One Fine Ride

January is always a tough time for trail riders in our neighborhood-particularly for a person who works during the day.  My sister works afternoon shift on most days, and of course, Kevin is retired.  On a nice day, they can get out and ride on the trail.  By the time I get there, it is dark.  I can only trail ride on the weekends. 

If the weather is bitter or the driveway, even during the weekend, you will find me in the indoor arena.  Well, at least we have the arena.  We did go a number of years without one.  

Often, this time of year, the river is frozen, and it can be weeks before I can get a real trail ride.  I just ride up and down the hill to the river 3 or 4 times. 

It was with much joy that I got to go on a real trail ride one Sunday in the middle of January.  It was about 35 degrees out-warm enough that the trail wasn't frozen.  That meant, not only could I get down the trail and cross the river, but I could trot and canter.

It happened that that day Ellen had to work.  I was on my own-well, not totally-I had Mingo. 

My horses miss going out on the trail, too.  Even if I can barely get Mingo beyond a slow jog/trot in the arena, if I get him on the trail when he's had a break from it, he can get very hyper.  Since he's such a calm horse, his hyper moods transform him into an incredibly fun horse to ride-if you know what to expect. 

We crept down the hill to the river.  The day before, he only went up and down the hill a few times since the water was too high for us to cross.  When I asked him to cross, he seemed surprised.  The water was a little deep, and he went faster than usual to get to the other side.  I just kept telling him, "Be careful.  Be careful."  He didn't listen to me, but we made it across without any problem. 

He seemed to be surprised, again, when I asked him to trot.  He went along very quietly, and I thought maybe it wouldn't be as exciting a ride as I expected.  After a bit, I asked him to canter.  Good thing I was prepared-he took off with a buck and grunt.  I know to shorten up the reins during a canter transition when he hasn't been down trail for a while.  After he got it out of his system, we had a very nice canter. 

We stopped to go down a slope.  At the bottom of the slope, we will typically start up, again, but I could see a pedestrian up ahead.  I made him walk, but he fought me the whole way.  Once we passed the hiker, I asked for a canter.  He gave me another buck and snort and away we went.  This section is such a nice one, that we call it the "canter stretch."  It is about a quarter mile long, and is Mingo's second favorite section of trail.  My normally slow horse sped up to the perfect speed, and I just sat there with a smile on my face and enjoyed it. 

We crossed the river again.  Now, for some reason, on the other side of the river, Mingo wakes up-even if it is 90 degrees out.  (Well, maybe that's an exaggeration, but he certainly likes it over there.)  I knew that cantering more would not be a very good idea.  I decided that if he didn't trot quietly, then we wouldn't canter.  If he settled down, we would.  He never settled down.  He trotted so fast that, not only did I have to post (unusual with Mingo,) but I had trouble keeping up with him.  

When we got to the last section of trail, I must confess, I hesitated.  It's about a quarter mile-all in the open.  It is his very-most favorite place to canter in the whole world.  It is also the place he is the most likely to misbehave.  I thought about it, and eventually decided to give it a try.  Who knew when the circumstances would allow me to ride this far, again.  

I did insist that he stay at a trot, and he did, but once again, he was very fast.  I loved it.  At the end, we turned around and trotted home.  On the way home, he is calmer on this part of the trail because we never canter in the home direction over there. 

We trotted a lot towards home, and he went at a reasonable speed.  I walked the last 15 minutes and told him how much fun I had.  I think he had fun, too.  It was so nice to get out of the arena and really stretch his legs.  I'm not riding Cruiser in the park at this time, and Mingo did his best to fill his shoes.  Good job, Mingo.