Fast Saturday Ride

Despite this cold I've managed to obtain, and despite all my potential riding partners having other things to do today, I went for a ride this afternoon anyway. I groomed Cody first and turned him out when I was done. Then I groomed and tacked up Axel and headed out on the trail. At the top of the first hill we met up with Tom's daughter and her two kids. We stopped and chatted for a bit and the kids had to pet the horse. The little girl, the oldest, was telling her little brother to watch out for the feet because her grandma was killed by a horse stepping on her head (sad and sweet at the same time) :( The little boy proceeded to pet Axel's leg and then hug his neck and tell him he was a good horsie. After we passed them we had a little trot in the clearing and then headed into the woods. The lighting was kind of spooky today. Light but cloudy out and then really dark in the woods. Partway into the woods we ran into Tom's son. I guess everyone was out for a walk today. Axel is really an excellent horse. He was a little startled by Tony in the woods but his reaction was to stop dead and look to see what was coming. On the opposite side of the woods we worked on the hills a few times. He did pretty well going down the hills, but the large hills he would only hop and buck on the way up, couldn't quite get him into a canter. After the hills we made our way back through the woods and got one good canter up a smaller hill before we got back to the clearing.

We had another little trot that turned into a canter circle, a really nice canter circle even. I tried for another nice canter in a straight line but all I got was a gallop. Fun for me but Axel's not much for steering when he's going so fast, so the turn at the end of the clearing was a little goofy. Made our way back down the hill to the bridge and ran into Tom and his sons checking out the cabin. Axel decided he wanted to run up the last hill back to the barn so we had to walk back down and try again at a walk. We can't be running back to the barn whenever we feel like it.

After the ride Axel had a little walk through the bushes to get rid of the bugs. Guess that's their best fly repellant. Cody was hanging out so he got his photo taken so I could try out the soft focus filter I borrowed from Jeff. And Cody's found himself quite the girlfriend. I was quite surprised to see Kiko in season and Corey actually letting Cody hang out with her. He was knickering away at her and Corey was off grazing not paying attention at all.

So I ended up with the cutest photo ever. Cody and Kiko's engagement photo ;) Too bad Cody's a gelding, eh? Wonder if I'll have a hard time with Cody tomorrow. One of the gals from my old riding lessons is going to come out for a ride with me. Hopefully he'll cooperate so we can have a fun ride.