that's more like it

A week of no riding after our grand misadventure at Cronan. No big injuries, just not enough time. Which gave the weather time to warm up and become January perfect.

Major and I headed out, already it was probably 50 degrees and sunny. Puddles were frozen in the shade, but we flew to Granite Bay. He was a bit spookier than usual, leftover worry from last week? We saw some people bouldering (small rock climbing) and he just froze. We walked up to them, "Oh, they're people" he realized, and walked off again. I kept him moving, as moving feet didn't have as much time to think about silly. But I also tried to keep it at a trot. At the canter I kept getting some silly jumps forward, not in the mood for that!

We were the first to use the trough that day, as evidenced that it was still frozen over too! I was about to leave the staging area when some recent arrivals took off ahead of me. That's fine, I'll wait, they looked like they had their hands full. Major sure wanted to go straight after tham, but we waited a bit. Not long enough, as they were still up ahead, circling naughty horses. Again, we waited, and when they cut on a side trail we kept going.

I had wanted to ride down by the lake, but they were having a large mountain biking event. There were tents and vendors and lots of people. Combine that with Major's amped spookiness, I decided to be prudent and take the high road. Literally.

dam nice view

We cantered up the big hill, which is fairly straight and graveled and let him run it out. At the top a slight breather, and back down the other side.

near the beach, ears says "home is that way!" though it's actually not.

This is where the American River ride went UP. We went down, met up with cyclists and runners, no issues. Ate a bit of grass by the beach. I was going to continue on as the road circles around. Major did not realize it was faster to go home the road, and wanted to go back the way we came. Fine, we'll take the longer path. And back up the hill we went. Problem was he tried to channel a bit of the bad horse from American River, so at the top he got stopped and had to work and think. And we walked down the other side much better.

Back at the staging area we were very calmly standing at the trough, I was happy for his quietness. Then here come those same horses we followed out, coming back! They were amped up and super jiggy, Major saw them and thought it must be an endurance ride to have horses that silly! I should be silly too! Um, no, not so much.

We headed home. He was still pretty forward, but under control. He is still good and slows over all the bad rocky spots, but slowing down just got him extra crabby. So fine, we'll go father. At the forest we usually turn left. Nope, continued onto rock trail. His steps faltered…thwarted!

rock trail view

Rock trail is hard, so went for a bit till his brain re-engaged, and headed home. We were able to actually get a nice walk through much of the forest, Major was super sweaty after a good workout, and got mash, his cooler, and I attempted to dry him off. But it was so nice and warm, I wasn't too concerned that he was still wet, till he rolled in the dirt and it became mud. Hopefully it'll just brush off tomorrow, right?

scratch my sweaty head, please?

I probably let him get away with too much this ride. Though I needed to just move, and so did he. Sometimes that just works.