Happy New Year....sort of.

We've had an interesting couple of days, to say the least. We've been riding two days in a row and each brought it's own set of issues.

Yesterday we went riding out at Eagle, and I had high (and unfounded) hopes that everything would have thawed and the footing would be good. I was wrong--the parking lot was an ice rink, as was the trail for the first 3/4 of a mile or so. But, being the determined type of people we are, we decided to stick it out and see if the trail got any better once we got over the saddle trail. We were wrong. Oh, well. We walked and took it easy and got off and lead them through the really bad stuff. No one was worse for the wear, and the horses got some good ice and snow training in the meantime. Once we got out to the main dirt road, we played leapfrog a little to start to accustom the horses to getting passed by trotting horses. Jasper was an angel (as usual) and dealt with everything really well.

Today we headed out to Eagle Island State Park, which I'd heard had great footing during the summer, and was at least flat so we wouldn't have to deal with sliding up and down hills in the mud. We arrived later than I'd wanted (due to a fencing project to separate bully Cricket from Jasper), but I was happily surprised with a very large and sandy parking lot with two turnarounds. There were cows on the pasture adjacent to the trails, so I got to silently thank my lucky stars that we already taught the horses that Cows Are Stupid, so it was a non-issue. Once we saddled up and got on trail, it was obvious that both horses were full of it and would have rather been galloping on the muddy trail. We kept them in check, though, although the same could not be said of Sammy, our Australian Kelpie dog.

She thought it was great fun to chase the cows, and no amount of whistling or yelling was getting any sort of response from her. I had brought dog cookies with me, but I could tell Jasper was just looking for things to spook at and the idea of crinkling a bag over his head didn't sound like a good idea. Wayne assured me Cricket would be fine with it, and I hesitantly passed the bag to him....which is about when disaster struck. Everything was fine until Wayne straightened out his arm to toss a cookie down to Sam, who had returned momentarily from cow chasing. The movement, the crinkling of the bag and the sudden remembrance that he was wearing a crupper caused Cricket to have a meltdown, and he crow hopped and spun while Wayne barely regained control. I thought the worse was over when I heard Wayne shout behind me followed by a thud and a grunt. I turned around quickly to see Wayne under Cricket and while he scrambled out from under his horse, Cricket took off down the trail with Sam hot on his heels. Bad dog.

During this time Jasper started to think about following Cricket, so I pulled his right rein to my knee and disengaged his hindquarters and emergency dismounted on his off side. I lost my grip on the reins for a minute while I regained my balance, during which Jasper stayed absolutely planted to the spot (like the good boy he is). I checked to see if Wayne was okay, and other than a seething temper and the desire to shoot his dog, he was fine. Bongo was happily eating all the fallen cookies and completely ignored all the drama.

We caught up with Cricket, who was none the worse for wear. Wayne remounted, as did I, and we headed back to the truck and trailer to put Sam back in the truck. She's no longer allowed to come on rides until her recall gets 100% (this has been a struggle with her from the beginning). We tossed Sam in the truck, and I suggested Wayne head out on the trail alone for a bit while I schooled Jasper in the arena/parking lot. We ended up having a pretty nice time, even if it was separately. Tomorrow I'd like to go out with Jasper alone to see how he handles himself without other horses around. He was fairly concerned with being left by Cricket, and I don't want him to get too herdbound.

Rick and Carol Brand of Lost Juniper Ranch are coming out tomorrow to fit my saddle to Jasper. I have fiddled with it a little, but I still don't feel like it's fitting as well as it should, so I had to call in the experts. I'm excited for them to meet Jasper, as I've been out to their place horse shopping in the past. Carol is very familiar with all of my past horse drama (Cricket).