Monday, November 9, 2009

A hard ride , a stupid fall....


Well, today we went out with yet another new riding buddy. Vicki lives a mile from  me, right on the way to the San Tans.  I picked her and her trusty Appy steed "Dakota" up at 9am, and we headed to the mountain. At the trail head, I got up on the fender of the trailer to untie Dakota's head.  I sort of forgot that I was three feet up on the tire fender, thinking I was on the running board....and ouch! I fell straight down on my back landing on my back and elbow. I'm sure I made a stellar impression on Vicki. She laughed after making sure I was ok. Which I was, aside from the embarrassment... 
But the ride!!!!  Dakota is a lot lie my Appy Eli; very calm and quiet. And of course, he waked too slow for Santana who is convinced that we need to get wherever it is we are going in a timely manner. He is calm about it, but that boy just naturally likes to walk on out. We did some really hard stuff today. Very steep climbs and ascents on loose footing. He did great. He loves to do "trail obstacles" (think fallen saguaro cactus= logs to you Easterners; and would look for things to go and step over. Vicki said he is like a kid on the playground, looking for new jungle gym stuff to play on... We encountered a mountain biker and some hikers, and he didn't care. This ride was just over 5 miles, but it was a hard 5 miles. I kind of thought he would be happy to head back to the trailer this ride. Wrong. He sulks on the way back, but at least this ride I didn't have to beat on him with a twig to get him to go back. A simple slap of my rein was enough to keep his feet moving. He really likes being out, which is great, because so do I.  Vicki commented several times how relaxed he was, and how happy he was to be going down the trail. 
Vicki was great. She was patient when I  had to do some "schooling" with Santana. She used to ride NATRC, and wants to again, so, we can condition our horses together, though Dakota will condition much faster than my guy. Experienced horses come back into shape pretty quickly. Santana needs to develop all those muscles that Dakota has, they just aren't hard right now. She also brought a little baggie of carrots for Santana on the trail. Santana couldn't figure out hoe to get a baby carrot past the bit to chew it up and eat it, so he got his back at the trailer.  
Once we got back to the trailer, Santana sucked down a bucket of water. He always, always drinks when offered water. Gooood distance horse! It is imperative in distance riding that your horse drinks as often as possible to stay hydrated to pass those vet checks with flying colors. And there is truth to the old saying "you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drink."  And that can destroy a distance horse.  I don't think I will have any of those problems with Santana.  He seems to know what his destiny is, and he is thrilled about it. So am I.

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