After six long, boring weeks, Hoss's recovery period is over! I was beginning to wonder if either of us would survive the experience. The last couple weeks he was becoming so pent up he was bucking and attacking the dogs in his pen. He moved around so much it became impossible to clean his corral, since his poop was no longer discernable.
A few days before Hoss's confinement was officially over, I moved him back into the pasture. Perhaps I was taking pity on him, or perhaps it was an act of self-preservation. He was very happy. Within twenty four hours, he'd put a foot print in every square foot of the pasture.
Two days later, I got Hoss out and we went for a short, three mile ride on the local roads. He was wound pretty tight. I've sold my round pen – it wasn't level, anyway – so I couldn't turn him out and run some of the ya-ya's off him. Not that I wanted to run him. Since he'd been injured, I really didn't want to tempt fate by running him in circles. So I rode him tight as a spring, and he behaved himself pretty well. He really would've liked to have run away with me, but kept himself under control and just walked, as I was asking.
Since my first ride was so short, I'm not going to create a second post for our first real ride. So, here is our official ride post from our first ride back!
Conditioning Ride 8-13-11
HRR: 56
HR10Min: 40
Distance: 5.76 miles
Avg Spd: 5.1mph
Time: 1 hour, 15 minutes
I hooked up the trailer amid highly excited dogs. It's been forever since Team Fluffy got to go on a trail ride, with the exception of getting out with the mountain bike. By the time I got the trailer hooked up, I looked over and found Hoss standing at the entrance to his pasture, practically quivering in excitement. I went and got him, and we were off for a quick ride at Hollenbeck Canyon.
Hoss really, really wanted to go fast. There wasn't a whole lot of walk in him. I pretty much let him trot, just kept him from taking off too fast. A couple of times he thought about throwing in a quick buck, but was able to contain himself.
I was paying particular attention to Hoss's way of going and how even he was. He was very sound. He even wanted to trot over the heavy rocks and didn't take a sore step.
Just before we reached the single track section, I spied a coyote standing on a rock just past our turn. This meant we'd have to walk toward it in order to continue on our way. What a pain! I decided to get off Hoss, since I have observed in the past that coyotes don't recognize a mounted person as a human, but once off, they'll run off. Well, not this coyote! It just watched me hop off my horse and stood there. I slowly started walking toward it, leading Hoss and keeping the dogs behind him. That coyote moved a short distance, and starting barking and yipping, trying to get my dogs to go after it!
The dogs saw the coyote, but I was able to keep them from running after it. I wasn't feeling real good about keeping them under control if we had to pass it, though. Once we passed it, the dogs would be between it and the horse, rather than the horse being between it and them, so I would have lower odds of keeping them from chasing it. Probably they would've been okay if they had chased it, but I don't like taking chances.
I took Hoss's reins off, hooked one end to one dog, passed it through a second dog's collar, and hooked it to the last dog's collar. Now I had all three on one "leash." It meant I didn't have anything on Hoss, but I figured he'd be reasonably easy to control. We started walking while that damned coyote continued to bark and yip. How I wish I could carry a pistol! I'd have no problem shooting one of those critters. After a bit, the coyote gave up and moved on. I disentangled the dogs, put the reins back on Hoss, and we were back on our way. I did keep them dogs close to me, though! Fortunately, the added mountain bike runs have kept them tired enough to stay close.
I spent the rest of the ride on high alert for further coyote incursions, but neither saw nor heard any others. We continued on our merry way, happily going at a pretty good clip. I had to hold Hoss back pretty hard when we reached the downhill, where he wanted to charge down as fast as he could go.
By the time we reached the flat section, Hoss wanted so badly to run I had a hard time keeping him checked until we got far enough along to safely take a canter. I barely let up on the reins and he was off. I kept him to a slow canter, rather than letting him take up a full gallop. He's been in a 24 x 24 corral for six weeks. Probably not the best time to work at quite that level. I doubt he's lost a great deal of his cardio fitness, but I'd rather not push it.
I mostly allowed Hoss to decide when he needed to slow down and when he wanted to speed up. At Hollenbeck he knows we usually go pretty fast, so I don't feel like I need to do a lot of pushing him. He would slow down for a few hundred yards, then start up trotting again. A couple of times, he even launched into a brief canter.
After we crossed back toward the trailer, we saw two horses coming down the trail. I knew I needed to be careful. A few weeks ago, Jazz was kicked by a neighbor's horse while we were on our morning walk. She'd never been kicked and the horse gave no indication it was going to kick. Poor Jazz is rather traumatized. Since then, I took the dogs out with the mountain bike by the steel bridge, and Jazz was so freaked out by a pair of horses we encountered I had to chase her down half a mile the wrong direction to get her back. Seeing these horses, I knew Jazz would be frightened of them. I waited on the lower trail and let the horses pass. Once they had, I saw Jazz running down the trail in terror. At least she was going the right way! I pushed Hoss to catch up with her, and she settled down much quicker than she had the last time. At least she's not afraid of Hoss, too!
We got back to the trailer, and Hoss saw two more horses he desperately wanted to go over and meet. This is where he shows off his ability to ignore me and be stubborn. It took some doing, but I got him to go to his own trailer.
I think I should have named him "Bucephalus." That's the name of Alexander the Great's horse, and it means, literally, "cow head." I could definitely describe Hoss as bull-headed, so it would certainly fit!
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