First Trail Ride of 2018

Despite my ride on Friday being a bit... exciting... I decided to take TC out on the trails on Saturday. I remember deciding not to trail ride him in January because he hadn't been off the property since early November when he was kind of an idiot. My reason was "I think it'd be best to take him somewhere to work him before going out on the trails" and then I promptly forgot about that until he was shooting out of the trailer screaming at the top of his lungs at the trail facility. Huh. Okay.

Trail ride!

My goal, as it is on all trail rides with this horse since his injury, was to make it around alive and have him be sound the next day. TC is super good on the trails, he's really not afraid of much out there (bikes are okay, dogs are okay, people running probably have treats and let's intimidate them with friendliness) but he just gets AMPED out there. I think if he had his way, he'd gallop the whole time. I think he overestimates his abilities and how paranoid I am about his suspensory.

So I, on the other hand, like to walk on the trails. I mostly like to play games on my phone while my horse plods along. I also really like taking my DSLR out there and taking prettier pictures from behind the ears than I can with my phone. So basically I want a mobile tripod out there.

A lady with a white horse was in the parking lot when we pulled in and my horse came screaming out of the trailer. TC, being rather dark for his age, convinces people to say hilarious things like "it's so great that you're taking your three year old out on the trails, its really good for him" and then I have to say "um no he is coming seven, he's just a bit emotionally stunted." Everyone also thought he was an Andalusian. No, he's too bouncy to be one of those. I was told that I should find a good chiropractor.

Climbing the first hill

TC pranced all the way to the first gate and then most of the way up the first hill. I had to lecture a cyclist who was going to pass me without warning me, which sent TC leaping off the trail. I don't expect people to not ride their bikes or walk their dogs or hike out there, but giving me a warning when you're going to zip by me is really helpful. That way I can make sure TC has good bicycle experiences. And sure enough, by the end of the trail ride, he wasn't spooky at all with them.

We finally got a quiet moment as we finished climbing the first big hill. He stopped at the top and I took it in. I am riding my horse on the trails! This view is so beautiful! He finally settled! We're going to have a great ride!

Then I turned him to keep going down the trail and he said no, so I literally just barely touched him with the whip. And he jumped straight up into the air and launched forward into a leap-y canter. I stopped him and got him settled, then he started getting all nutty again so I hopped off for some ground work. It seemed to do the trick and he was pretty settled for a long while.

I never asked him for those minutes
of trot or those 4 seconds of leaping ugh

Hello silicon valley (well, a bit south of there)

We made it over the bridge that TC sometimes hates pretty easily. He was fine going onto the bridge but thought about not walking off of it for a second. Silly animal. We then passed a couple with two dogs. They told me my horse was beautiful so I said their dogs were cute. They said "trade you!" and I said "he's been bad so be careful, I might take you up on that." TC must have heard because for about 45 minutes after that interaction, he became very pleasant.

There were cows in the next field, we passed a herd of them while walking up the hill. As we began the long walk back down, we passed some more people and a couple of them on bikes. By this point, TC couldn't give two fucks about bikes or people. He did give a small fuck when a cow moved and he realized that all the rocks/mounds he was seeing were actually alive.

Whoa, cows!

All seemed very good. Then we saw a horse way ahead of us. TC decided that screaming his face off and catching up to that horse was very important. I told him no, and to calm his tits. He didn't agree with me and let his tits run wild. We wrestled down the hill until we got to a short uphill part and he was about to absolutely lose his SHIT. So I got off and we did some ground work. It was the safest thing to do because there were a TON of people on the trail hiking all around us and he didn't seem to give a shit about mowing them down to get to the horse.

After a lot of ground work, he was feeling better and for about five minutes I had a really good pony who walked on a long rein. Then we got passed by a horse going the other way. This actually worked out well for us, because TC knew there was a horse ahead of us and behind us and he didn't know what to do. He got agitated but he just kept walking pretty quietly, as if he was trying to figure out whether to gallop off toward the horse ahead of us or spin and gallop to the horse behind us. It held him in a bit of limbo until he calmed himself down.

The views up there are so beautiful

Hello work, across those mountains in the distance

Finally we made it to the end of the trail ride and he was marching happily back to the trailer. By the end I had enough fun to make me want to trail ride him again as soon as possible. As annoying as he can be out there, he's fundamentally pretty good on the trails. Not spooky or nervous, just excited and I mean, it's not his fault that his excitement makes me want to drop him off with the herd of cows and hike home. Once as it becomes a more normal thing for him to do, I'm sure he'll chill out. Just like he has in new places.

So hopefully Friday (which I have off) and maybe Monday (which I also have off yay), I'll get him out on the trails again. And every time we go out, he'll get a little bit better and soon I will have my mobile tripod who I can ignore while I play on my phone and take pretty pictures. Until then, it's just miles.