Don’t worry, I hiked with him, and we returned together. I needed some horse therapy this afternoon and decided a good brisk walk would do me good. Joey needs to get out and see the world in any way he can and it’s boring to be alone walking sometimes, so I haltered him and brought him along.

Ready for action, though the weather and horse look somewhat ambivalent..

He started out pretty excited about things, of course Sheza screaming at us as we walked past her fence line up the road didn’t help. Nor did the three new horses in the field across the road, who cantered up out of the bushes and about gave him a heart attack, then trotted along side us through the crunchy woods. I sang a little tune and breathed and kept him moving forward and as soon as we got away from the pasture lines he settled. A neighbor stopped to ask if I was from the horse rescue at the end of the road (UGH, NO I am not), and Joey whinnied and got anxious when we stopped so I wished her a nice day and kept moving.

Who, what, where?

It was slow progress, walking a few steps, stopping to stare at something or have a bite of grass, and a few more steps. Once he seemed settled and was getting greedy in the grass alongside the road I upped the pace a bit and we climbed a pretty steep short hill.

Always ready to eat anything:

He walked along behind or next to me on a loose lead, and stood quietly as cars passed us at various speeds. Sometimes he walked with his nose to the ground like a blood hound and he tried to eat everything. He didn’t pursue the big intact prickly green pine cones very far but did try to eat a smushed one, grazed greedily whether the grass was red, brown, or green, and pooped and pooped. Good signs for an endurance prospect, yes?

After the hill climb and another descent, we climbed a longer, steeper hill that had us both breathing pretty good. As we crested it and came out into the open again we saw it. A field of incredibly weird looking black things. Joey saw it first:

Holy Crapsilon, what are those things?!

The offending creatures:

He stood absolutely stock still in that alerted pose for probably a minute and a half, didn’t blink or move a muscle just STARED. Finally he lowered his head, sucked in a breath, and blew a loud, obnoxious snort. He that a couple more times, licked and chewed, and was ready to walk on. Of course some curious smart ass little cow decided to trot after us and that got him swinging around to stare again:

No, seriously, what are those?!

Pretty clouds, pretty boy:

The clouds were getting a bit ominous and the temperature was dropping, so we decided to turn around after about a mile and a half.

Hmm, we might be getting wet..

We made it past the cow herd again, down the hill, and this time I got a picture of the little concrete bridge crossing:

It got eye balled long and hard, and then we crossed:

His feet were moving but his ears said “Really?”

It started to sprinkle and then rain pretty consistently in the last half mile to home. I put my sweatshirt back on and encouraged Joey forward when he wanted to graze, and we made it back in the gate after 3 miles in about an hour and a half.

Almost home, in the rain:

Joey was a very good boy and it was great practice for both of us on a number of things. And it was fun, and a workout. So many benefits, I just might have to do it again!

We were back to the trailers just before 2. Most of the other rigs were gone and there were really nice horse and dog troughs, as well as a hose with a good nozzle to hose the horses down. Sweet amenities!

We hosed the horses off and let them relax and scarf for a few minutes.

A little deer herd wandered out into the parking lot and strolled on out the other side into the forest.

We ended up riding 9 miles in about 3 hours and what with all the circumstances, it was plenty. It was a great ride! Perfect weather and interesting trails and scenery, and so fun to be out on the trails with the first riding buddy I made when I moved to this area 4 years ago. I’ve known J and Chiefy the longest of any person and horse in my new Foothill life, and it’s neat to be able to feel “Remember When” moments with them already. We always have a blast on the trails. The plan is to do another ride next week, it’s fun to just drive down and have an awesome horse to ride in a different place, plus both of J’s horses get worked.

What a great day. Bedtime!

B ran the stick all over and up and down his body and legs and under his belly with very minimal protestation from Joey. His protestation almost always takes the form of moving away, whether circling or backing, and she permitted it but moved with him, persisting with what she was doing. He wasn’t wild or panicked, but trying to move away. Moving with him, backwards or in a circle, she gave him an out but persisted with whatever she was trying to touch, and he quickly realized that while he wasn’t trapped or in trouble, she wasn’t going away. Commence stopping, licking and chewing. Smart boy.

Once he seemed unimpressed by the whip being run all over both sides of his bodies and down the inside and outs of his legs, she put the lunge line on to use as a leg desensitizing aid. I’m *so* glad I sprung for the new 30′ thinner yacht rope lunge line, it sings through your hands and wraps around the legs as nicely as a rope will. My other lunge line was fat, bulky cotton and was such a pain in the butt.

B letting the rope wrap around and up and down his hind legs:

The blanket incident has made him pretty touchy about his right side, specifically his right hind leg. The trimmer has had both of his front hooves up on the stand (not at the same time..) and she has rasped some on each, but the hind legs were a no go zone thus far. That potential danger zone that orbits in my head since my accident had the whole nervous/spazzy response to touching hind legs with a firm Trainer Goes First label on it. Plus, I hadn’t been getting through to him about it the way I was doing it, and knew I needed to adjust something.

Here’s the thing. And this is probably like DUH for some of you out there, but maybe someone will learn from it, too. I was approaching things with Joey from a Clinton Anderson-esque stand point–now I don’t claim to be a serious student of any of the big name trainers, so if it’s more like someone’s else’s approach, that’s gravy, I’m no expert–in that when he didn’t permit the feet to be touched, I sent him out to work, and move his feet. Problem is, Joey has NO problem moving his feet, in fact if given the opportunity he’d rather orbit around the round pen at a booming trot for an hour than play the feet touching game. While the approach worked pretty darn well with my Arab filly Sheza–silly but young and fat and impressionable– it wasn’t even close to working with Joey, an adult horse with minimal handling in his past who is relatively fit and has his own opinions on the world.

Joey in his Hackney show Pony disguise 😉

SO, the big revelation moment? Using the moving out around the round pen as the release of tension, rather than the “you go off and move your feet til I tell you to stop.” B worked with him, patiently circling around and around with him as he tried to move his right hind leg away, until he clearly got irritated, which he kindly exhibited with some tail swishing and a pretend “stomp at a fly”, then she persisted just a little more, in this case him letting her just touch that right hind hock, and then she backed off and let him move off around the perimeter. Didn’t drive him, just let him move out around the round pen, on the lunge line. He trotted at first but then gave a few anxious/irritated head tosses and broke into a canter. You could see him “running it out” as it were, and after just 10 or 12 circuits (hey better than an hour!)  he dropped his head and clearly asked to stop. She brought him back to the working space, and went to it again. Only twice in about a 45 minute session did he move out and do this, burning off a little steam before coming back in and trying his best.

He never got wild, or mean. He was always willing, and when he didn’t want to he was very mild about it, as in circling or backing, as opposed to being on the aggressive in any way. The way that B just moved with him and let him always have an out was genius, Joey is still an uncertain horse, low on the totem pole, in a new home. He didn’t know B from Joe Schmoe but he felt her energy and and tried very hard for her. In the end she ran the stick all over his body and between and around his legs, touched him all over with the rope, wrapped it around his legs, dangled it over his hocks, picked up his front feet, and ran her hands all over and up and down his beloved, Off Limits hind legs.

Touching the right hind, his least favorite (or perhaps most favorite?) leg. Observing closely to make sure the leg is still there when the annoying human is done:

 Whatcha doing back there?

Picking up the right front, he’s decent with the fronts but the right is always the stickier side:

At the end, he didn’t want to have his ear rubbed, so B rubbed it. That’s what I love about her. She is almost annoyingly persistent, but calm and gentle about it so that the horses may be irritated/annoyed/scared to start with but are surprisingly accepting before you know it.

Joey likes his hose baths so he had one for a nice ending to his training session:

He loves drinking out of the hose:

Just when he thought it was all fun and rewards again, the hose moved from his mouth to his head, and he found himself  drowning! Or so he thought. He tried to move away at first but after a few seconds just stood and let it flow over his head. You just can’t win with this human, buddy, you’ve met your match! And I’m his match too, with a little coaching from B    🙂

Try to drown me human, you get the Wild Stink Eye!

Licking and chewing, he did lots of that today:

A celebratory roll:

Heading off to hang out with his buddy Blaze who watched the whole thing from his (literal) loafing shed

I noticed a seemingly sudden saddle fit issue at the Cache Creek Ridge Ride 50 miler the weekend before last, and when the trimmer came out the following Tuesday we could see that Desire wouldn’t/couldn’t square up and one hip was slightly higher than the other! I sent out the help call for recommendations on a local chiropractor and got many responses in favor of Dr. Sue Thompson out of Paradise, CA.