I'm not old!
Truby is a tremendous pain in the patoot to find a saddle that fits, and she kinda hulked out this summer. Our favorite Black Country saddle was now too tight, and I've been trying to find a replacement. I think I found a winner with a Startrekk Icelandic saddle. Yup, an Icelandic saddle. It looks much like a normal dressage saddle, but it's specially designed for wide shoulders and an ultra forward girth groove. Since I'm still sorting out gullets and pads and such, (and it's still hot!) I decided to do a few walk laps around the ring, and then do a loop on the Backyard Trail.
This used to be low, scraggly dried grass
I was taken completely by surprise by Truby's attitude as we headed down the trail. She was bold. She was confident. She strode out eagerly with her ears up and a long stride. I'm not sure where that horse came from, but holy cow!
She actually felt a bit TOO bold, but since I really want to encourage her to be confident and brave on the trails, I decided just to let her be as bold as she wanted. I can always work on reining her in, after she's got a good "I got this" attitude installed.
We haven't been back on the Backyard Trail in awhile, and not since the monsoons, and it looks so different! The little dried grasses at the beginning have grown almost knee high (my knees while riding!) and were quite thick and bushy. Lots of the trees have broadened branches across the trail.
We hadn't gone too far when we came to a beautiful spiderweb square across the trail. With a big spider sitting right in the middle. I halted Truby with the intent of turning around. I didn't want to break through the web, especially not with my horse's face. Buuuut, Truby only paused for a few seconds before plowing through. I frantically tried to find the spider to make sure it wasn't ON me, as I brushed away tattered bits of web.
Not really thrilled with the experience, when we came across another, even bigger web, with another, even larger spider sitting square in the middle, I again asked Truby to stop. NO WAY am I going through this one- -- oh, and there goes Truby. Busting face first through the spiderweb.
I grabbed a branch, trying to hold it as far away from myself as I could. As Truby burst ahead, I watched one very arngry spider scuttling across her web, and right toward the branch. And of course, since I came directly from work, I was wearing a tank top. And all I could feel was delicate strands of webbing and god knows what creepy crawlies all over my shoulders and bare arms.
SO MAD
Luckily, the next part of the trail was free from spiders. Lots of overgrown branches. Truby was still striding right along, and even with my leaning low over her neck, or twisting to avoid branches or try to push them out of the way of my face, she still trucked right along. That surprised me. Truby's default has always been to gently stop if she feels her rider lose balance. But today was Web Breaker Truby, and she was going places!
And then we got to here
Then we reached the bend just before the compost heap. Truby stopped, and got super tense. Her head came up, and I felt her entire body lift a bit in that sickening HOLY SHIT I'M GONNA FREAK OUT!!!!!!!! thing they do, and there's nothing to do about it. To high to control with the reins at all, so tense and ready to fly at the teeniest bit of leg. I HATE HATE HATE that feel. Hate it.
So I let her stop. I talked calmly and cheerfully to her. I let her look. And the instant she began to relax I asked her to go forward. And to my surprise, she did. Now, she did try to turn around, but she's didn't whirl or spin, so yay! I just completed the circle and urged her on. She was very tense, and so ready to whirl and run, but I kept talking and sitting very quietly on her, and we made it past. She relaxed a bit more once the brush pile was behind us, but was still very tense. Luckily it was almost the end of the trail. She stopped once more, when the neighboring paddocks come into view, but walked on. The actual turn out at the end of the trail was really overgrown, so I opted to do a tiny half circle on the clear part of the trail, instead of risk completely freaking her out by wading into chest high grasses.
She calmed a bit once we were heading back, and once we passed the brush pile, she let out a huge sigh, dropped her head, and motored down the trail, strong and confident once more.
We'll call it 98% brave
I'm not sure what upset her so much, but I have seen coyotes skulking about, and once startled a family of quail out of the brush pile, so there probably was something scary in there. We do have some dangerous wildlife out here, and I prefer Truby go with her instinct than possibly get ambushed. Of course, if it was just some quail...they're far too cute (and too dumb) to be scary, but we'll err on the side of caution.
On the way back we passed a very annoyed spider reeling in the tattered remains of her once glorious web. I swear, she looked pissed, and I'm sure I heard her cussing us as we went past. Truby didn't care though, and we finished our ride on a high note.
Even though our ride was only 20 minutes, Truby was soaked under her saddle pads, and felt sticky all over. She good cookies and good pony pats and praise, and I hosed her off. Then I turned her back out, for the ultimate Grey Horse Reward: rolling in the dust while soaking wet.
We had a lot of fun, and I'm thrilled at her bravery and change of attitude out on the trail...even if it's still on the property. Once it cools down, I have some plans to try and take her to Saguaro National Park, part of which is a very short trailer ride away. But first it's going to be another 100+ week, and then I go on vacation(!) hopefully I return to more fall like weather. I can't even type that without laughing!
haha I know what you mean I hate when they feel like their head and necks are going to pop right off their bodies without prompting! Glad she found her marbles and put her brave pants on
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