Well, last night was my after work trail ride of the year.  I rode both horses on the trail over the weekend with my sister, and they were excellent, so I wasn’t expecting much in the way of problems.  They would be by themselves, though.  The river was too high to cross, so I could only ride the hill back and forth to it—about a half mile round trip.

I had time for one and a half trail rides.  Cruiser was the first horse.  He was supposed to be the easy one.  At nearly 25 years with several decades of trail riding, this should have been quiet, but he wasn’t.  A leopard can’t change his spots—and an energetic Morab can’t, either.  He was as hyper as he gets.  He didn’t walk, but gaited down the hill at top speed.  Once we got to the bottom, I trotted a little bit—and he was like riding a stick of dynamite.  He gaited back up the hill.  He wouldn’t stop.  It was a real struggle to turn him around to do another trip.  You would think he would walk down, pouting that he had to do another trip. No, he gaited back down. 

At the bottom, I just kept trotting him back and forth until I finally felt him relax.  He gaited back up the hill.  At this point, I figured out the problem.  Not only was he excited to be out on the trail during the evening, but he may have been looking for Starry, his neighbor and buddy.  My boyfriend was cleaning his stall and moved him to an empty stall in another barn so he would be out of the way.  Cruiser probably thought he was down trail.  He was playing the “find Starry” game. 

When I managed to get him turned around, and he finally walked down the hill.  On his third trip up, he didn’t gait—he walked fast instead.  Back at the barn, he relaxed and I led him around to cool him down. 

I only had time to take Cole on the hill for one trip.  Cole has had off and on problems on the hill, and he has never been very good on evening trail rides, either.  This year, my plan is to conquer that problem and trail ride him as much as possible.  I opted to lead, rather than ride.  He was perfect.  My 5-year-old was better than my experienced 24-year-old.  When I got back, I rode him in the arena for a while and pondered how lucky I was.  I know Cruiser will get better as the spring progresses.  He always does.  My guess is that Cole will, too.  I should have a great summer.