Into the Woods

I worked so hard in the yard yesterday, and it was still in the 80's after 6 p.m., I was in NO mood or condition to ride the horse! But hey, that's why I trained him to DRIVE, ha ha!!

It was a BEAUTIFUL evening, a soft breeze blowing, the horse was halfway through his dinner when I got there, and he was sooooo slow and unenthused, I had to drag him from his stall and down the aisleway. Good!!

Got him brushed and harnessed and hitched without any problems, but once I told him to "Quzqo, WALK!" he leaned into the breast collar and hiked right up the hill and away we went! Once we got to the paved road he slowwwwed waaaay dowwwnnn...but that's okay, it was such a peaceful evening, very little traffic being Father's Day/Sunday evening, I was content to just dawdle down the road, listening to the birds and crickets.

We went in a different direction from last week, I've had enough of angry rednecks yelling at us. This other residential road is full of higher-class people with nicer yards and better attitudes, who are more likely to holler out "Your horse is pretty!" than "Git back here, Killer!!"

Didn't see much of any people, there were some rednecks further down sitting on the steps of their singlewide while their red hound dawg barked and bayed at us, and I heard them laughing, but don't know at what.

Got Quz trotting, and THAT he was interested in! That previous sluggishness disappeared, and he booked right along, ears forward, clip clop clip clop merrily along!!

We left the paved road and headed into the State forest at the end of the road...lovely flat wide dirt roads for miles and miles! Much to my surprise, Quzqo kept on trotting...normally he wants to walk so he can shy at stumps and dappled sunlight on the road, but no, this time he wanted to GOGOGO!! So I let him!

We blew past "Calamity Corners" (the spot where I fell off Tezlu on Father's Day in 2000 after being chased by dirt bikers) and headed straight instead of turning left as usual, and headed for the human camp ground instead of the horse camp ground to the north. What the heck, I haven't been that way since Tezlu times!! Beautiful deep woods, oaks and maples...we had a car come up behind us, but there's enough cutouts in the roadside (because this part isn't wide enough for two cars to pass), and we ducked into one of those so the guys could pass.

There were a few more cars, and we came to an intersection of dirt roads. To the left was the road to the human campground, to the right was the road out to another paved road, and I don't know (yet) where the straight-ahead leads! We stopped to let the traffic clear, and then I found out why Quzqo was constantly switching his tail...MOSQUITOES! There were zillions of them, EVERYwhere, clouds of them, and they were all biting us!! I was trying to swat bugs and hold the reins, the horse was cranking his tail and flinging his head and wiggling.... soon as the last car crept by, we turned around, I put Quzqo into overdrive, and we TORE out of there at a road-eating trot! It was GREAT..the road was smooth, we left the mosquitoes far behind, and that horse was just trotting and trotting. I was impressed that he didn't want to slow, so I didn't ask him to. We made it totally out of the State forest, had to be a mile easily, got across an intersection, and got him trotting again, and he went on, at a slower, more civilized pace!

Towards the end of the road I got him walking, then I noticed him LIMPING on his left fore! Shit!! It wasn't a big limp, but noticeable...so we walked, but the further we walked, the less the limp, and by the time we got back to the barn, he was fine. After untacking him, I examined his foot, and there was a spot where it looked like a stone had hit the sole, but he wasn't tender about it. Who knows.

I was SO pleased at how well he did...no spooking, no shying, even leftover Graduation Party balloons tied to a mailbox didn't bother him! Glad to be getting the old Quzqo back again!!!

LOL...there's now a Belgian in the stall right next door to Quz...talk about a contrast of sizes!!!