We finally did it. We made it out to an honest to goodness trail ride. Now that we have plans to bring Cody and Axel back to our farm we have the trailer in town (still not completely finished but good enough). So we're squeezing as many trail rides as we can in the two weeks before my horses move.
I successfully drove the trailer to the barn and with the help of J backed it into place. It's been a while since I've had to drive the trailer. J said just go slow then you have time to fix any problems. After helping catch Booker (who made a break for it after slipping out of his halter while being fly sprayed) we brought the boys down to the trailer. Cody was acting a little worked up so J thought Booker should go in first, thinking he'd be a champ. Well he proved us wrong. He didn't seem scared but he wouldn't get in all the way. He was testing some limits for sure. But we finally got him in and hooked up and it was Cody's turn. Only took a little verbal encouragement and he stepped right in, slow and steady and cautious. We made it to UMore park (Lone Rock Trail) in one piece with a slightly long parade of cars behind us ;) Cody unloaded as slowly and cautiously as he loaded and Booker rushed out facing forward. So Cody won the trailering portion of our evening.
So Booker definitely won the trail ride portion of our evening. Cody was in a constant "trot to keep up" gear. He never really relaxed. He wasn't horrible, just bouncy. Near the end of our ride Cody decided he knew the way home and kept trying to turn around (away from the trailer) and was calling like mad. I don't know if he heard some other horses in a distance or what the deal was but he was quite unhappy. Booker just walked like a champ and gave Cody a "WTF" look every time he called. We had a little canter at the end of our ride. Cody started out a little frantic but settled in. Would have maybe cantered more but the trail was full of gopher holes so it wasn't safe. There was only a few nice stretches of grass that didn't have holes.
Booker got in the trailer at the end of the ride with just one balk and Cody got in like a pro. We stopped at DQ on the way through town and got everyone unloaded and put away while it was still light one - the one advantage of it staying light so late. Both horses unloaded really well and J backed the trailer into its parking spot for me. :) Overall I think the evening was a success. We have our farrier appointment today and we're going to try for another ride on Friday. Booker should have fancy new shoes so hopefully he'll be feeling 100%/
So other than our trail ride adventures we've been making it out to the barn once or twice a week for a ride down the road and Cody and Booker have been doing great. Cody is slow as ever but fairly calm in general so I try to not nag him. I've had Axel out a few times to groom and clean up his feet, his scratches are looking pretty good now. I've used WD40 3 times on them now, I think that's doing the trick. It is late in the season but it's still raining and there's a ton of mud so I think I can safely say it's the WD40?
After the boys leave I'll start doing some more work with Booker and hopefully we'll fix any of his little respect problems. It'll be interesting to see how he does for shoes this afternoon. We do know his MO now, fly backwards, when he wants to protest something.
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