just one step

All of my posts are real life, but most are of our more fun adventures, as no one cares much about the day to day. But sometimes the day to day stands out. For the worse.

In real life my horse was so naughty yesterday I wanted to leave him out on the trail. Maybe tied at the trail head: ride at your own risk.

I have been in the less-is-more riding school lately, giving lots of time off, as there is lots of time before any competitions, (we're already up to 15 miles no problem). Two weeks ago we rode to Auburn, then last week Major was a good babysitter and took out a new horse on a one-hour walking ride. And that's been it. He has a big pasture, he can run around all day.

But he'd rather do it with me. Damn. Out of the trail he was HOT and forward, but the recent rains have left dangerously rutted trails, so moving out is iffy. So we headed down to the sand to trot. But now trotting wasn't good enough, Major thought we must canter. We did not canter.

standing still is torture, but just look at those clouds

We trotted and walked when Major's brain fell out, and circled and then walked up and down the banks of the canal, just to make him think. We backed down the trail and backed up hillsides. I tortured my horse by making him walk up the lovely trotting hill to one staging area, where we needed to head home as it was getting dark and cold with the sun going down.

the lake is slowly rising, Major doesn't care, let's go, now!

I just wanted to walk the last 1.5 miles home. It's a trail along a road, and while safe, I didn't need foolishness.

But I got it, and more. The entire time I couldn't get him to take more than one freakin' walk step. Not one. Jigging, prancing, annoyance. I got off about 1/2 mile from our turnoff, and even then he just jigged and pranced beside me. Sigh. No lesson learned.

So we have some training rides to do soon. From home, where he misbehaves. With a crop. And a warm jacket for me. And a determination to not go home until I get that walk. 

But no matter how annoyed, the one thing I love about horses is the care. Because we got back and I stripped tack from my steaming beast (who was so worked up he was sweaty, and not from the length of the ride), sponged what I could, and did a thorough towel dry, which he loves. I got all his itchy places, and put him back in his pasture (where he promptly cantered over to his hay). And I wasn't annoyed any more. It's just something to work through, as usual.

And on the way home I appreciated the waning light, and the abandoned house I drive by daily looked so pretty and sad that I stopped to take a photo. With a little care it would be all right.