I Really REALLY Love My Horse!

Fri Nov 24, 2006

Got up to 59 degrees today, sunny, breezy, GORGEOUS day!!! Unbelievably
so, especially late November in Northern Michigan!!

Took Coos on another trail ride this afternoon, but not before washing his BLACK
tail...black from all the MUD its been dragging in. He can't raise it up like he
used to, so it just slogs along behind him when he wades through the cannon-deep
shit and muck coming in from the pasture. Since it was in the mid-50's, I didn't
mind washing his tail while he grazed. Took a couple of scrubbings but I finally
got the black to its usual yellowy-white, LOL. I figured it could dry while I
ride, and when we get back, THEN I'll condition it and put it up for the winter,
out of mud-range.

Unlike yesterday, he surprised me by making the right hand turn to leave the
barn property without a fuss! No spinning, no rearing, no halting and
backing....of course part of that might be because I constantly had the spurs in
his sides the whole time and kept him moving forward, LOL. (NO, I wasn't gouging
him viciously, just an alternating right-left-right-left leg pressure)

Again, we stuck to the roads, not going IN to any woodlands...heard a LOT of
gunfire, unlike yesterday. As I mentioned previously, there were guys in the
woods cutting down trees...OH my GOSH, that was SO SCARY! LOL...Poor Coos
stopped dead in his tracks and STARED at them...and every time the chainsaw
started he jumped...poor guy, I could feel his heart pounding away through the
leather of the saddle, it was pounding that hard!

But, my Brave, Brave Horse trusted me, and we were able to inch our way past the
Scary Lumbermen (well, they were about 100 feet off into the woods, but that was
close enough for him...and w/o any leaves on the trees, we could see them pretty
well). JUST as we make it past the scary lumber guys and their chainsaws...this
HUGE semi truck turns down our dirt road!! Thankfully he didn't have a trailer,
just the cab, but all the gears were rumbling and the exhaust was blatting...he
passed us, the horse didn't twitch an ear, he didn't care!! What a good boy!

We walked and trotted along the road, only a few cars passed us...he's SO good
along roads...more concerned about dark broken chunks of asphalt on the shoulder
than pick-up trucks whizzing past! Thankfully everybody slowed and moved into
the opposite lane...I had my hunter orange sweatshirt on, so I'm sure visibility
was a BIG factor in giving them warning, LOL!

We cut down another dirt road...lots and lots of scary redneck hovels down there
(travel trailers with shacks built onto them, abandoned houses, etc, just a
lovely neighborhood), and some guy was out in his yard talking on a cell
phone....Coos thought THAT was terrifying, but I got him past it (horses are SO
worried about humans that just stand there and don't do anything!)

Once past all the redneck hovels, we got to trottin'.....and trottin' gave way
to cantering...and cantering gave way to GALLOPING! YeeeHOOOOO! I can't remember
that hoss running' so fast (except the day of our accident 2 years ago). Just
total Happy To Be A Horse, he just ran and ran and ran and tucked his head (and
I kept hauling it back up because I didn't know if he aimed to start
bucking!!!)...SOMEthing scared him about halfway up the road and he spooked at a
gallop...that was interesting...I think that's when our bear bells came loose,
and I lost hold of one rein, but thankfully I had the reins crossed over his
neck so I was able to grab it up again, LOL!

He came down to a trot near the end of the road (where it turns into a 2-track
into the forest), and I trotted him around the turn-around and we headed right
back the way he came! THEN he really got happy, LOL...little shit got into a
canter again...but not quite a full gallop...more of a hand gallop! Again he
SPOOKED in mid-gallop, this time at a dumpster at the end of a driveway, but I
didn't drop anything that time, and we galloped until we came to the redneck
neighborhood again, then trotted back to the paved road. By that time he was
ready to WALK, LOL. Not often I can get that boy puffing and huffing, because
rarely can I get him to DO anything!

Nice relaxing walk/trot back to the barn...he was less worried about the loggers
heading home, but kept an eye on them all the same. Poor boy actually worked up
a sweat...not hard to do with 59 degrees and a full winter fur coat!

Well, he got to enjoy more grass and I braided up/wrapped his tail (nice bright
red vet wrap for hunting season). Tomorrow's supposed to be just as lovely, but
I don't know if I'll take him out or wait 'til Sunday. We shall see.

I'm just not used to such an amazingly GOOD horse!! Well, other than him trying
to bite me every time I untie him to put him in his stall, LOL...other than
that, he's an amazingly good horse!!