We arrived at camp late in day. I was able to get camp mostly set up before making it over to the ride meeting. Hoss would be vetted in the morning. The vet said to me he'd vet him on one condition -- that we finish before dark. Fair enough.
The night was quite cold. I had brought along my husband's travel alarm clock which has a temperature display. It got down to 25 degrees before I had made and eaten my dinner and tucked Hoss in for the night. He was quite comfy in his heavy winter blanket with hay up to his knees. So comfortable, in fact, that he lay down in the night to sleep. When he arose, he got one front foot over his lead rope, getting it quite stuck. He made noise enough to arouse me, then settled down when he heard me getting up. I had to pry his foot off the rope so he could get up. Once I had his foot free, he laid still for a few minutes, assessing things, before getting to his feet.
In the morning, Hoss's leg where it was stuck over the lead rope was a little tender. It wasn't swollen, but he didn't want me to touch it. So I re-presented him to the vet to make sure everything looked okay. He was sound, so we set off down the trail.
Hoss started out very well, eager and happy to hit to trail. He seemed to have perked up a bit after Death Valley. Early on, there was a lot of checking him back so he wouldn't go faster than he really can. He really does get it into his head he can keep up with any other horse he pleases. Usually he realizes this is a pipe dream and lets them go, but it can be a battle at the beginning.
The morning was beautiful. It didn't take us long to get into our accustomed "pocket" and be largely on our own. There were a few climbs and plenty of turns -- enough to make the trail interesting. We had to pass a dead, headless cow, which Hoss didn't even bother to look at. I don't know if other horses gave it the hairy eyeball or not.
We got to a section of trail that is Hoss's absolute favorite type: twisty, windy, and rolly single track. He really got to moving out on that trail. Only two problems: Just because he's moving out, doesn't mean he's fast enough to stay ahead of other horses; and I have to watch him for figuring out how to cut the trail.
Being passed on single track is difficult, and Hoss really detests being passed, even though he can't keep up with the horses and he doesn't really like having them behind him. He can't think past the moment of being passed, which certainly makes sense. He's a horse, not a human! So letting other riders by was a bit of a challenge. I had to find safe places to stop and let horses by, all the while convincing Hoss to let them not only pass, but get away from him.
Coming back into camp, we had to open a couple of gates and close them behind us. I opened the first, called Hoss through, and shut it behind him. At the second, I repeated the process, but rather than stop and wait, Hoss continued on down the trail! I hollered at him a couple of times before I ran after him and stopped him. Rotten horse.
There was a little confusion on the trail coming back to camp for the vet check, but we muddled through and made it back for our hour hold. After vetting, I gave Hoss his customary bran mash and hay, and made myself a quick lunch.
Back out on trail again, we found ourselves with another horse and rider. We stuck with them the rest of the ride.
The trails were beautiful, passing through a stream bed and up and down some pretty good-sized hills. Hoss handled it all with his usual aplomb, although he is definitely of the opinion he should get to contemplate drinking at every water source, no matter how recently he's tanked up. This makes for some slow going when we have to cross water several times.
On our way back toward camp, we passed through the campsite of some off-roaders. There were four or five children who were extremely excited to see horses. Of course all the previous horses hadn't been interested in stopping to visit, and their mom was calling them back. Hoss, however, just turned into a horse-shaped pile of goo and pleaded to get to visit with the children. I walked him over and let the children pet him. He stood there like a plant, enjoying the attention. I swear if they had decided to pull his nostrils over their heads, he would have happily allowed them to do so. I just wish I had had the presence of mind to turn my video camera on for that one.
We ended up taking longer than I would have liked, coming in just at dusk. The other rider we ended up with wasn't particularly keen to go any faster. I knew it would be a battle to get Hoss to leave the other horse behind and decided it simply wasn't worth it. He kinda wanted to go faster, but he would only pull away a few hundred feet before he wanted to let the other horse catch up. We were going to make it back before cut-off if we walked anyway, so we might as well not get into a fight.
We pulled in to camp as the sun disappeared from the sky and dusk took over. I got "the look" from the vet about our "deal" from the previous evening. I explained the other rider hadn't wanted to go faster and I just didn't want to get in a fight with Hoss. He accepted this as reasonable and allowed our completion.
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