Last Weekend

On Friday night, after my lesson at Mack Hill, I went back to Wildwood with Suzie, Kenz, and Joe. We moved around some boxes in the pink motel so me and Kenz would have some room to sleep, and in the morning we got to work. We headed out to the back barn where Corona, Quinn, Cimmy, Justin, and Scruffy stay. Cimmy and Justin live in the run-in shed, while the other three have stalls in the barn. Kenz cleaned Quinn's stall, Suzie cleaned Corona's, and I got to clean Scruffy's.



Scruffy is absolutely adorable, and our new best friend. He's a former dressage champion that is now thirty years old. He doesn't look his age, and has loads of personality. Unfortunately, his owner lives pretty far away, and only comes to see him twice a year; once to drop off his blankets in the fall, and again to pick them up in the spring. He insisted on coming into the stall while I cleaned it, and had fun tipping over my wheel barrel and eating my broom. I think we're gonna get along just fine :]

Once the stalls were cleaned, we decided to go on a trail ride, the one with the large water crossing. Once everyone was tacked up, we rode around in the ring for a bit. Justin was behaving, although we really need to work on bending and starting to get him into a frame. He has no idea and no desire to go on contact, considering all he used to do was walk on a loose rein with a leader. We headed out the gate and around past Hercules' paddock, then trotted up the hill until we reached the dirt road. The dirt road is too rocky to do anything more than a walk on, especially since most of our horses are barefoot. The trails have decent footing, and we trotted a little bit until we reached the water crossing. Cherokee walked across with a little persuasion, while Quinn and Rudy both refused to go in. I brought Justin down between them, and Rudy followed. Quinn paused to paw at the water, but eventually made his way through. Then we made our way over to the cornfields to have a good gallop. Suzie took off with Cherokee, and me and Justin followed right behind her. Cecily and Rudy were literally directly behind Justin, and Kenz and Quinn were nearly at Rudy's side. Once we reached the end, we turned around and really let loose this time. Justin was nearly at a flat out gallop to keep up with Cherokee, and Quinn was bucking like a fruit loop the entire way. Justin was so tired, he hardly even had the energy to trot down one of the hills on the way home. I guess we need to do some more conditioning!