Brains almost fell out, but we caught them.

While on our ride with Sky today we let some riders pass us up on the trotting trail.  They were headed to the canal trail and were moving at a fast trot.  Zoe was in the lead and was excited after they passed.  A little too excited.  We continued on and turned a different way but she was still excited.  When we got to a big road we did some stop and starts, backs, sidepasses, worked some puddles and her brains finally got back in her head.  Guess I could have done those things a bit earlier and she would have calmed down sooner.  But I'm happy that she did calm down and we could move out at a trot and not worry about breaking into a lope to "catch up" with horses that you can't see anymore.
It was sure nice to get out between all the rain we have been getting.  

My turn, my turn, my turn...

On Monday I stopped at the barn after work to work at the barn.  I showed up just as the person leasing Skippy took her out of her pasture.  He hadn't ridden for 3 weeks due to weather and a back injury.  Zoe had been out but not Skippy.  Now when I stepped on the property, Zoe went nuts.  She was neighing, bucking, running around and carrying on.  She usually neighs when Skippy leaves but doesn't carry on so. I don't know if it was because Skippy finally got out without her or because Skippy got out AND I showed up...maybe she was thinking "don't forget about me, it's my turn too".   So I decided that Zoe could get out...to the round pen.  I didn't have to ask her to move out, she just continued to trot around and around.  I did ask her to change directions.  Skippy and Sky left the property for a trail ride while we were in the round pen.  I just let Zoe get some energy out.  Then we worked on different gaits, roll backs, stopping.  Then I asked her to follow me, which she did.  Then we went out to the arena fence and tied up there while I raked the barn yard.  After I was done with the yard she got her bucket and a brushing.  Then back to her pasture.  In her pasture she just neighed a few times, but was otherwise calm...like normal.  Yup, she got to get out but I'm sure it wasn't what she expected.

Ride after 2 weeks

Finally get to ride after the rains.  No midweek rides last week.  No rides last weekend.  It's almost been 2 weeks.

Wednesday Zoe did good.  We only had time for about 1 1/2 hour ride.  She did spend some time calling, twice on the way out and 4 times on the way back.  But her attitude was good and her feet weren't doing "bad things".  So it went good.

Thursday Zoe and Sky went out together.  We decided to do the canal trail, figuring that with all the rain the lake will fill up and it will be gone soon.  We decided to go longer tho, got on the canal thru the forest, went towards Sterling Pt, but went past it and jumped up to the Pioneer Express Trail and went home on HSB.  The trail had some water in spots but it was all passable.  Sometimes we had to take a  higher trail that ran next to the lower trail...it was in those spots that Zoe said "I don't know about this"  She had to stop and look carefully at the rocks.  But too bad...no backing out now, we were in the lead and she had to go.  So she went.  It was nothing compared to when she was younger and was "scared" of the rocks and wouldn't go forward.   When we got back the GPS said 7.99 miles-really.  Could I make it 8?  I decided to ride to the hitching post...not 8 yet.  Ride around the picnic tables...didn't even have to go all the way around and I got 8 miles.  Maybe it's cheating...but hey, I didn't get off my horse-I was still riding.

Rain

Mom, it's raining and raining and raining and .........

Morning Pictures

This is the barn at 5:30 am

This is the barn at 7 am.

A little more light.  Today all 3 horses got a spa morning.  Since it was windy and spitting rain and the horses would probably not get out all day, the morning spent in the barn seemed like a good idea.  

Mid week rides and practice update

Mid week rides last week were nice.  Wednesday went by myself on the "Mario ride".  There are plenty of us that have things on the trail named after us-it could be a section of the trail, a rock, a tree-but not many of us have a whole ride named after us.  Anyway, Mario really likes this particular ride and often goes on it...hence the name.   Thursday went with a friend and wandered around.  We did some trail exploring.  One of the "explores" turned out to be nothing.  The other one was good-it lead from one trail to another trail.  Zoe does good with exploring in the forest.  I'm not so sure she would do so good in an unfamiliar place, I think she would probably be more wary.
No weekend rides last weekend.
Practicing for the upcoming competition.  The ball seems to be no problem.  I can ride Zoe up to it, push it around, she doesn't care.  The last time we practiced the wind was up so the ball "wandered" around the arena a bit.  She still didn't care.  Neither did Sky.   My ball has a slow leak-maybe.  Today I took it home and used the compressor to blow it back up, put water on it to try and find the hole(s), but no holes.  Maybe I just didn't have the fill up hole shut up completely.  So now it's home I will watch it again and see what happens.
Today we went back to shooting the pellet gun.  It has been a few weeks since we have done this but both horses were fine with it.  So today we practiced walking and shooting at the same time.  I wasn't sure if "moving" feet would give way to "bolting or running" feet.  But both horses did fine.  Next time we will practice with a sound happening after the shooting sound, maybe a ballon will pop after the shot.  I think they will do fine.

Zoe mets...the ball

I bought a large beach ball for an upcoming event.  The horses might have to push a large ball around.  When I first looked at the ball on line it advertised it as 6 1/2 feet tall.  Awesome.  I bought it.  Blown up it's only a little over 4 feet tall.  I went back on line and looked.  Yes the large print advertising the ball said 6 1/2 feet and the small print at the bottom said blown up it was just over 4 feet tall.  Why would anyone want to know how tall it was not blown up?  Oh well.  It's big enough for the horses to push it around.

Today Zoe met the ball.  I used my portable compressor to finish blowing it up at the barn.  While I waited for the trail rides to leave I put the blown up ball in what we call the "fat pen" because it was slightly windy and I didn't want to scare any horses out in the yard with a "loose" ball.  Cheyenne, the horse next to the "fat pen" thought I put a monster in there.  She snorted and ran for the other end of her paddock.  Skippy and Zoe are across the isle from the "fat pen".  They just looked at the ball, walked towards it, hung their heads out of their fence, eyes questioning-"what's that".  Good first step.  When the trail riders left we hung out in the arena with the ball.  Zoe didn't mind it at all, put her nose on it, nuzzled it, looked like she might like to take a bite but instead licked it.  We made a chute out of some ground poles and practiced pushing it.  Sometimes she would push it with her nose and sometimes she would kick it.  She definitely wasn't afraid of it.  I think tomorrow morning I will try it while riding her.

Finally a ride-on the weekend

There were no mid-week rides last week.
Wednesday was rainy so I cleaned at the barn and I got to go to lunch with some horse friends.  It was a nice day.
Thursday I had a doctors appointment-no time to ride.
So Saturday we took Zoe, Skippy and Sky out.  We did something different.  Skippy's rider had never been on the "Mario ride".  It goes down Prospector, HSB, Pioneer Express Trail, jump down to canal trail, and I got to learn about a new way up towards Sterling Point/Lake Forest trails.  All in all it was only a 5.25 mile ride, but it was nice.  Skippy's rider liked the different ride.  I put Zoe in the lead on Prospector, I wanted to see how she would do with the green gate.  She didn't worry about it at all.  Sky lead on the Pioneer trail and canal trail.  We did see alot of walkers out today-4 different groups of them.  It was such a nice day to go riding.  There were some foot races and mountain bike races going on at Granite Bay so I thought we would see more horses, but we only met 1 lone rider.  Looking forward to some mid-week rides this week.