While we were waiting for a clear path to his stall/halter/freedom in general, BM stuck her head out and asked her two tiny lesson kiddos if they wanted to start their lesson with a trail ride. Tiny kiddos said yes, and I invited myself along with the bareback Dopie King.
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| he is so very short, but already so very wide. |
Opie happily marched along in the lead, traversing a new to him field and a family of hidden Christmas tree shoppers without a care in the world. His one bugaboo appears to be the sight of other horses turned out. I'm not sure why this is very confusing to him as I know he got wintered at a large farm during his racing career, but it's consistently been the one thing he needs a lead to get past. All it takes is another horse continuing to walk and he'll follow--or another horse throwing a tantrum into the side of him to distract him, Ralph--but it definitely blows his little dappled mind.
When we got back, BM asked what the weather was going to be like for Sunday. It was forecasted as 50* and sunny, but sometimes it says that and it turns into 35* and raining and I've chucked horses out naked. Sorry, ponies. I'm glad you're all fat and fluffy. We lucked out though, and were on for a trail exploration BM had been wanting to try for awhile.
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| strolling down the neighboring farm's driveway |
BM was on her personal horse and K joined us on Oz--both seasoned pros of trail riding and road riding in particular. Things started off auspiciously when BM's horse began crossing the first main road, realized we weren't directly behind him, and started throwing a tantrum in the middle of the road. At that point traffic around The World's Busiest Christmas Tree Farm was still relatively light so there was only one minivan with a tree strapped to their hood that had to stop and wait for the four year old to march across and take over the lead. Again.
It wasn't long until we hit the edge of the tree farm and started hearing people among the trees...with chainsaws and handsaws and loud, hidden voices. Opie was initially startled by these hidden, lurking humans and twitched a little before stopping and letting Secret take back over the lead.
Secret was like, "Whatever, I seriously do not care about hidden humans. Seems like I good time to throw a tantrum and buck at passing traffic!" Which also upset Oz who agreed with Opie that these monsters in the trees were something very fucking suspicious indeed.
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| a less populated part of the tree farm, though i'm pretty sure that's oz about to take his fiftieth nervous poop. |
Kudos to BM and K for telling their horses to get on with their lives and stop being naughty children because I probably would have called it. Instead, I was busy scratching Opie's withers and telling him he was a good boy while he gave the hairy eye to a parked cart with a tree in it.
And that's it. He didn't do anything more than stare in confusion at the swarm of activity surrounding at least a hundred cars and milling people as we passed by. He kept walking on a loose rein beside a deep drainage ditch, happy to be in front or behind or squashed into the side of someone. He waited patiently for a clear moment to cross the road again, and then plodded along while Secret and Oz power walked ahead.
If someone needed a lead, he gave it. If someone got antsy and wanted to charge ahead, he let them go by without ever changing pace.
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| now entering foreign territory. we have crossed the county line. |
The only problems we had were nearly slipping on someone's freshly sealed driveway, and running into one obnoxious pony and donkey pair at a farm we were passing. The temptation was too much and Opie called out once before jigging for all of thirty seconds until they were out of sight. Whoa, stallion. Don't get too crazy.
Once we reached the county line, we called it good and decided to head back. We tried to get a selfie in front of the sign, but I'm not coordinated enough to use my phone that well. Instead, right as we gave up, one of BM's friends drove by and--being a fellow crazy horse person--parked her car and hopped out to grab a picture for us!
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| opie is all, "what is my life." |
Secret particularly was pumped that we were heading home and opened up a whole new walk gear. Opie did not understand the concept and was very, very tired after his longest ride yet. Probably of his entire life. He figured out that he could walk slowly and occasionally burst forth into the trot for a dozen strides to catch up before walking slow again.
He did, however, occasionally break out the Zenyatta walk which instantly made me make loud, girlish noises and point dramatically down at him while telling BM and K to LOOK AT MY HORSE. I will have to find a way to get this on camera so you can be suitably impressed. It may involve putting game cams up around future trails. Worth it.
Our second trip past The World's Busiest Christmas Tree Farm was slightly less dramatic. There was no bucking into traffic (Secret), but much jigging by both of the older gentleman. Opie tried their tactic a few times, but was much too tired to get behind it. Instead we trailed them on a looped rein at a steady walk while I slumped lazily and thought about how incredibly comfortable fancy saddle is.
Back on home turf, Oz had a sudden fit of anger and lunged at Opie who scooted forward out of the way in confusion. I kicked him into the lead to give Grumpy his space, which worked fine until we hit a huge puddle and Opie slammed on the brakes to take a drink break.
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| will give side eye to anyone for judging him |
I let the poor kid have a long graze when we got back before turning him out and laced his handful of peppermints with a gram of Bute. We covered six miles in two hours which is fairly glacial, but it was all road riding--obviously we were on the grassy shoulder for the majority of it, but certainly different from cushy indoor ring footing.
Today's grand plans include giving him his first clip and washing his tail if it's not too cold. Very exciting stuff.
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