I had texted Lacy in the morning to invite her on the ride, but promptly remembered Kristen had a lesson with her that afternoon so she wouldn't be able to go with me. I was determined to go no matter what, and hardly blinked an eye at the downpour we'd been having all day. When classes let out at noon, I jetted home and packed a duffel bag of clean and dry clothes to change into if I needed to after my ride. I talked Wayne into coming with me, since Lewiston is a 50 minute drive from Pullman, and if something happened I wanted someone in closer proximity (I prefer to think I'm always prepared rather than overly paranoid).
We left the barn with only a minor loading problem that only took 10 minutes or so. I can't remember if I've talked about it before, but Jasper has suddenly become very reluctant to load into the new trailer after he slipped a little while loading when it was snowing. We've been working on it, and he's improving, if slowly. The roads to Lewiston were wet until we started the descent into the valley--in fact, it appeared not to have been raining at all!
We tacked up and Jasper was prancing so much I had to have Wayne hold him for me to mount. I knew he was probably just as antsy as I was to get out after such a long break, and we set out on our way. Between the parking lot and the trail system is a creek, and Jasper crossed without so much as a moment's pause. I was so proud since he's been getting a lot better about crossing water, but it's always been with other horses around. As soon as we were across, we turned left up the hilly trail, and I kicked him into canter to burn off a little of the excess energy. He plunged up the hill, and when we reached the top of the steepest ascent, I slowed him into a nice working trot and off we went. When we reached the next steep ascent up a switchback, Jasper started doing a little kick with one of his hinds. I was concerned he'd hurt himself, and then remembered the boots. He was a little distraught and took some talking to get him to relax and slow down enough for me to climb down. His left hind boot was holding on by the keeper strap, and I pulled it off. It didn't appear that anything was wrong with the boot (the velcro straps were all still sticking), so I'm not sure what caused it to come off. I opted to pull both hind boots and stuff them in my saddle bags for the remainder of the ride.
When we reached the top of the hill the wind was incredibly strong. Although we'd been trotting for a while, once we stopped Jasper started head tossing and I felt like I was going to be blown off. We made a team decision to turn around and head back down into the valley where it wasn't so windy, and I hopped off and jogged back to the less windy part of the trail. We plodded back down the switchback and saw about five sets of people and their dogs. I'm slightly anxious about dogs that I don't know, and Jasper seems to pick up on that. Luckily, I had both dogs with me, and Sammy tend to act as a buffer running out to greet the foreign dogs before they can get near Jasper and I.
Once we reached the bottom, I blew Jasper's mind by turning not towards home but away and on a fun up and down trail that's really fun to trot. By this time, Jasper was raring to go again, and we had a great time with all the ins and outs. We turned back onto another trail towards home and Jasper knew it (of course). He does get really chargy when we head back towards home, and I was determined to spend my alone time working on it. We would walk, and anytime he would pick up a trot without being asked, he got circled. He caught on pretty soon and walked nicely on a loose rein for a bit. One thing I've noticed with Jasper is that if I start looking around and going to "sightseeing mode", he immediately relaxes and loses his competitive drive. I think I remember one of clinicians talking about that this weekend, now that I think about it.
Anyways, once he would relax, I'd cue the trot for a few steps and then we'd slow down to a walk. This immediately got him revved up again, and the whole process started over. By the time we reached the trailer, I think I convinced him that I get to pick the speed. We walked over to the trailer where I called for Wayne, who came stumbling out of the truck still groggy with sleep. I reminded him I wanted some action shots, and we trotted down the road for our action shot debut. I'm positive Jasper could have gone another 10-15 miles without a problem, and so when we turned around, I let him canter. He's such a good boy.
Things I'm extremely happy with on this ride:
1. Jasper was not sticky at all leaving the trailer. He had incredible propulsion and really was looking forward to just going out.
2. Jasper DID NOT SPOOK ONE TIME. Not once. He looked at a couple rocks, but not at the trot. He was in full-blown professional mode, which is something we've been working on.
3. While we were trotting, I did have to keep a pretty steady hand on the rein. However, he had a relaxed happy expression on his face and was looking around obviously enjoying himself. I just think he would have much rather cantered the entire time.
4. When we returned to the trailer, he dug into his hay like a pro. I bought a new bale of really blue-green orchard grass from D&B and he really seems to like it better than the other stuff I had.
Things to work on:
1. Trailer loading. Blech.
2. We need to work on more homeward bound stuff.
3. Finding a park with more miles of trails. Even though we did a lot of technical stuff and hill work yesterday, we keep running into private land and our trails stop. All the uphill climb is only about 1.5 miles or so. Great for butt-building, not so great for mile-building.
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