Poptart had the weekend off as Graham and I worked on fencing the future riding arena. However last weekend we had a great 3 hour, 7 mile trail ride at Sandy Ridge/Squirrel Gap in the George Washington National Forest with Chance and Missy. We encountered lots of potential horse-devouring rocks and boulders (none actually lept out and attacked the horses, imagine that!! LOL!); a nice hiker admiring the view -- this time Poptart recognized him as a normal human, yay!!; a flock of, thankfully calm, turkeys; another horse-eating boulder that had blowing leaves next to it -- OH MY, Chance had to be brave and take the lead :); a large buck deer that galloped across the trail in front of us-- apparently this was normal and not a cause to be worried; a stick that caught on Poptarts hind leg-- this was the scariest moment as this is what landed me in the ER this summer, but this time Poptart squatted, kicked at it and listened very well to my 1-rein stop instead of having a bucking panic attack, Yay Progress!!!; a lost hoof boot on a steep and rocky downhill-- this was impressive because at first I tied Poptart with Chance and Missy while I went to search for the boot, but he paced and wanted to come with me rather than stay with the other horse-- more progress and relationship building :); and the rest went great-- Missy and I practiced 'leap-frogging' and transitions on the nice gravel forest-service road, got loads of nice trotting and about 2 strides of canter.
And this coming weekend we have an overnight trip to an in-hand despooking clinic in Nokesville, VA. Fun, fun!!!
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