Endless Road Walking

Sure enough, this week proved to be my own personal worst case scenario with having TC at the ranch. We had a huge atmospheric river at the beginning of last week, then five days of really nice weather, wherein the arena did let us ride for three days, and now this week we have another storm. 

I didn't care toooo much about not being on the ball figuring out where to haul to this last week. It was a bit of a busy week for me anyway. The ranch arena became rideable on Friday and we had some nice rides through the weekend. 

On the days we didn't haul out, I road walked the horses. They could not be different in their attitudes toward road walking and toward puddles. They have similar attitudes toward pigs, though, which surprised me. 

It was a beautiful walk the other day

TC thinks road walking is stupid. The only road he likes is the access road, which is too muddy to ride down. I had him go further down the actual road and he thought that was garbage. He was also pretty shocked that clicker training wasn't happening too often on the walk. I did bring it and we did some work shifting his weight, but I mostly just kind of wandered down the road and back. 

What he does like about road walking though, is the puddles. He LOVES puddles. He dragged me to every single one to play in them. He'd lip the water, paw, fling his head in it, and nibble at the grass under it. I'd be changing the music on my phone and suddenly be yanked forward, like a child riding a pony in a field, and his head would be on the ground and he'd be dragging me to a puddle. 

TC really likes the pigs, there are three in one of the pastures we walk by and sometimes they are out. On one of our road walking days, they were out and TC thought they were just great. He stared at them for a bit and then we continued down the road, but about eight steps away, he turned back around and wanted to go watch them again. It took me quite a bit to get him back to the barn because he kept wanting to go hang out with the pigs. 

Playing in a puddle

Sunny, on the other hand, would like to petition to only be road walked for the rest of his life. He is so chill and happy on the road. He likes going all the way down to the end of the road and then all the way back. He even took my niece all the way down the road on Friday!

Puddles though? You mean water jumps? I tried to get him to walk into a puddle and because it's been a while since I had a puddle aversive horse, I was genuinely shocked when he said no. TC has ruined me for puddle hesitancy. I tried to coax him through it and he waffled a bit, then sat back and jumped over it. As fun as that was, it was a bit slippery on the other side of the puddle, so I gave up.

Sunny was HILARIOUS with the pigs, probably the first time I've laughed harder on him than on TC, who is constantly doing ridiculous things that make me laugh. At first, Sunny seemed nervous about the pigs, but he kept approaching them. I was wondering if he was just doing it for me, but then remembered what horse I was on. Sunny and I have a business relationship vs TC who would be the kind of friend who would constantly be telling you that he'd die for you to the point where you felt really uncomfortable. 

Slowly it became apparent that Sunny ADORES the pigs. It escalated to the point where he dragged me all the way up to the fence where a pig was standing and Sunny yanked the reins out of my hands. I thought he was diving for grass but instead he smushed his little pony nose up against the pig's ears and back. It took a LOT to get him to leave the pigs alone and go back to the barn. So ridiculous. 

Watching the pigs

So, it's been what I expected this winter so far. Kind of annoying, but I have had a lot of time at home to get through my to do list, do all my Christmas shopping (well, almost), and deal with some jobs that are getting closer to offers. I'm still exploring all of my hauling out options and will hopefully figure out something that works well soonish. 

For now though, I'm just enjoying the free time and feeling very grateful that both TC and Sunny are so good on the roads in the winter!