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Post by dl on Oct 12, 2014 11:05:29 GMT -5
With all that has been going on, we've had a difficult time keeping up with homework and home chores. Mason has been out in the pasture with his buddy, Duke, and they have been happy out there and we really haven't seen much of him. Friday, Chalk's owner needed some help with treating an abscess and we wanted to check on Mason because ride4fun was going to take us out on the trail again on Saturday. Rose went to get Mason and he trotted back with her. He looked so handsome and much more fit. He moved easily. When Mason has been out in the pasture by himself, he gets very snotty and a little difficult. Duke hasn't been out in the pasture for long and we've never worked with Mason after being in the pasture with Duke. So Rose took him to the arena to see what his attitude would be. He was totally PERFECT! He was trotting and cantering. He was going over the jumps like he meant it. It was really great! The next day we got there and r4f was already there. But we had left Mason in the arena and had all of our stuff ready to go, so we loaded up Mason and headed out. It's amazing that the weather held, because we planned this a couple of weeks ago. Fall weather is bipolar and can change on a dime. But it couldn't have been a better fall day. Jacket weather, some pretty clouds, no wind... it was PERFECT! Jacob rode Grey Moun and they are really doing well together. Part of the trail that had been closed before was open this time, so we got to take a loop that had an amazing view of the metro area. When we got back to the main trail, we had the choice of going around a longer more technical trail, or going back the way we came. Rose voted for going back the way we came because there were flatter and less rocky places that were good for cantering. We all had fun moving faster and Jacob did great cantering on Grey Moun (I wish I had a picture of that!). It turned out to be a good thing that we took the short way back, because we were just getting started packing up when it started raining. I dropped my water bottle on the trail while we were coming back and I didn’t want to go back for it because I didn’t think it landed on the trail and it would be very difficult to find it in the bushes and weeds alongside. Then, while we were unsaddling, someone came up and asked if someone riding a white horse had lost a water bottle. There was a white horse hair on the bottle, so they figured it belonged to us! That was funny! We had a really great day.      |
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Post by Idaho Linda on Oct 12, 2014 11:39:15 GMT -5
Wow! What a size difference! That is an excellent example of different types of horses for different purposes.
I guess we are going to have to send you over to R4F's to get a picture of her new horse.
What a wonderful day to share with friends! And I am glad that having Mason out with a friend has helped his attitude.
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Post by MJ on Oct 12, 2014 14:30:02 GMT -5
Sounds like a great day, what a great friend R4F is. Are you going to have to start putting a grazing muzzle on Mason now that he won't be so active?
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Post by ride4fun on Oct 12, 2014 16:24:35 GMT -5
As most multi-horse owners can confirm; it is really nice to have people that can ride the spare horse(s). And Mason is convenient boarded close to some nice open space trailheads. We've only checked out Table Mountain so far because its super convenient, and enough trails that we haven't repeated a huge amount yet, but I'll have to get more exploratory and check out some of the other cool trails close by. So riding with DL and the twins is win win. Its really fun for me to see pics of GreyMoun on the trails. I haven't had that since I quit doing endurance rides with him several years ago.
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Post by Trailpal on Oct 13, 2014 13:53:55 GMT -5
Love the story and photos! I was just thinking it's so nice that R4F has some riders for her "spare" horses!
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Post by Jenni on Oct 13, 2014 14:11:27 GMT -5
I agree with ride - it's so nice to find others who can ride your "extra" horses. I've got 4 horses that I could pretty much put anyone on. Problem is finding the time to do it.
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Post by ride4fun on Oct 14, 2014 0:01:07 GMT -5
I don't have 4 that I could put anyone on. Lady is usually quite good but she was leaping creeks when we went on 4th of July weekend and I found that Jacob had a great natural seat and the attitude of 'this is FUN' So then I knew he'd be fine on Grey who is pretty good but sometimes jumps at weird shadows or ghosts that I never saw when I was riding him. Its very fun to have riders like that who can enjoy my non perfect horses.
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Post by Marci on Oct 14, 2014 0:39:28 GMT -5
Great pics. MY fav is them looking out over the valley. He looks so fit there. Its so much fun to watch you all have such fun with your ponies.
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Post by Jenni on Oct 14, 2014 8:02:37 GMT -5
Oh ride4fun- My horses are by no means perfect BUT they are safe!
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Post by dl on Oct 14, 2014 9:01:28 GMT -5
My kids have been around animals so much that "unexpected" actions aren't unexpected. A chicken pecks you because it thinks you have food. A bunny nibbles on you when it wants to be put down. A scared parrot will bite because it's scared, not because it hates you. They have learned to just go with these things and not take them personally. This works really well with horses like Grey Moun and Lady. Too much of that with Mason probably led to some of the difficulties that we had. Grey Moun and Lady seem perfect to us because they don't try to unseat you or take off with you. Jumping at things isn't even a big enough deal to be interesting, lol!
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