This week has been an interesting week at the barn. Tuesday horses came for a stay while the owner was on vacation. These horses have been here before but were not calm and happy with their "new digs". So there was much calling, alot of extra energy. One of the barn horses was "talking" to one of the visitors and managed to get her foot caught in the fence, pulled a shoe and took off part of her hoof. Then one of the visitors got a laceration on his shoulder and had to have the vet stitch it up. While that was happening 2 of the horses in the turn out got into a tiff and one ended up with kicks to her legs and now is a bit lame...so she is in the barn, while her pasture mate, the one who kicked her, is by herself in her pasture-and she is not happy about it. She is calling all the time...only her call sounds more like an elephant call. So all this to say things are not as calm as usual. When I went out with Zoe on Wednesday she was okay, but seemed a bit in a hurry to get home and started calling while we were in the cow pasture. She hasn't done that in a long time. Maybe it was the events back at home, maybe not.
Anyway I decided that on Thursday our ride would be really different. I originally thought another ride just by myself was in order, but then I got a different idea! Dottie and I were going to go out and I decided to make it a separation ride. I mean ALOT of separation. We got our horses ready at the same time, but I left the barn first, and Dottie/Sky came 5 minutes later. We decided to meet at the bottom of the hill going into the 2nd cow pasture. While I was waiting for them I decided to practice loping up the wide road and try to get on the left lead. Didn't do it the first try, turned around to try again. I needed just a little more bend and then we got it. So we met at the bottom of the hill. Sky took the road and I took a smaller trail and we met again at the bottom of beginners hill. Then Sky went back down to the road went past "grand central station" to the top of the rise while I went up beginners hill down and to the right and we met up again at the bottom of the hill. We rode together for a little ways then Sky took the big road, veered right and down the other rutty side while I took a side trail and met them at the bottom. Then we rode together for a little ways. Sky took the small trail that winds to alligator rock and I took the big road to alligator rock. Then Sky took the big trail to just past bread rock and I took a small trail over the hill to get to alligator rock. Then we stayed together for a while. We ended up on one of the trails at the KBB hills. Sky took the big road to the top and I took a smaller trail-where the "naked ladies" are blooming nicely-to the top. When we met at the top we switched and Sky took the smaller trail back down and I took the big road back down. Then decided that the horses were doing so good that we would stay together for awhile. We headed back home. The last separation was the opposite of our first separation. Sky took the small trail to the bottom of the hill in the second cow pasture and I took the big road and met them.
Each time we separated the horses were willing to go but also kept an "ear" out for the other horse. There was no calling, no "hurry up to met the other horse", no impatience while waiting for the other horse to show up-just an awareness that we were playing a game and they waited patiently-looking in the direction that the other horse was coming and eventually the other horse would show up. There was even one time that Dottie took a wrong turn, realized it, got back on track and took longer to met us than I thought she would. We just waited patiently for her to show up. So we did 5+ miles today, most of it practicing separation. It turned out to be fun and a good alternative to trying to go out again by myself.
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