New Years Day Ride

Happy New Year!  Our barn has a new years ride every year and some years I go and some years I don't go.  This year I went, just me-Jim stayed at home with a foot injury.   The riders at the barn decided to split up into groups, I had 3 in my group and it changed to just 2.  That was fine with me.  The other horse was Sky and I go out with Sky and rider all the time.
Today Zoe was in a hurry and didn't like following Sky at a trot.  She thought he was going too slow.  Sky's rider suggested putting Zoe in front, but I wanted Zoe to deal with it-so I opted to stay in back.   (This is weird-Zoe wanting to go faster than the horse in front-usually Zoe is the slow one of the group) We tried trotting several different times and as each time went by, Zoe got better.  She also spooked at a few things, not sure what that was about.  We met another rider from the barn on the way out.  Willie's rider waited for us and fell in line behind us.  Zoe didn't mind the horse behind her.  She really doesn't know that horse.  When we split from Willie, Zoe was worried about the horse that left.  She got over it.  I finally put Zoe in front, now she was in no hurry-and by this time it was obvious that we were headed home.  She was cautious.   On the way home we met a nice mountain bike rider.  He wanted to know the quickest way to the lake.  We gave him directions.  He said his wife was out riding her horse so he wanted to ride his bike.  They are from Santa Cruz.  He knew he had to give the right of way to the horses.  In fact he was the leader of a mountain bike group in Santa Cruz and regularly set up workshops for mountain bikers and equestrians so that the horses would get used to bikers and encourage communication between the 2 groups.  It was nice to meet such a knowledgeable and courteous mountain biker.  Zoe was fine to stop and talk for a while.  Sky...well he had seen 2 horses on the trail ahead of him and thought he should catch up with them.  So he didn't stand still, but his rider just put him to work...circles and figure 8's are wonderful.   He calmed down when we got going, the other horses were out of site by then.  Nice ride-a few things to work thru and both horses ended up listening to the riders.