Weekend to remember Part II

Sorry I was gone and didn't finish my part II, life got in the way.  Hopefully I can get back to normal though it isn't looking promising.  The week of Thanksgiving is going to be super busy as I have an impromptu road trip I have to go on, it is about a 35 hour round trip drive.  Ugh!

So when I read Nuzz Muzz's post today I realized I too have been neglecting my blog.  Bad blogger again!  I am having fun reading everyone else's blog but have been too busy to write in my own.  Alas here is a part II of my weekend to remember.

On Sunday I had 200 bales of hay delivered, I now only need 100 more bales and I will be set for the year and won't have to buy hay again until June/July.  Wahoo!  If that isn't something to be excited about I don't know what is.  Thankfully the boarder, her family and RB3 came over and helped me unload the hay.  As a result of the great help, we made quick work of it and was done in about 1.5 hours.  I did completely and totally fill the barn with hay though, enough that I have a pile of about 40 bales sitting in the middle of my barn between the tractors and the poo box because I have no room in my hay stalls.  Hopefully at the end of Dec I will have room for the last bit of hay AND the hay guy will still have hay left.  That is the price to pay when you don't have a hay loft I suppose.

After hay I loaded the TWH up and picked up RB3's horse and we went trail riding out at a state park that she goes to regularly.  It was a nice ride, the trails are well maintained and everything is clean.  TWH was an angel and his only spooky moment was when he was trying to figure out what the other horse spooked at lol.  RB3's horse threw some fits over a tiny bridge, going into water and down into a stream, at one point she slammed into the TWH and I as she tried to spin away from the stream.  Unfortunately she did a number on my knee and the rest of the next 2 weeks were spent trying to reduce the enormous amount of swelling from a suspected torn meniscus.  Ugh horses.  Finally I sent the TWH through the stream and he put his head down, inspected the mud and water and then walked through with cautiousness but no hesitation.  WAHOO!  After that RB3's horse followed and I had RB3 send her horse through again a couple of times to reinforce the good behavior and we continued.

We came to a small lake/large pond with a sandy beach and TWH walked right in it and we even trotted and cantered in it.  I was so proud of him!  He acted like this was absolutely no big deal at all, just how I hoped he would act.  I helped RB3 with some tips on getting her horse to accept the water and we continued on our trail.  We had fun cantering and even galloping through the fields and into the woods.  I had the TWH gallop up a pretty steep slope that I chose to go up instead of the gentle incline and he went perfectly willingly, almost excited for it, and even watched his feet at the top where some roots were exposed.  THIS is the XC horse I was hoping for and am very happy he has progressed to this point.  We only found one jump along the entire 2.5 hour trail, at the end there was a 2' tree in the path.  Most horses stepped over it but I have a XC horse and wanted to see if he would just jump it.  I kicked him into a canter and gave him lots of rein and while he gave a millisecond pause while he looked at it, he jumped over it just fine.  I sent him over a couple more times for fun and finished up the ride.

I had a fantastic weekend, despite getting lost on the way home (road didn't go where I thought it did, ended up in a residential housing area).  RB3 and the boarder were fantastic in making sure I had a great weekend and they were very successful.  I haven't ridden much since that weekend due to my knee, the time I did I paid for it the next day with a knee the size of my thigh so I have taken a short break. I have more to write about, teaching the donkey to lunge, new bedding and more.  Let's hope I can be better about writing it down!