I ended up making it out to the barn for a few quick minutes between chores on Friday to check on Cody and do a little pre-assessment on how his attitude was going to be for our scheduled Sunday trail ride. He was a mellow fellow so we just did a tiny bit of ground work and that was about it. Axel is lumpy again/still (face).
I hoped for good weather all day Saturday while sitting inside at my computer and 10am Sunday morning rolled around and I was not disappointed. Short sleeve weather but not too hot. I groomed Cody and planned to do some lunging just to try and make sure our ride wasn't going to be a rodeo. But he was still mellow as can be. So we did a tiny amount of ground work just to get everybody's brain where it belonged and then we waited for B and Diva to get ready. I put on Cody's boots so I wouldn't have to deal with that at the trail and we were set to go. Cody hopped right into B's 2 horse slant trailer and we were off.
We opted for a close trip to UMore which was fine with me since I hadn't been there yet. Cody got off the trailer fairly quickly but the step down is a pretty high one so I don't blame him. And he didn't continue to fly backward he just zoomed out and stood there. He was a little sweaty but not as bad as I thought he might be. The first few miles of the ride we did a little jigging and some falling back/trotting to keep up. But he finally settled in and things were going great. He was getting pretty sweaty and the trail was mostly grass so I took off his boots right before we got to the slightly gravelly part. Whoops. He was fine though, hugged the side of the trail a bit more than I would like but it wasn't horrible. Maybe halfway through our ride we met up with a lady on a big black Perch/Standardbred mare so she joined our little group and Cody was pretty happy about all the girls. Other than one other group of horses we didn't see anyone on the trail, seems to be a kind of underused treasure I suppose.
Cody started to get a little tired at about the 3/4 mark and for a while I thought he might try and lay down in the sand but we plugged along. At some point he decided he knew the way home and kept drifting to the south despite the trailer being to the west. I don't think he would have appreciated walking the whole way home so I convinced him to continue on to the trailer. When we could see the trailer parking and our new mare friend had turned off to head home we decided to get down and walk. B's knees were hurting and my hips were crying for a break so we walked the last little bit. So the really nice trail ride with Cody being a real gentleman couldn't end completely perfect. He decided he wasn't going to get in the trailer to go home. We tried all the usual tactics: general encouragement and clucking, tapping on the bum with a whip, tapping his feet so he'd pick them up, lunging/circling away from the trailer. Nothing was working. The difference between this new refusal to get in and his past antics was that he wasn't acting scared to get in. He just plain wasn't putting his feet in. He had his head all the way in and he'd bunch himself up but he wouldn't step up. He was as calm as could be. Part of the issue was that there was a mare at the next trailer winking at him. Perhaps he thought this trailer wasn't big enough or the step up was too big. We finally took Diva out to see if more space would help. But in the end we had to go the butt rope route and he finally got in. I suppose we didn't spend too much more than 30 minutes trying, maybe not even that long, and he got a ton of scratches and praises once he made it in. I guess we have something to work on when my trailer gets done, it'll be interesting to see if it was a size or step issue since my trailer is larger and has a lower step up.
When we returned from the ride Cody waited patiently to be asked to step out of the trailer but he was very hesitant about stepping down. B suggested we put him back in and of course once we started to ask and he balked we had to keep going til we got it. B and J locked arms and pushed him in after the usual tapping and whatnot didn't work. It went faster than before but he did end up tripping and landing on his knees in the trailer and scratching his left leg. Poor Cody, just can't figure out why he will get in really good for a while and then decide he's not going to do it.
After all that we decided it was bathtime. So Cody got his first bath with shampoo since I bought him. I'm not sure if that was a reward or not but I think it would have felt good. We scrubbed down Diva and Cody and then gave them the rest of their spring shots before turning them out. I was surprised to see that Cody didn't find some dirt to roll in after his bath but he is kind of a neat freak that way, he likes to be clean most of the time. Axel got his shots and we stood around and chatted for a while and before we knew it it was almost 6pm.
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