Sooo, on ride number three, we headed about 20 miles north to BLM land in the town of Apache Junction. Again, I opted to take him out with an experienced horse, as this ride, we were sure to see lots of horse-eating monsters lurking in the desert. Around here, people seem to think that BLM land is synonymous with "personal dumping grounds."
In order to get there, we trailered to a woman's house who we would be riding with. From there, we had to ride along the road with traffic. Santana was unphased. He was just happy to be going out. Once we were in the desert, there was lots of interesting terrain for him to negociate. There were hills to climb and ascend. He seemed to like this, and figured out how to balanced himself and me while going up and down. As with the other two rides, he could care less about the other horse that was supposed to be along to "babysit." He is a big boy (all 14.1 hands of him) and he didn't NEED no stinkin' babysitter. And, she walked too slow, as far as he was concerned. After all, there were places to go, things to see.
We ran across many a stray tire and other miscellaneous junk. He ignored that. The only thing he actually looked at was a 'fridge that was dumped in the middle of the wash we were in. And at that, he just wanted to know if it was edible. Most horses, especially this green, would have really taken a long hard look at that mysterious predator, and most of those would have spooked. Santana just wanted to know if it was some new, rare desert flora that could be eaten by a hungry horse. He decided that it wasn't, and moved on.
We encountered some steep step-downs. He had to think about what to do with his feet to balance himself and me. But after the first couple, he figured out I would help him by adjusting my weight more over his hips, and that all he needed to do, was step. He carefully watched where his feet went, and never tripped or took a mis-step.
Again, he wasn't thrilled when I decided he needed to head back to the trailer, but at least this time I didn't have to cut a twig-switch to motivate him to go back. He pouted, but he moved back the whole time.
So, again, I'm a proud momma. I think he might be ready to go out solo. Well, he is, I'm sure. Me on the other hand......
