Pleasant company

I answered the phone this morning and received a cheerful invitation to tag along on a 4-H trail ride. Hmmmm....

The plan was to do a big swing through the pheasant ranch, passing right by the farm coming and going, so all I had to do was be ready at noon.

The main question for me, given the wind gusting along from 15-30 mph, was what kind of ride would I have. I finally decided that given a group of calm Quarter Horses, I probably wouldn't die. So I said yes. And proceeded to sweat my way through the next several hours, coming very close to not going.

I don't know why, but trail rides someplace strange and new don't freak me out. Trail rides moving along at a good steady trot - not a problem. Riding where I have a job to do (moving cows, etc.) seldom bothers me.

Trail rides close to home, and walk-walk-walking seriously bother me.

And a good stiff wind didn't help matters any.

I caught Sunny, who was taking a nap, and saddled his sleepy self. Then I debated...

• Option A: Ride down the road to meet everyone - and somebody's always late, so I'd inevitably wind up down at the starting point next to a bunch of strange horses and trailers, trying to get an antsy horse to stand still...
• Option B: Wait at the end of the driveway and get on a snorty, blowy, excited pony when they got there...
• Option C: Ride around until I could see they'd started, and ride to meet them.

I elected to go with C. And Sunny in the driveway was for 15 minutes or so contentedly plodding around, ignoring the wind and all of the tiny little seedpods blowing down out of the cottonwood trees - between the seeds and the fluff, it looked like snow and felt like sleet. Eventually, I could see bodies moving in my direction, so we moseyed their way.

It's taken me a while, but I've worked out a strategy that most of the time keeps us out of trouble. One, find a spot where Sunny's not going to be crowded inviting him to kick someone. Two, make sure that spot is near horses that completely ignore him; if they ignore him, he reciprocates. Three, let him look at whatever he wants on a loose rein, as long as he's going the speed I want, and isn't fussing. And four, try to breath.

He was a bit jiggy as soon as I turned him to join the group, but I solved that by sticking him alongside the two lead horses and letting him walk without grabbing at him. The illusion of being in front usually slows him down just slightly, and up there all I have to worry about is being run into from behind or having him spook at something and jump into the horse next to him.

Thankfully, Sunny is not, in general, a spook. And even with the wind blowing at us so hard it was difficult to hear, he walked along without doing a single one of those horrid slidey skating stops some of them are so good at.

For the most part, it was a good ride - he wanted to go fast a couple of times, and got snotty when I made him bend instead of letting him go charging away across country. One crowhop got him one swift whack on the shoulder with the flat of my hand - he knows better! and that was the worst of it.

By far my biggest worries were having him start something and cause a wreck with one of the kids - there were three grade school kids riding, one just out of kindergarten, and the other two probably in mid-elementary somewhere, as well as a couple of older teens, one of whom is NOT a rider - or having one of the others spook, and being part of a chain reaction. (I should say, all of the kids had one or more adult accompanying except the two teenagers, and everyone, horses included, had excellent trail manners.)

Anyway, we rode for about an hour and a half, and other than that one snorty bit, and the occasional jig, Sunny behaved himself very well. We passed or crossed the following potentially scary things: 2 kennels full of barking dogs, 7 running deer (multiple times, as we kept spooking them out in front of us), a large expanse of bright white gravel surrounding two large white tanks making funny noises in the wind, a black plastic bag flapping away industriously, and multiple large rocks, badger holes, rabbits, pheasants, etc. All of which have been known to terrify horses I've ridden at one time or another.

Yes, he looked around more than the QHs. And yes, the bit of jigging was more than any of them did. However, he didn't spook at anything, including the plastic bag - which was next to us and less than four feet away when we passed it. And although he was part of a group, he was the only horse in the bunch that did not have a known companion along to provide reassurance.

Sorry - no pictures. I wanted both hands free just in case.

Feeling Brave

It was a beautiful afternoon - 70's, light breeze, not too many bugs. And quite honestly, I was bored going round in circles. So I opened the gate and out we went. I wasn't sure how far we'd get - maybe weaving between the cottonwoods lining the drive. But Sunny still felt good underneath me, so after a few minutes of waffling, off we went.

We walked the few hundred yards up to were the fenceline divides the farm from the neighbor's pheasant hunting fields. They'd mowed last fall, and there are lovely, grassy, car-width trails winding around about a mile square area quartered by a four-way intersection smack in the middle. It's great for riding, and I figured I'd at least have a soft landing should I part ways unexpectedly.

Sunny's familiar with it, although it's been a while, but when he stepped out nicely onto the grass, I asked him for an easy trot - walking is just asking for trouble. For about a half mile he jogged along on a loose rein, which was great. And in fact, other than a couple of understandable sidesteps when pheasants exploded up from under his feet, he was doing great. We even had a nice canter up the little hill.

Unfortunately, as we bent around the curve that takes you off toward the road and a crossing to the next section, he got squirrelly. I think, had we had company, he'd have been fine, and had I really gotten after him, he'd have been fine. But I wasn't quite that brave. We did circles until he decided to focus a bit better, but he didn't want to come back to me, and the circles bulged increasingly hard toward home. And then there were deer, and bagfuls of small, really annoyed birds - hopefully we didn't upset any nests!

After a bit it was pretty clear I wasn't really accomplishing anything, he just kept getting more anxious (oh, for a really, really, really long hill climb to send him up!), so we did half-halts until I got a good whoa, and I got off.

I circled him some more on the ground, and then we meandered back toward home for a ways. He didn't pull, didn't try to run me over, but he had that anxious look around his eyes. After we got through the longer grass, away from where we kicked up the deer, I got back on - he stood nicely on a loose rein - and we practiced making some more big round circles. Then we walked home. Any time he wanted to go faster, we did some more circles.

So I copped out and got off. But on the plus side, I got back on. I suspect a big part of him getting high was my fault, because I was almost expecting him to try to take off for home once we turned.

Anxious rider, anxious horse.

And once I was holding him back, that just made things worse. I do need him to come back to me, but I also want to keep that lovely, forward going horse who moves right out with his ears up and minimal contact.

And bigger picture? He was happy to go. Not one whinny, not one balky step. The first half and the last quarter of the ride went great.