Hooray for Trail Rides!

She was perfect!


I don't have many pictures, because I was too engrossed in enjoying our lovely trail ride! But she was so, so, SO good.

I went out to find Nick, Ann, and Nick's fiancée Heather tacking up for a trail ride. Nick was like, hey, get your girl, come out with us!

So I did.

Nick asked if I'd need help getting her into her stall. I said I didn't think so. And then, she made me a very proud horse mom: she walked right into her stall in front of everyone. Good girl!!

And she wasn't girthy at all when I tacked her up. Not a single grumpy face, even though I was being quick about it!

And when I went to mount up on a plastic chair, she stood perfectly still. Perfectly still. No steps forward, backward, sideways... no wiggles at all!

We rode off and she was so good. She rode point in front with Swani (the palomino mare Heather was riding). Rei really likes to be in front, and so does Swani, so it worked out fabulously!

Reina didn't spook once. She jumped a bit at a bunny that took off through the forest right next to her, and she snorted at the baby hogs that were running around. But that was it! Otherwise she was calm, cool, and collected!

We trotted a bit for fun, because hey, who doesn't like to go fast? But she was terribly good, perfectly well-behaved. She didn't even kick or bite Blue, who she hates with a passion! Blue was riding up on her butt for part of the trail ride, and she'd pin her ears intermittently, but that's all she did. Nothing else!

I'm so dang proud of my beautiful mare. She's so good, and tries so very hard for me! I couldn't ask for a better, more willing partner!! I think we both really benefited from today's trail ride... it was so fun, and relaxing, and I realized that I trust her completely on trails. The prospect of riding out on her, anywhere.. it's not daunting at all anymore. She walks right past flags, hogs, bunnies, water, crazy random pieces of trash. She walks through water, tall grass, sticks scraping her accidentally...

Yep. She's amazing. I'm so glad I have her!

We came home and she was perfect about that, too - no impatience to speak of! I rode her on a loose rein the whole time.

She walked into the stall twice more without any issues at all - once for me to untack her, and again after I rinsed her off so I could brush her a bit. I gave her another targeting lesson while she was being rinsed - there were orange wires on a chair she snorted at, so I gave her treats for touching them. I almost had her doing it on command.

We worked a little bit on lightness - working on her backing up without me touching her or tacking the slack out of the lead. I'd just walk towards her to give her more time to respond. She was starting to understand and be more consistent with it, yay!

Then I called it a night and turned her out. Did I mention that she's amazing?


Oh, and the moon was giant tonight:

Yeah, that thing that's as bright as the lights? The white light next to the red traffic light? That's the moon. Crazy, right?

Nick has some trail rides coming up that are gonna go out to some national park with wildlife and stuff. Hopefully, if my school schedule permits it, Reina and I will be going out there, too! We'll see how she likes new trails!