Weekly ride with Ani

I missed last week cuz I was sick, but I got up early today to meet Ani. We were riding on my side today, and I even got on and rode Mag alone a ways to meet up with her. Since that meant riding in the valley of doom, I had a very tense horse. He was even letting himself "fall" down hills, stumbling along, even trotting to catch himself. Very bad.

As soon as we mounted, he quit that probably due to Mira being there. Also, I was riding without hoof boots cuz I was curious how he'd do on rocks barefoot. Since we're only walking, it was fine. He gimped twice, only on the largest of rocks.

I took Ani to see the herd of fallow deer near our house. She'd never been there before, they are really well hidden.

First we had to pass our house, and I called J to come outside and take our photo. I think this is the first time he's been home since I've started riding with Ani. I joked to him this morning, "You can come meet us out there and provide snacks."

He took some nice photos and refilled my water bottles. It was a trip to have a stop at home in the middle of our ride.




Mag sees J.







See that wound on his chest? I feel so bad, it was my fault. For some reason he decided he wanted the donkey's food this morning instead of his own, much bigger bucket, and he dove into the stall to steal hers. I ran in after him waving a rake saying "What do you think you're doing! Get out of here!" and he whirled around so fast he hit his forehead on the wall, and then rammed the doorway on his way out, tearing the hair off. I apologized the rest of the day to him.




















At the deer field, they saw us and ran away, the entire herd moving like a flock of birds, with the three males standing guard. They have enormous antlers!

Then we rode a big loop, all up and down around the watershed, and Mag was in the lead most of the time, because Mira's slow pace annoys him. (He tried to nip her butt twice.)

But anytime he got rushy down hills, I would turn him around and make him follow the mare. It really works! He also listens to me when I ask him to slow down, but it's easier to just let him follow. Since he seems to naturally want to be in the lead, I need to be sure I spend enough time following, something I always regretted not doing with Baasha, so he'd go nuts anytime he wasn't in the lead.

I did not like it, but I rode across a scary bridge. I purposefully exhaled loudly as soon as he walked onto it. The no horses allowed sign never helps my nerves on these mossy little bridges.

There is this incredibly steep hillside that I always imagine one day riding up, and if I want to play Man from Snowy River, riding down. Only the most expert trail horses could go up or down it. Well today Mag felt me thinking about it and turned to start to go up! He had no idea how steep it was, and I said, "NO MAG!" and pulled him away. How odd. I know only a few steps onto it he would have lost his balance and tipped over.

Our ride took us through some really gorgeous trails, shafts of sunlight turning the mossy hillsides fluorescent green under the pines. My side is prettier than her side of town. Finally we were done and came out onto streets again and we both dismounted. I guess she also doesn't like riding on streets. I walked her a little ways toward her home and then said goodbye, doubling back for the 30 minute walk home.