Two Days of Terrible

I should have been very suspicious on Friday morning when my packing and loading were way ahead of schedule. But no, I took it as a good sign and merrily hit the road whistling along with Oscar, excited to dig into another book on CD. Everything went really well until we hit Whitebird pass, which is a fairly long and steep downhill where it's common to see overheated trucks and cars on the shoulder of the up side. Suddenly, when I would hit the brakes, the trailer brakes would grab, I'd hear a terrifying "chunk" as the trailer hitch engaged the truck, and the truck would lurch backwards. I immediately stopped, although the process of stopping involved more of a horrible lurching forwards and backwards motion reminiscent of my early stick-shift learning days. I got out, checked Jasper (who looked no more than concerned for my driving skills), got back in the truck, re-adjusted the tow module and chalked it up to a freak accident. Everything seemed fine again until we got to Cascade, where suddenly and spontaneously it got much, much worse while turning out of the Subway parking lot. I stopped at an auto mechanic to ask for help, and he really tried to help but didn't know a thing about tow modules. I stopped at the feed store, hopeful that someone inside would be able to lend a helping hand. They gave me the number for the Dodge dealership in town. When I called, they told me, "Sorry, we don't have anything that would be able to test your trailer. Good luck!" I was terrified and feeling alone and Wayne had his phone turned off for a work function. Poor Jasper was really getting sick of being tossed around in the trailer, so I did the unthinkable and completely unplugged the trailer for the drive back into Boise. It took FOREVER and we annoyed dozens of drivers, but we made it safe and sound.

Jasper was ecstatic to get out of the trailer, and seemed none the worse for the wear. He celebrated being back "home" by taking numerous happy laps around the field, bucking and tossing his head for good measure.

The trailer's going into the dealership early tomorrow, and hopefully it will be a quick and easy fix. Wayne's convinced it's a dead short (????) on the trailer side of things, so we'll see. It's pretty scary, and we've been driving around with the trailer unplugged, which is always exciting and illegal.

...........................................................

I was looking forward to getting out for a training ride with a couple friends yesterday, since Jasper had five days off due to the horrible Pullman weather and his dental. We loaded he and Cricket without incident and headed out for Eagle. I was a little anxious since Jasper and I usually only ride alone or with one other person, but remembered he'd been fine in the past and figured yesterday would be no different.

When we started out, Jasper and I were in the lead and I was fighting him HARD not to canter the entire time. His lovely extended trot powered up the long incline at the beginning, and when we reached the top I assumed he would settle back down into professional mode and allow my upper body a break. Once again, I assumed wrong. He spent the entirety of the two hour ride fighting me to canter, and within 25 minutes or so, I'd already worn blisters on the ring fingers of both hands. The biggest concern, however, was when we were not in the lead. He would suddenly morph into a fire-breathing dragon with his jigging, head tossing, side-ways cantering and threatening to bite the horse in front of him when they were not going nearly fast enough for princess Jasper. "Uh-oh," I thought. I've got a really, really well conditioned horse that's had five days off and plenty of food in front of him that's suddenly decided this was a competition that he needed to win, with or without me. Numerous times when we were in the back of the pack and he decided to break into the sideways canter, he got turned and trotted away from the group. Unfortunately, this only served to amp him up even more, and it was quickly turning into a battle I didn't think I could win. We regrouped and decided Jasper would be put into the middle of our pack and we would try to take it easy. We were trotting down a really fun and windy sand wash that, under normal circumstances, would be a blast to ride. Although he was behaving better, I was still having an incredibly hard time holding him back. At this point, I was essentially a passenger who was attempting to communicate "DO NOT RUN" through seat and bit aids and was only being marginally successful. I half-halted him every other stride and tried to talk him down from his competitive mindset. Ugh, it was exhausting.

When we finally reached the end of the trail, we gave the horses a break to nibble grass and drink from a puddle. I was shocked when the princess deigned himself to take a deep drink from the water, and relieved when he temporarily gave up the race to eat grass so I could catch my breath and re-evaluate. When we headed back towards home, we did so on a dirt road and allowed Wayne and Cricket to lead. They did a really great job, and I was happy to see that the two of them seem to work really well together while in a group. Jasper was slightly more well-behaved when we were in a clump rather than a line, although I was still fighting to keep him behind Cricket so he could have a turn being leader. When we were finally on the home-stretch, we took a walking break which only seemed to revitalize Jasper further, and he started jigging once again. I pulled him over to a parallel trail and started working him away from the group, side-passing and bending and doing small circles. All was well until the group decided to trot, and Jasper short circuited once again. We walked for a little longer and when I was moderately certain he would maintain a nice trot, I asked him to do so. Quickly, though, he was back doing the side-ways canter, and we circled and had other discussions. Almost immediately he began again--this time, though, he was heading towards a group of three rock chuck holes. I told him he'd better stop and kicked him forward rather than sideways, but it wasn't to be. He side-pass cantered and both hind legs sunk into the unstable dirt surrounding the holes. He went to his knees, and I went partially over the side. I decided it would be easier for me to set myself on the ground, and did so while Jasper righted himself, shook himself off, and took off at a break neck gallop towards the group of horses. I dusted myself off and calmly walked after my horse. Sigh. I remounted after checking him over, and he seemed none the worse for the wear, other than a renewed desire to gallop home after his little break.

We made it back to the trailer without another incident (well, other than another huge spook at a horse eating comforter), and I was exhausted and dissappointed in my horse. We have a LOT to work on in the next three weeks, or else I'm going to be stuck with this fire breathing dragon at our first ride. I'm heading out to the barn today to do some arena work, which is an area we've been neglecting since the weather's been nice and Lacy has been more than happy to go riding.

The good news is, yesterday's 8.5 miles with a still-fresh horse let me know he's definitely physically ready to do our first 25. Now we need to do some major work on the mental and disciplinary side of that. It's never good when devil-horse Cricket looks like the most perfect angel in comparison to my normally well-behaved horse. I am happy, though, that Cricket was good.

Honestly.