Saturday, July 19, 2008

Steve on the Trail?!

Wow. Now I know that I can do anything! I got my husband to take a trail ride with me! Actually, he remembered telling me that he'd take a ride with me for our anniversary weekend when the kids were gone. I don't remember that, but of course, I kept my mouth shut. So today, I loaded up my 2 mares and we headed to Indian Creek. It was a hot day and that made the treed trail in the foothills an even nicer getaway. We were out about 3 hours with a 20 min break to eat sandwhiches. We hiked about an hour of it, too (which I love doing).

Steve seemed to go ok. At the end of the ride, he noticed his lower back being a little stiff. Other than that, things went quite well. At the end he said, "That wasn't so bad". Hmmm... "wasn't so bad"... as in, let's do it again? Or, I survived and now I'll never mount a horse again? I decided not to push the clarification of his statement and see where things go next. I enjoyed myself and we rode in silence a lot. I realize I really like that and have grown very accustomed to it with all the solo riding I do these days.

Alas, we have no evidence. The camera turned out to be housing dead batteries and once we got to the trailhead, neither one of us really wanted to load up and head out for a battery run. I know it happened and although pictures would have been so nice, I'm just glad for the memory of it.

I spent some time building more of a soft feel with Z by asking her to take full contact and then go back to casual repeatedly. She now doesn't hesitate at all when I ask for contact which is a great improvement. She does well now when I ask for collection up and down hills. Trail rides are so good for practicing that kind of thing. They aren't bored by the arena and Z is genuinely more cooperative on the trail than in the arena.

Good day with horses and my husband!

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