Those Squirrels...

Last Sunday Jim and I went for a ride on Skippy and Zoe.  We went on the canal trail.  Jim had not been on that trail in a long time-this ride we had the time to do it and Jim's knee wasn't bothering him…so we went.  Jim and I took turns leading down to the canal trail.  On the trail Skippy took the lead and trotted out-not her fastest (which most horses have to lope to keep up with) but a nice medium trot-for Skippy.  Anyway Zoe had to practice following a faster horse and having manners.  Which Zoe did pretty well.

After the aquaduct we took the cutoff back home-it goes up a hill for a ways.  Zoe was in the lead.  The trail has logs crossing it…like large stair steps.  After that it narrows.  The whole trail going up the hill is a single track trail with just a few wider spots.  There is a definite uphill slope to the left and a down hill slope to the right.  It was on this trail in one of the narrow spots, after the "stair steps" that Zoe saw a squirrel.  Now Zoe has seen a bizillion squirrels.  This squirrel was pulling on a pine cone.  Maybe it was the combo-squirrel and pine cone- that spooked Zoe, maybe the squirrel had a mean look on it's face because the pine cone was pretty big compared to the squirrel and it was having a hard time moving it.  At any rate Zoe did a 180-turning front end over the downhill portion of the hill- and proceeded to lope down the trail.  (Side note- amazing that horses can turn in such tight spots-on a dime) Skippy said "if she's going to run, I'm out of here too" and Skippy did a 180 and loped down the trail-everybody going downhill at a lope, now Skippy is in front.  Jim comes to a wider spot and does an emergency brake and it works for him.  I'm not sure there is enough room there for me to do the same so we blow past Jim/Skippy.  Zoe is now headed for the stair steps and I have to stop her and there is now no wide spots left on the trail.  She notices that Skippy is not following her and starts to slow and I finish it off a loud "whoa" and a pull on the reins to stop the horse.  It didn't take much to stop her, phew.  It was all over in just a few seconds but still heart stopping all the same.  Glad we didn't lope all the way down the trial.  Afterwards we put Zoe back in front and later on she saw another squirrel…this time she gave it "the ear" and that was all.

I'm glad I was able to sit the spin and stay on and stop.  Just can't be a passenger on any ride, you never know what a horse is going to do…

Maybe we will call it "Squirrel Hill"