it ourselves. It was fine this way-it did not shift underneath us as I led Lily, and Lily was able to walk calmly on it without trying to rush in fear - she followed behind me without ANY hesitation. I remounted on the other side, and we continued on our way. The trail was pretty, looping right next to the creek, where Lily had another opportunity to become desensitized to the sound of running water. She gave the creek the one-eye-one-ear look but walked on calmly. Eventually, we had to cross the creek again. The banks were very shallow, and rocky rather than muddy. I let Lily get up close to Houdan's hind end (I won't do this when the banks are muddy/steep for fear of either of the horses slipping/bumping each other) and she followed right behind him without hesitation. Shortly after, the woods opened up onto meadow, some of it planted with more baby trees. The trail became a track, similar to the one that goes around the cornfield, except this one goes past people's front yards, and two of those yards had dogs barking. The horses didn't care, though. The track looped around, doing a 180 turn, then leading over to the right through another meadow planted with trees. It came to a dead end at a fence. Tina had come this way before, and had not been able to find a place to cross, as the trail is supposed to do a full circle back to the barn. We found a break in the fence and carefully rode the horses through it, watching for barbed wire on the ground, then found a place by the banks of the creek where there was an actual shore. The creek was shallow here, so you could ride through it 2 walk strides to go up the opposite bank. Tina asked if I wanted to try it, and I said sure. I got off again for this when I saw Houdan's legs sink to the fetlocks in the mud on the shore. I unclipped Lily's reins from the bit, clipping one end to the halter and holding the other end-it's a 10 foot lead line this way-, had Lily stay, carefully crossed halfway through the creek myself, then went on up the other side. Lily followed, again without faltering. I had expected to feel her hesitation as a pull on the rein, but the slack remained on the rein as we went up the bank-I didn't even look back at her because I was watching the footing! Tina was very, very impressed-she had thought I would have to argue with Lily to get her to follow, like what had happened on our first trail ride here.
I remounted, and we found where the track continued through another field, letting the horses trot for a bit. A herd of deer had been in front of us all of this time, maybe 8 of them, silently leaping through the trees bordering the fields as we continued forwards.
The trail led into the woods, and here I was able to get pics with my cell.
Houdan is an adorable Arab/Morgan cross, 26 years old, who is fully sound after foundering a year ago! These photos do not do him justice at all-he grows a very fuzzy winter coat (he doesn't get blanketed-his coat is that thick), but for some reason it looks thin along his croup in these pics. It is not like that at all in real life.
A sharp bend in the trail.
The twin cowlicks on either side of her mane, just behind the crown strap of the bridle, are especially visible with her longer winter coat
She was especially calm on this ride, despite having been such a hellion coming out of the field. I wouldn't have been able to take these otherwise!
Then it led us out of the woods, but along its perimeter.
Up a slope, following the trail along the forest border.
If you enlarge this photo, you can see the road up ahead, just in front of the tree line.
Eventually, we ended up by a road, and here both Tina and I gave a simultaneous "Oh!" in surprise: we were back to the original road with the bridge, but on the opposite side of the bridge! Tina had never gone all the way through. We crossed the bridge uneventfully-Lily followed right behind Houdan- and made our way home.
It was an awesome ride. Tina and I have officially declared Tuesdays trail-riding days. :)
