Went for a trail ride/hack with my 2 girls and our neighbor girl, decided to head the direction that takes us across 3 water crossings. Kelly was bragging about how Tahoe now crosses water but when we actually got to it, Tahoe had different ideas about that! Cody slid down the bank into it and we waited on the other side while Tahoe fussed around, kept whirling away, doing mini-rears. Kelly did a good job of handling him and managed to get him into the water riding the opposite direction down the stream but when she would turn him around and try to ride him upstream past some bushes and a palm tree to get to the other side, he'd whirl and scramble back up the bank, really didn't want to go between the palm tree and bushes. Did that scenario several times, tried blocking his way with Cody, finally she was frustrated so I traded horses and got on him. He's a quick bugger! He'd be a good cutting horse or barrel horse 'cause he can whirl around in the blink of an eye. Finally got him to where he couldn't get turned around so then he started rearing a little higher, kept making him flex and booting him to keep him straight and would smack him with the crop, then get him to take a couple steps forward, let him relax, then ask for more. He kept backing into the bushes, getting too close to the trees for my comfort (it's like they know.......) yet, when we would stop, he'd start trying to eat the bushes. He was shaking after about 15 minutes..... The kids were getting antsy so finally I hopped off and led him down to another spot and he followed me across on foot. Kelly was able to get him across the two other water crossings which have less steep entries by going last with the rest of us leaving him behind! Sigh..... he was doing really well so I'm not sure why he decided he couldn't cross water all of a sudden, especially when Kelly was so positive about him doing it...... who knows what goes on in the minds of horses!
Cody was strange at the beginning. We were riding down the bridle path next to a street and there was a kid with a very big, elderly dog walking on the opposite side. Cody just couldn't get a handle on what that thing was, a bear??? He kept looking, raising and lowering his head, turning and then started prancing, yes, prancing along very lightly which felt good and bad at the same time, kinda like he was going to freak but very nice and collected at the same time! I tried to let him stop and look at it several times, said Hi to the kid who just looked at us and wouldn't say anything...... luckily after about 1/4 mi. they turned and went down another street and Cody went back to being his usual sane self!
Such a pretty evening out there, did lots of trotting. Kelly took some pictures so when I get her camera disc I'll put some on here. I sure wish Tahoe handled his nerves better. I hate it when they go up to escape and we've gotten good about not pulling back, but keeping his head low or turning him so he can't really get himself up there...... he's such a city boy. As soon as we get off the trail onto the street, he heaves a big sigh and his head goes down......