We drove down Friday afternoon and stayed in the living quarters of my horse trailer while the geldings enjoyed their paddock and pasture.
Saturday morning Owen, Rizzo, and I went to Miss Pea's barn and I was able to find two saddles that worked for her. Kathy rode her in the Stubben that Pea worked in when she lived here, and it still was a nice fit. There are so many aspects to fitting a saddle to a horse correctly and comfortably, and thankfully Miss Pea has always been demonstrative about what she likes and doesn't like.
After we were done with the fitting Highboy, Silver, Owen, Rizzo and I met Gillian and Pam with her horse Harbour at Dawson Butte to do a little cross country schooling.
It was such fun to see the improvements Pam and Harbour have made since I last saw them. They had gone to Florida for the winter and were able to do all kinds of driving and riding there, and they returned looking great! Harbour still thought it was best for him to be in the middle of our herd of three on the trail and near the jumps, but that worked out fine because Silver likes to lead and Highboy wasn't overly enthusiastic about the small jumps.
In a strange plot twist, Highboy was actually the steady quiet one on this ride. Harbour is only five, and Silver is still somewhat new to cross country jumping. Highboy was steady influence on the youngsters, if that can be imagined. I texted a friend and told her this, and her response was, "Whaaaattt? Highboy a babysitter?? That's amazing! 'Steady influence' is some strong words..."
We also had a silly photo, because what's a group pic without horse making funny faces?
No trip is complete without some Dog Snoozing In The Trailer photos, so here's Rizzo!
These next ones are really special to me because Owen and Rizzo had a rocky start. Rizzo took a long time to adjust to living at our place, and she was really vocal when she was upset or worried she had been abandoned due to her severe separation anxiety. I can't blame her, she had been returned to the rescue twice before I took her and hadn't been crate trained properly. But the howling and screeching really wore on Owen's nerves.
Thankfully Rizzo now understands the routine here, and that I will always come back for her. Occasionally she'll yodel if I leave her behind in the barn at home and ride a horse without her, but most of the time she's pretty quiet as long as she isn't missing out on something fun. She did really great on this trip, happy to hang out in the trailer in the gooseneck bedding area. She even was mostly quiet in her crate in the horse portion of the trailer when I was riding and Owen was running on the trails. But I felt happiest when I saw my sweet husband snuggling with my sweet dog, finally friends.
This time we did the trail like a pair pace, trotting and cantering over every jump we could find. Mostly Silver led, but Highboy did the downhill series first, cantering through the series of about five logs with a couple strides in between. When I looked back I saw Silver cantering his way down too, hopping nicely over each fence and doing it in as mannerly a way as possible.
I did get a little video of Silver doing a series of fences in a small field. He's making these cross country rounds look like hunter courses.
Highboy was also tired at the end of the ride. This is the first selfie he and I have taken where he didn't have his ears straight up and eyes wide open.
After we were done with everything we headed back home. Such a fun weekend and so nice to get out of town for a couple days!
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