When we got to the parking area I unloaded Beauty from the trailer and tied her so I could put on her equipment. I heard an angry yowl from the tack room of the trailer, and when I opened the door I discovered Sabbath, my black barn cat, had stowed away in the gooseneck. He was not pleased with his unplanned road trip. I had to make a hasty decision about what to do with him. If he sneaked out the door while we were at the trail head he would wander off and I would lose him. I couldn't leave him loose in the tack room because each time the door opened he tried to escape. I decided to shove him into my tack trunk and latch it shut. He wasn't pleased with this solution, either, and continued to yowl and moan from inside the box. I didn't want a random passer-by to hear him and open the door to see what the matter was, letting him escape and get lost, so once I had Beauty all tacked up I locked the tack room door as well.
With Owen in the lead we started down the trail. We went about 5.5 miles total, Owen running, Beauty and I trotting and cantering. Parts of the trail are a little technical, with rocks in the path and sharp turns and switchbacks along the hillside. Beauty was a rockstar, she was careful with her feet, and did really well keeping up with Owen. She jumped the parts where there were lines of rocks in the trail to minimize erosion, and when we were cantering and there were tight turns or switchbacks she did either simple or flying lead changes to stay balanced in the corners. There were a few places where we simply had to walk because of footing, and Owen got a little ahead of us. Whenever he would round a corner and disappear out of sight Beauty would call to him, whinnying for him to wait for us!
At about the halfway point there is a large wooden bridge, which Owen ran across and Beauty obediently followed him with no hesitation. On our way back, I took some video with my phone of us trotting behind Owen and then crossing the bridge. It's a little shaky since I took it while we were trotting, but you can watch it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hd83W2CKy9s
After crossing the bridge I decided to let Beauty play in the water since she was pretty warm and sweaty. She LOVED the water. Her owner told me that Beauty will dip her whole face in her water tank when she gets hot. Beauty marched right into the river, and began pawing at the water. I was careful to pay attention since often horses will lie down in the water if they start pawing at it. She didn't lie down, but she waded out until it was fairly deep and pawed some more to cool herself off. We were pretty soaked, but much cooler. Owen got some video of her playing in the water, and that can be viewed here:
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10206243686868560&pnref=story
Then we headed back to the trail head, continuing to trot and canter most of the way. We took little walk breaks, and then whinny at Owen some more as he would turn a corner and go out of our sight. Finally we made it back to the trailer.
I went to unlock the tack room door only to discover that the lock was jammed, and my key wouldn't turn. Sabbath was still in the latched tack trunk in the locked tack room, and I had no way to get him out! I untacked Beauty and put the equipment in the back seat of my truck, and after loading Beauty into the trailer we headed home. Once back at the ranch Owen had the thought to spritz a little WD-40 in the lock, and fortunately that worked and he was able to free Sabbath. Impressively, Sabbath didn't come launching out of the trunk with claws and teeth bared, he slowly lifted his head and looked around. When he realized he was home he sauntered out of the trailer and went to lie down on the picnic table to have his belly rubbed. I thought this little adventure would deter him from re-entering the trailer, but not ten minutes later he was back in there, looking around again. I guess Miles isn't the only stowaway we have on the place.
No comments:
Post a Comment