Using His Brain

I headed out to see TC on Friday morning fairly early so that I could get up to the Western States Horse Expo to meet my parents and approve of a saddle for Rico. I was glad that I got to see him, as I wasn't sure if I'd make it, since it was a lot little out of my way.

Look at that hippo!

I asked if I could come out (something I always do out of courtesy but they're nice about basically always saying yes) and I was told that I could see TC swim again!!I've seen TC swim once before and he just loves it. I'm so glad that it worked out after the fiasco that was trying to keep TC in the aquapacer.

When I got there, I had about twenty minutes to stuff him full of carrots before the guys came to get him for the pool. Once again, I forgot his brushes, ugh, but I didn't have a ton of time anyway. I made him do his tricks and told him that he was almost done with living in the box with no friends and no fun except his swimming and trotting for what I think is probably now longer than ten minutes.

Resting a foot, whaaat?

Someone came to get him and I followed. TC was MUCH better than last time. Before they swim the horses, they hose them down because it's less of a shock to their system getting in the pool and it prevents so much dust from getting into the pool.

Last time I was there, he spooked pretty big walking over there, and then stood ready to GTFO if something went wrong while they hosed him down. This time, he quietly walked over there, stood quietly tied, and even COCKED A FOOT while they were getting him ready. He spooked once and didn't even hit anything before stopping.

Let me tell you why that is relevant- he's a flighty little thing and almost always needs something to get in his way before he gets his brain back after spooking. This could be a human yanking on his face, a fence in his way, or pulling back and hitting the end of the lead rope. But this spook, nothing got in his way to make him stop. He spooked like he always does, but then stopped spooking without smashing into the fence, getting smacked by the guy working with him (they don't smack him but I would), or pulling back and hitting the end of the rope. He just used his brain.

Getting ready to go swim, can't wait to get ahold
of that upside down neck

Ugh his hair

Swimming was great! He was much quieter about the whole thing, just going in, doing his job, and quietly coming out. A lot of the time the horses come out amped and shoot out of the pool (TC did last time), but TC just quietly walked out. He even stayed quiet when a horse in the eurociser he was being lead by was leaping and biting the fence trying to get it to go faster than an amble. I genuinely wondered if he was sick for a few minutes.

TC got in his eurociser and seemed more relaxed about it too. He was still up against the front of it and I saw him bite it a few times because it wasn't going fast enough. Nothing like the cute little quarter horse type who was walking juuuust forward enough to not get his butt smacked by it. But it wasn't as frantic, he wasn't waiting back and then cantering forward and shaking his head to catch up, he wasn't as smashed against the front as he was last time.

Does this mean the magnesium is working? Or is he just getting used to everything? Or the trotting is calming him down? Or he was particularly bad the first time I saw him and particularly good this time? I don't know and I don't care. I just took it that this one day was a good day and I can't wait to get my pony home.

He even lets them hose his feet (and pick them
from both sides)

I headed out before he came off the eurociser. Not before heading to his stall and stacking the rest of his carrots against the wall where he had dismantled his feeder. I wish I could have stayed for him to come off the eurociser so I could have hung out with him more, but like I said Friday, I'm going to see him every day for a long long time (hopefully), so making myself miss him a bit just makes me feel more positive about him coming home.

After a lot of traffic, I completed my 4+ hours of driving that day (well, thirty minutes more waited me that night) and arrived at Horse Expo.

Resting a foot again!

After swimming, going in the eurociser

The first day of expo was only a half day because of TC. I wasn't really planning on going on Friday but my parents were going and we're still shopping for a saddle for my mom to use on Rico. I'm the picky one with the saddle fit, so I went to help them find something.

We went through each booth but I rejected a lot of saddles. Rico is fit now, which is good for him, but if we get something that is custom fit to him now, it won't fit him when I'm not riding him. I suggested a treeless saddle, but my mom said they were hideous. I'm also skeptical about them so that was fine.

We landed at this one place, with weird looking endurance saddles (only 13lbs!). They had trees built for gaited horses, so they were better suited to Rico's back, but then under the tree rather than having regular panels, there were foam panels that could be removed by velcro. They had little inserts you could put wherever the horse lacked muscle to change the fit of it. My mom loved the way it felt to sit in, so we wrote everything down and made tentative plans to haul Rico up closer to the lady so that she could fit him and teach me how to change it for later when he isn't as fit! I'm excited since TC will soon take Rico's saddle (and it will have to be changed to fit him), and I actually didn't hate this saddle. Not going to be easy to do dressage in, but it certainly beats riding him bareback on the trails.

Obviously we got a whinny, he's got to be loud
and obnoxious no matter what

The bulk of Expo will be covered in tomorrow's post, because on Saturday, after epic pony sleepover round two, I went with Peony and L!

Four More Visits?!

A very good thing happened yesterday. I sat and worked on my thesis all day and made massive headway, which felt great! A bad thing also happened yesterday in that I kept myself off blogger not remembering that I hadn't finished/scheduled this post! Oh well, not like very much interesting really happens in my life.

So cute!

On Friday I somehow managed to shove a visit to TC (five hours round trip) into my schedule by getting up early to ride a client's horse, then heading over there, then zipping across the bay to ride another horse and teach lessons. Worth it, I love my baby horse.

Once on the road, I realized that I had forgotten his brushes. Oh well. I still stopped to get him carrots and an apple for us to share.

I can't wait to get a hold of that mane

On Thursday I had tortured Rico and Riot with bombproofing using an umbrella and a tarp. Rico surprised me by being nervous about the umbrella at first, but eventually was fine with it. He was totally fine with the tarp except that he didn't like it dragging on the ground. I felt a million times better about TC that day, because TC let me drag it behind him and next to him no problem, and Rico snorted and skittered sideways away from it.

I brought the umbrella with me to TC because I have a death wish to see how he'd respond to it. Honestly, he handled it better than I expected after what Rico thought of it. I'm glad I worked with Rico on Thursday since he is a horse I'd consider to be as bombproof as they get, but he was nervous about it, so it let me lower my expectations quite a bit for TC.

Extremely tolerant 

Riot took longer to feel okay about the umbrella

Wrapped him up like a present!

The nice thing about bombproofing TC in the stall is that he can't get away from it and has to wrap his little brain around what is happening to him without escaping (that makes me sound like a horrible person, oh well). The bad thing is that obviously this might not translate to when he's in the arena and something spooks him since he can get away. But I'm operating under the hopeful assumption that anything will help him.

He was not bad about the umbrella when it was stationary- open or closed. But when it changed from closed to open or from open to closed, scary! He didn't calm down as quickly as Rico did, and never let me open it anywhere close to him, but he only slammed himself against the wall once.

So cute

The owners came to talk to me real quick and asked me to please not die on their property when they saw the umbrella. I get the feeling that they think he's kind of insane. I don't blame them after having to deal with him at the start of his rehab, I mean that's why he's there! I don't know how much he's trotting, but I think he was at 5 minutes each direction with a walk break in between.

I had ordered supplements from Smartpak- just more MSM and I'm switching him from the Mag 5000 to SmartCalm. He needs two scoops of the Mag 5000 so it's cheaper to do one scoop of the SmartCalm. The SmartCalm also has other stuff in it that might help as well. I fully acknowledge that putting him on a calming supplement is more for my mental health than his, hence trying to be cost effective about it. After this I might try Quiessence if the SmartCalm doesn't seem to help.

I think I'll be switching to smartpaks eventually too, I'm going to have the guys feed him his grain every day when he comes home so that he always gets it. I'm lucky that he doesn't need water added, so I figured I'd just put everything in a bag and they can just dump a bag into his grain bucket. But smartpaks mean that I don't have to obsess over how much grain is set up. We'll see, I want to go through most of his supplements first of course.

He's so awkward, but I think once as he gets some more muscle
on him, maybe his head will look a bit smaller...

We're so close to being done with this rehab shit! I kept trying to tell him that. After riding this weekend at my new barn (that's what happens when rumors go around that a) you're coming back to the barn and b) you're currently semi-part-not-quite-employed), I'm getting excited to bring him back. I love my barn, I love the people there, and I can't wait to be there every day!

It was so fun to ride there. I got to ride in a full size dressage court- first time in a VERY long time, actually possibly the first time since I was in it on TC back in November. I need some practice riding in it again... and I got to ride with mirrors! I can count on one hand the number of times I've used mirrors in the last year and a half. I love riding with mirrors, and I didn't look as awful as I thought I was going to.

I think TC and I are going to have a fun summer there! Hopefully four more visits until TC COMES HOME. WHAT? I can't believe I can say that.

Ponies and Beer and Tacos

On Monday, it turned out that L was going to be just a little bit up the road from Rico and I, so we made arrangements for her to come by the ranch! It actually worked out well that I've been riding Rico more, since now he's at least fit enough for a fun shortish ride vs a quick pony ride.

One of them had more fun than the other

When she got there, we went right up to get Rico, no time to waste!

I had been nice and told her to bring her saddle. Having ridden Ramone both in my saddle and hers, I desperately preferred mine- not because hers is uncomfortable, but my knees feel like they were up by my ears- I could imagine it'd go the other way. Nothing like riding a horse trained in a completely different discipline AND having to fight my saddle's blocks at the same time.

Luckily her magic saddle that fits all horses fit Rico, and after throwing white polos on (for optimal dressage fanciness), and the pelham on my snaffle bridle, she hopped on.

Rico can be ridden in any bit, but he goes really well in the pelham and always has. I don't have the wheymouth he likes, and as I said on Tuesday, he actually is going well in the one he doesn't like but he gets behind the leg easier and I knew he'd be lazy for L no matter what. He goes well in the snaffle too, but you really have to get on his case about lightness/roundness and I just felt like this ride was more for L playing with Rico's tricks and less about making her trot on a 20m circle and get my dumb horse off his forehand.

Rico the jumping horse?

The best horse

L has been the first person to come see/ride Rico from the blogosphere, meaning she first "met" him on my blog, which is interesting. I was really hoping Rico would be good for her, not that he's ever bad, he's just sometimes lazy. I was also interested to get her take on him. He's quite trained and very willing, but he's a totally different ride than Ramone and Carlos and trained in a totally different discipline.

The first thing she said when she swung up on him was that he was SUPER wide and called him an overgrown Thelwell pony. That is super accurate. The horse has withers but his lungs spring like no other. You'd think that'd mean there was lots of room for his lungs but the way the horse breathes when he works a little bit, it's very likely that his stomach takes up much of that room.  And his heart, awww. 

Tempis!

Expressive upward transitions

We wandered around the arena and Rico immediately knew that an educated butt was on him. Rico tries to decipher who is on him to determine how much he can get away with not doing. He's always willing, and that's what I adore about him, but he wants to know right away whether he can slack a little bit.

I told L just a few things about him- first, if you teach him that you'll nag him, you'll have the same problems I had two years ago where he'll randomly halt in your work. Second, if you trot before you canter him, he will feel like a broken down crippled horse.

So after the walk, we cantered. And that's when Rico was SUPER confused. L's aids were slightly off for him because of the stirrup length I think so he had no idea what she wanted and kept offering passage instead of canter. He's like I know you're educated and want me to do things but I don't know what you want so here, have this shitty passage.

Finally she cantered him around for warm up and we did a couple single flying changes. Rico has great changes so it's just a matter of keeping him forward before and after and keeping his neck on straight so that you get the response you want. He'd rather do changes than counter canter, so he waits for an aid that sort of seems like a change aid and he's on it.

More tempis, Rico would like to do them as slow as possible

Cantering really helped Rico figure out L's aids, he's a smart horse and does want to be good so he tries to adapt himself to other people to the best of his ability. He still keeps the effort minimal, but he doesn't actively work against his rider, which is something I just adore about him. I feel like it speaks the tiniest bit to my training as well that someone else can just hop on him and school a bunch of the Grand Prix movements.

Back in walk for a bit we talked about piaffe and passage.

I had brought down my driving whip and bamboo to help L get the feel of it, and to get Rico putting a little more effort into them. He's a little uneven in the passage these days and isn't sitting much in the piaffe, which is totally fine, but it'd be nice to improve them a tiny bit whenever I have a good rider on his back.

We started in piaffe and Rico mistook the aid a little bit and reared (woops, but his rears are small and L rode it without a problem) before settling into a pretty good piaffe. The passage was fan-fucking-tastic with the bamboo helping him out and L lost a stirrup because it was so big and we both dissolved into giggles agreeing that the passage is the most fun ever. I never want there to be a time where I don't have a fucking awesome passage to ride. Like, TC had better step up his game as Rico edges closer to full retirement. But for now, Rico's passage will do. And it's a great one despite the unevenness right now.

Piaffe, Rico's favorite part is getting told he did a good job

Next up was piaffe and passage transitions, which she rode without too much of my help! Rico isn't easy to ride those on because some dumb person trained him to walk in them because they kept taking their leg off. I told L not to take her leg off but to slide the leg back to piaffe and then forward to passage. She rode it basically as well as Rico was capable of doing it and he complied easily.

After we finished up with that work, we headed into canter again. I told L about the tempi changes- all you need to do is keep him forward and straight in between the changes and he'll do them. She got some 3s and 4s and even got a 2! We also did some school canter, Rico can't quite canter on the spot anymore but he can still get close.

School canter sorta

We finished up with a walk pirouette and some general trot work, where Rico offered his fancy trot (trot + a little passage feeling to get him up in the shoulders). Rico was only a bit sweaty, so we wandered back to the barn and I grabbed Riot in my dressage saddle so that we could walk down the road and back.

Along the road is a wild plum tree, which hasn't managed to kill me yet, so we stopped for some plums and it felt like the ultimate Saddle Club adventure!

After riding, we tasted some of my dad's beer (he's a chemist and he home brews) and then headed out for lunch. I'm not much of a beer drinker but man a cold beer on a hot day after riding was amazing.

Passage

A bit more passage right before a canter transition, he was a bit
uneven so the video didn't turn out that great

For lunch we went to the local seafood place and surprise, ran into a couple of my friends from my new barn. They opted to join us for our lunch. We talked ponies for a LONG time and realized what a small world it was, all of us knowing some of the same people from various times in our life. It's amazing how getting horse people together always turns even the most introverted of people into the chattiest people.

It was such a great day, we're definitely going to have to do it again! And hopefully go on more Saddle Club Trail Ride adventures too. 

Back in the Hills

After how freakishly hot it was on Tuesday, I was inspired to get out on the trail early on Wednesday before heading off to teach lessons. After a slight delay, Rico and I were on the road and headed to Harvey Bear again.

Love this view

I had wanted to go somewhere else, but Harvey Bear is the closest trail facility, it's easy to get there, easy to park/turn around, and I know the loops there really well.

I did at least opt for a different loop than we normally go on. This one was slightly longer and involved a lot more rolling hills. On our last ride we did just over four miles in the hills and then did the two mile loop on flat ground. The loop yesterday was almost six miles, so I figured he could handle it. I know to endurance people six miles isn't much, but Rico is older, has joint problems, and has always struggled with his breathing and endurance.

But he handled it SUPER well and even galloped up the last hill.

We had a great time. We climbed to the top of the first hill and Rico trotted and cantered about half of it. At the top, he quietly turned toward the tree that I like and I had to sort of herd him onto the other trail. He wasn't that curious, since we've been down this way before. Another right, then left turn and we were on a brand new trail (for us) heading down into a valley. He was STOKED.

Such a pretty place, despite being kind of brown

A bit narrow but Rico was fine

I spent the first couple of miles on my phone reading about trail trials, something I recently became interested in doing. I'm so so bummed that the one in the area all year is the same weekend as one of my students' first shows ever (so I very well can't ditch her, my sort-of-working-student isn't even around to coach her on that one day, boo). I briefly contemplated entering and hoping that I could coerce someone to haul Rico over if ride times worked out, but that seemed like a lot of hoping for something that I probably should dedicate a whole weekend to rather than just a few hours.

Trail trials seem super fun though. I love dressage but it can be stressful to me with all the expectations I put on myself. I don't care if we suck at trail trials. I don't know much about them (maybe someone who reads this blog can enlighten me), but based on what I've read, they're basically short trail rides (4-6 miles) with obstacles that you're judged on. Some of it is horse behavior/movements (standing tied, standing when being mounted, leading, etc), some of it is horse tolerance (not being spooky at bikes/strollers/joggers), and some of it is actual obstacles (walking over stuff, opening gates, etc). Rico would rule at this!

But alas, maybe next year, and maybe with TC one day too!

Solid trail horse right here

Heading down to the loop

Rico surprised me a few times by picking up the canter randomly and hauling ass up a hill while I was reading about how horses are judged on their good behavior or looking at the map to make sure I didn't accidentally go on a 20 mile ride. I love that he's so forward out there and clearly enjoys it so much!

We got ourselves onto this tiny trail that I wouldn't have felt comfortable with on the sideways spooker (TC), but Rico just trucked up and around the corners with no problems. At one point he almost careened off a switch back by thinking it didn't turn, woops.

I can really see how cross training and getting this horse to do different things in his life would have been better for him. I don't regret keeping him in a glass case, he very easily could get hurt jumping or trail riding or any of the other fun things I waited to do with him in his retirement. Keeping him safe was what guaranteed (as best as I could have hoped) that I made it to GP on an older soft-tissue-injury-laden animal. But I think in a perfect world, Rico would have done a different thing every day. Trail riding, jumping, fox hunting, driving, sidesaddle, whatever. And sure, a bit of dressage.

 I led him down the final hill to take weight off
his coffins

Rico hates that he's my horse sometimes, look
at that beautifully developed underneck lol

I'm glad we get to do these things now though! Next up, today, is bombproofing day- I want to try a couple of things that I'm planning on torturing TC with when I go see him tomorrow and when he comes home. He should be back in just four short weeks, fingers crossed!

Rico isn't the best to get panoramic shots on but this one turned out pretty good!

Positive Thinking and Plastic Bags

I had some errands to do on Thursday so spent the entire day in the car, boo. But I got to see TC! I headed straight out to the facility after the gym, lunch, and picking up carrots, which got me there just after 2:00. It wasn't as warm as it could have been, although quite warm in the stalls (even TC's water was warm, poor pony, he still drank it no problem though), so the fan was on. Excellent.

Return of the fan desensitization

I brushed TC and he's still shedding, which is kind of ridiculous. It's probably just warm enough out there where he's trying to lose extra hair to cool himself down. He looks really good, good muscle and even a bit of fat on him. The owner of the facility came over and asked me if he was too fat and I said no. He can be a bit of a hard keeper in work so I'm glad he's got a little extra. And they work with so many racehorses that their bit of extra weight is my throw that starving horse some more hay.

We talked about TC a bit, nothing is very interesting with him. He needs more of all his supplements so I ordered them and then cried. The magnesium may or may not be working so I ordered SmartCalm Ultra to see how that will work. Honestly those supplements are mostly for me at this point.

He's trotting 7 minutes now, and he'll make the move to 10 minutes (in two sets of 5 minutes each) probably this week or next. His leg looks good, no swelling and no heat, other than what I manage to convince myself I see/feel. He hasn't had any problems, and is even letting them walk him down to their third walker down below and he hasn't been an asshole about leaving his comfort zone. Well, not too much of an asshole. It's TC, the five year old, very fit, very nervous hippopotamus, of course he's going to be a little bit of an asshole.

He's never going to look not-awkward, is he?

I worked TC a little bit at liberty in the stall, and actually ordered a book about working horses in hand. TC is so in tune with me on the ground, it's really fun but it's also intimidating. I'm not very good at recognizing when I've made a mistake or he's made a mistake. Mostly because I honestly have no idea what I'm doing and I'm just guessing at whether it's correct or not.

Either way, he's so sensitive that I feel like he tells me what is right. At this point, all I have to do is a hand signal and he backs up, turns on the forehand, and he's getting better at yielding the shoulders (like a bad turn on the haunches), which is really important to me since he likes to bulge toward his handler. Mostly I just want him used to focusing on me whenever I'm around, but this is actually getting kind of fun.

I love how fast he learns and have had two separate people (a friend who is a trainer who breaks horses and a client who is into NH and does a lot of rescue rehab) offer to help me on the ground with him and bombproof him. I want to let BRH trainer work with me, but I have a feeling that's going to be mostly riding, so I'm excited to bring a friend out to learn a little more about it. But I have an idea for the next bombproofing lesson: umbrellas. Friend who breaks horses was working with a horse this weekend so I got some ideas.

Want carrots

TC's fan was on so I did some plastic bag desensitization. I was SO proud of him. He might be flighty and strong, but he learns fast and trusts me, at least in the stall. I got almost no reaction out of him while it flew across his stall. He definitely watched it, but more with curiosity than worry. The only time he reacted with anything other than oh this lady and her obsession with plastic bags again was when it flew up and landed on his face. Then he sort of backed up and away from it, then snorted at it when it landed on the ground.

At one point it landed on his body and stayed there. He just did this:

Why mom, why?

I fucking love that look on his face. That's his what the fuck is happening to me look. He stayed calm though, and I even got him to lick and chew. I'm super impressed and immediately wanted to bring him home. Like load him up into my car and let me at this horse. After returning to my comfort zone work-wise (still interviewing, so I won't be teaching this much for long), joining a gym, and riding a LOT, I'm feeling more and more confident about TC and my future.

Instead of running, he just watched it, go pony!

After TC I ran a few errands and then texted L since we had talked about hanging out that night at her barn. I was super hungry so offered to go get us dinner while she battled traffic. I picked up burritos for us and we ate while hanging out with Ramone. I took some pictures of her riding, but I literally have so many fucking pictures to edit, it's bad. So those will come out like way too late because I'm the worst.

After riding Ramone (me in my mud boots and jeans lol but he's a good boy and just went to work), we went to put him away and two little horses had escaped and were having a grand old time galloping around the property. FREEDOM! Oh dear. L threw Ramone in a stall and we both grabbed halters. One horse galloped into the paddock they came from so we locked that one in. The other one we managed to grab when he galloped into a turnout. He was NOT okay with me cornering him but eventually let me catch him.

Quite an adrenaline rush so late in the day!

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!