Off His Pedestal and On a Trail Ride

I'm not sure if you've noticed, but I tend to put Rico up on a pedestal because that's where he belongs. It only got worse when TC was acting up. Rico is perfect and always has been and therefore TC acting up is so much worse than anything Rico has ever done. That's extremely false. He proved that to me a bit on Wednesday when we went on a trail ride.

He ran to the end of his paddock to avoid me, would
not come in for food

On Wednesday I decided to haul Rico out to Harvey Bear. I'm down to the last month and a bit of TC not taking over my life, and who knows when I'll get a job and be ridiculously busy again. I really want to go on some adventures with Rico while I still like horses and still have time.

When he saw me getting the trailer ready, pulling it out and putting shavings in, he walked quickly to the end of the paddock. I brought him a little bit of bute, something we've been doing for trail rides to help calm his coffin joints down (avoids the need to inject them since they only bother him on trail rides). He still refused to come in. I had to go get the halter. After that though, he was super on board with going somewhere.

He bullied me on the way to the trailer, trying to get me to move out of his way so he could rush in. On the way out of the trailer, he started screaming and staring into the hills, seriously thinking about biting me while I tacked him up at the facility. I had to double check his color and teeth to make sure I had the right horse, and hadn't unknowingly switched him and TC out at some point. Nope, this is my twenty year old very well trained dressage horse who was pawing and screeching at me.

Whinnying to no one

Omg we are at the trail ride place

Stop taking pictures of me and tack me up damn it
I think he's looking pretty good for being twenty and sort of neglected
since last summer

We headed out to the first gate and Rico immediately picked up a trot on the way. We got there, went through the gate, got past a few people hiking and then he picked up a canter. Eventually he stopped and tried to turn around. I kicked him forward and he picked up a trot. For a while he was like this- he wanted to go fast, but then he'd get tired and want to go home. Why can't you just walk, Rico?

I had my camera on me (and lost my lens cover, boo, had to order another one) so got some really cool pictures. I also got a bunch on my phone too (these pictures since the ones off my camera go into my massive editing queue). And I did enjoy the scenery as well. It was such a fun trail ride, especially since Rico was super into it.

Any time he was pointed up a hill or was on flat ground, he wanted to trot or canter. On the one hand, I love that he's feeling so good and having such a good time. On the other hand, slow the fuck down I did not ask you to do that you asshole and you are making that hiker you're following so closely nervous.

YASSS TRAILSSS

Second gate

Taking the "this is not a trail" trail

We saw a herd of cows about halfway through, which was fun. As was seeing that the little pond the cows were all enjoying was basically full! It's been years since that pond had any water in it, let alone been anywhere near full. I'm sure the cows enjoy that, and I know a hippo who would have dragged me down the hill to get to it.

Throughout the ride, we saw a few people. No one on horseback, but a few mountain bikers and hikers. Rico is so freakishly solid on the trails. I love being able to assure people on bikes that they can zip by us without a problem, like don't even slow down or give us any space. With TC I can't help but to try to prevent disaster, at least by shortening my reins and putting my heels down. Rico stays on a loose rein and I remain completely distracted by the scenery, my camera, or my phone.

Yay water in the pond!

Everything the light touches is Rico's, also everything the light
doesn't touch

He dragged me down this not-a-trail too

Loves cows

I had initially wanted to ride all the way to the top of the hill to see the lake on the other side, but chose not to because Rico isn't that fit.

I chose wrong! On our way down, Rico got more and more amped, with more and more random canter transitions on any sort of flat ground he was presented with. When we were almost back to the trailer, he zipped out along another trail.

For a while I was pretty convinced that this was because he didn't want to go home. I later found out that it was because he found two horses to follow (we hadn't seen any other horses out there). He got really obsessive about catching up, trying to trot and canter downhill to get to them. Because of his coffins, I avoid doing anything other than walking downhill. And he usually doesn't even want to walk very fast downhill.

Eventually we caught up to almost-creepy levels of following. At this point he was all worked up about them, whinnying and prancing. So I asked him to piaffe and passage along the trail. And he did, better than he does in the arena! All this after a nice long trail ride.

When we passed them (they stopped), he immediately tried to slow wayyy down to hang out with them. Until he saw the horses tied next to the trailer and then wanted to get to them as fast as possible. Seriously Rico!

He put his head down to snort at the shade

Cow!

Wouldn't get back in the trailer

It was super fun to be out and about with Rico again. I think we're going to go on some more adventures over the next month so that I can really try to enjoy the good horse before the bad one comes back. Although the good one sort of lost his place way way up on that pedestal.

Next up I'm hoping for another beach trip with him!