All saddled up, with warnings to maintain distance between horses, just in case someone gets snarky, we head off to the woods. Caly in front, Sage in the middle and Dazzle bringing up the rear.....much to the delight of Tianna who likes to drop back and 'catch up'.
Steven said Sage was walking rather quickly, easily closing the gap between herself and Caly's butt. He would halt her, and she complied, only to resume creeping up to him. Nice walk ! he commented.
We saw my neighbor Donna and her daughter Sara outside, and went over to greet them. Donna snapped a pic of the three of us on our first trio outing....Actually, Donna, the camera DID go off 3x....
When we reached the powerlines, for some reason, Caly quickened his step, which was apparently read by Sage....mini fit resulting in 2 little bucks, that later, Tianna reported from her behind position, were of the all~feet~off~the~ground variety...Steven stuck nicely.....told her "easy", and used the one rein turn that we had discussed previously, and she settled right down. After a bit, Steven dismounted to signal Sage she was 'on break' and it was OK for her to graze....she found mint, lots of mint....and she really didn't want to give it up....but she did.
Next, out to the bike trail. Sage is not so good with bikes, and it's time she gets over that....Ya gotta love desentisization. The first people we saw were 2 teen girls walking their bikes as one had a flat tire. We asked that they come towards the horses so that Sage could see that those funky looking metal things were not horse~consuming~wheeled~things~from~hell....Both girls approached, Sage watching distrustfully, until they each, 1 at a time, approached to give her a cookie furnished by Steven....She relaxed, alot!
Along the biketrail a family rode towards us...I asked that they give that second horse some room, it's her first trail ride. They did, she watched them, held her ground and the next dozen or so bikes that whizzed from either front of behind were largely unnoticed. Steven was smiling!
Steven used some nice winding trails as an opportunity to reinforce neck reining, which she has really started to respond to. One little fit from a low branch Steven moved directly above her and that was about it! We headed for home.
Tianna pushed Dazzle up front, jogging and loping to get well ahead. Caly was really stepping forward now, keeping an eye on Dazzle, and failed to notice the bikes in the parallel bike trail....he spooked.....and Sage followed suit, even tho she had indeed noticed the bikes, she was concerend that Caly had seen a true demon that she should be aware of. They settled right down as we hit the trail to home.
With Dazzle now out of sight, Sage, who had passed Caly, looking for her dun buddy, started calling. We had decided to try a trot, after passing the last trail to the house....but Sage was not waiting...She picked up a nice jog, which later, Steven was very happy to report was very smooth! I noted outward swinging of her forelegs, interesting, and later, after Caly and I passed her and looking over my shoulder: she was pacing....really pretty. We transitioned from walk to trot several times: smoothly and without incident. The whole ride lasting less than an hour. Sage and I went home to rest, Dazzle and Caly went out with Steven and Tianna for a short ride.
It was about a half hour later that Sage called to her boyz, just a couple times....and then resumed eating. What a good girl!
1 comment:
awww, c'mon...we need some buckin' bronc action! (have you taken her pulse again lately?)
Thanks for the update, it's fun reading along with your adventures.
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