Ride A Good Horse

Oh man, it's been way too long since I've ridden.

We got to the barn around 1:30 on Saturday, went to go catch them and Red had no halter on - no biggy, he's good and will follow me down. Spirit was a bit harder to catch as usual but he did good, too. We got about halfway down and I hear very loud hoofbeats, got my horse in the corner and said, "Oh dang." 

In short, we kinda almost got trampled and it was pretty nerve-wracking. Mom finally just unclipped Spirit's lead and he promptly galloped off to buck and play. But of course - where is my horse?

Casually chilling behind me with a bite full of grass and drooling on my boot because of clover drool.

Reason 439579459435 why I love Red: He doesn't go crazy. Like, ever. 

Even when we had to basically run up a pretty steep hill because the other route was blocked by a knocked down tree, Red just slow jogged up it at my pace and was so good.

I walked him down to the barn while mom wrangled Spirit again, got him settled and tied while R built more stalldoors and he wasn't fazed by the loud drill or the little girl in there. Got my tack, wiped off my saddle because it was disgusting (Mold, I hate you.) and groomed/fly sprayed while I actually shivered because it was cold outside yesterday in that barn, man.

The cuteness!

Once we got done we just stood out there with everyone else while A finished tacking up Jericho, her mustang, and trying to find a pair of reins. Jericho was a rescue and has been off work for over a year because of a really bad abscess, not to mention he's very spirited and very green and last time she rode him, he reared straight up and almost flipped over. A wanted to go on a ride with him when we were all there just in case, plus Red and Spirit are great "pick-up" horses so to speak and we knew we could rely on both boys to be good if she needed help.

We did a lot of sitting because we were the first ones to tack up.

Lots of napping.

Then we headed out. Red was definitely full of energy yesterday but wasn't bad at all. He hasn't been ridden in awhile and I haven't taken him on the trails for a few months so I knew he'd be fresh but he was very, very easy to manage. I think if it had of just been me and mom, he would've been perfect. There were a few moments that he was sassy but as always, a quick firm "No" settled him down and he got over himself in a few seconds every time.

We started off in the more crowded part and I let him do some jogging up the slight hill because he couldn't race up it (Jericho was in front and I definitely didn't want to get him going) which is a good workout for both of us, anyways. Passed a few cars and people picking food in the fruit & berry patches. Red saw a baby and a little boy and got excited to be loved on, as usual.

Hurro, human.

We went all through the fruit & berry patch and through some different trails we haven't been on before. His only issue was when Spirit had to stop so mom could grab a hat off the ground that was A's (she had dropped it the day before) because Spirit's the only one who does really good with a rider dismounting and then mounting again, he doesn't run off or act silly. Red didn't see Spirit behind him but he did see the other horses in front leaving him and I had to do a quick circle with him and remind him that Spirit was right there and then he saw him and was fine. I think he got Patches, the other App, and Spirit confused because he hates Patches and loves Spirit and kept going to Patches then acting like, "Wait..why am I here?" and going to Spirit, haha!

When we went through the wood trail, there was another tree knocked down and AM (English rider, did dressage/jumping) had fun with Annabelle, her TB, and jumped it a few times. I let Red hop over it but jumping is definitely not either of ours thing so it was clumsy, but hey, we got over it. Spirit had fun it with it, though.

Red, by far, has the biggest booty.

We did a lot of jogging. Red isn't fat but he is definitely out of shape. He did fine with everything and kept up better than most of the others with the hills and trotting and etc, but he could use a lot more muscle, especially on his chest and hindquarters. I took advantage of any hills there and let him jog up it, slowed him down a lot up them and my abs hurt, man.

I did let him trot on over to the goats because he gets so excited and he knows when we're getting close because his ears go straight up and he starts getting a pep in his step. He was behaving and giving them a happy look but didn't push me right to them so I let him loose for a minute and everyone laughed at him. I let loose of my reins for a minute just to see what he'd do and mom wanted to see how he'd act just by himself and he literally side-passed over to them and started trying to herd them around. Whyyyyy he doesn't side-pass when I ask him is beyond me because pony's got some good moves with them goats.

Unexcited Red leaves goats behind with a sigh.

 

We went on home shortly after. They were all a lot quicker going home but Red and Spirit weren't being terrible with it. No trotting, just very happily walking, haha! Jericho did start acting up at that point and scared us a bit with his little mini rears. When he rears, he typically goes big. We got them out the gate and in the 4 acre pasture and they all wanted to race. Red wasn't good at the gate at first so I had to give him a pop with my over & under whip and he went on through. I think he was stressed because we typically don't go through that gate/Jericho was flipping in the pasture. Mom and I just stood still while A got Jericho settled and finally he went on down and we let Spirit and Red walk down. I dismounted early like always. I would've ridden home but by then the horses were all kind of fidgety down there and didn't want Red to be in the middle of it with me on his back.

Selfies with a sleepy Redman.

Farrier's coming on the 24th, not sure when our next ride will be. The meeting for the rezoning is on the 22nd and if they don't tell us to wait a few days for it to process then we'll try to get a trailer quick to get them home so we won't have to pay another month of board and it won't be freezing cold by the time we get them home.