Mini Catch-Up

Summer has been absolutely flying past me and I can't believe it's almost over! Trask and I have been plugging along not doing too much interesting. Mainly of note is that we've gone on two trail rides since the first one I posted about and they were a much better experience!

Riding outside at the barn

The first one was on the trails just off the barn property. I am SO excited I don't have to haul to the trails anymore if I don't feel like it! We went with another boarder who offered to show me where to go since I wasn't sure and didn't want to trespass through peoples' back yards to get there. I cannot wait to explore this trail system more!

Trask was on his best behavior. He followed politely the entire time, at the end he even just trailed along further behind like he had no worries in the world about getting left behind (definitely not the case last time we went for a trail ride!). He was a little bit excited at first, especially when we passed the neighbor's horses in turnout, but there were absolutely no shenanigans. It was a relief!

The second trail ride I decided to take him to Willamette Mission. It's one of my favorite places to ride and I haven't been to it in a really, really long time. I'm pretty sure the last time might have been with Misty? Anywho, we made the trip out by ourselves. I was kinda nervous since this was our first ride out by ourselves in a completely new (to him) environment. I checked the calendar first to make sure it was going to be a quiet Tuesday since one time we showed up and there was a trail race going on and another time there was this weird kids camp that for some reason involved throwing hatchets at trees??

Overall, it was not a bad ride. Not great either. I never felt like I was going to die like on the first trail ride, but I was kinda tempted to just leave Trask in the wilderness at one point. His go-to move when he doesn't want to do something - whether it's standing still or going forward - is to rear. Not very fun in my book.

It started at the beginning of the trail where there are some big logs sitting alongside the trail. Very terrifying. Much rearing and trying to run away. As soon as I got off and lead him up to it, they were fine. We walked around the logs a couple times with me on him, making him touch it and stuff until he was no longer worried about it and then we were off. The second scary part was when we got to the river and he couldn't POSSIBLY walk along the trail that led close to the small cliff that led down towards the edge of the river. Spinning and rearing ensued. I got off, it was fine, no big deal. Got back on, walked back and forth a few times and it was no longer scary.

We were able to trot through the forest and he didn't seem too sketchy. I didn't want to do too much trotting or cantering because I was afraid he'd turn me into a lawn dart. But he managed a nice 10 minutes of trotting or so.

Third time was when we got to the big agricultural field. This is a weird state park that wraps around a lot of (I believe privately-owned) agricultural land that is actively being farmed. There was a piece of white plastic, like the kind used to wrap big stacks of hay, that was too scary to walk past so I had to get off yet again.

I was pleased with how he handled the tractor though. I was hoping they'd be done with the harvest and it looked like they were just finishing up and Trask kept a close eye on the tractor going around the field but there was no spooking at all. The fourth scary object was a hill. Yes, a physical hill. The trail is single track up this steep, but short hill and you can't see the other side. Apparently this was unacceptable and we spent some time arguing (and backing into trees) before I got off and led him up and back down in either direction over the hill. I was a tiny bit ticked at him by this point.

We managed to ride over the hill and spent some time picking blackberries on the other side. It took Trask a little while to figure out how to eat them since he kept smooshing them with his nose and then all that was left was some juice, but he eventually figured out that they were pretty tasty.

We got back to the river and I was disappointed to find that a couple who had stopped at the open-use day site, where people boating down the river can stop and eat at the picnic table for a little bit, were still there over an hour after we had previously passed them there. They had their stuff spread EVERYWHERE blocking access to the river, completely taking over the site, which I thought was a tad rude since other people wouldn't be able to share it. It also meant that I couldn't get Trask in the water which is one of my favorite parts about this park is the access to the fairly still water that runs into the river. They did offer to move their boat (slightly huffily) but I didn't want to scare Trask with the magically teleporting canoe that I'm sure he would see, so we headed back to the trailer with no swimming.

"Plz send help"

And of course, we had to end the trail ride with a spook at the exact same log that he first spooked at when we started out. Oh and when I untacked him and went to wash him off and let him get a drink from the water tank he spooked at the water tank too. **Face palm**

Trying out jump tack the other day

So that is the story of the poor baby horse and all the scary things!

To counter that story though, he has been a complete superstar in the arena! He is picking up things so quickly. Our canter has improved a ton since I got him, we almost always get the correct lead, he doesn't panic if he picks up the wrong lead, I no longer have to counter-flex him a tiny bit to get the right lead, and it's just developing into a better canter overall. Our transitions are improving, we're schooling a lot of the training level elements and they're getting easier and easier for him. I'm really having fun with him!

So handsome