Hoss was doing fine until we were riding up and down waiting for the official start and Kaity asked Kody for a trot. I decided I didn't want to trot, and Hoss started to get annoyed. I asked him for a circle and what I got was bucking. Without changing what I wanted, I started kicking him forward and got my whip in hand. He really had some buck in him that morning. In our lessons, he had started bucking a bit in an effort not to do what was asked. It had worked a couple of times, at least temporarily, so he decided maybe it would work now.
Hoss managed to make quite a spectacle of himself. After the bucking I started backing him and he pointed himself right at one of the Porta-Potties. I allowed him to go ahead and back into it – lightly – then straightened him out and made him back some more. We did teeny little circles with his head cranked around. We did side-passing. He settled down a bit, but when we headed out on trail we were separated from Kody and Kaity and he was one unhappy camper. We did eventually catch up. In the mean time I was able to get Hoss to settle down and get to work.
It got hot pretty fast. Before we'd been out much over an hour I had my sweatshirt off and was down to a tank top. It was really quite nice. The first ride of the season I've been down to less than a sweatshirt. I was careful to apply plenty of sunscreen!
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| OMG, cows! |
Much of the first loop – indeed, much of the entire day – is a bit of a blur. The vet check was in a very nice area with lots of grass growing. I had sent a crew bag with a bran mash for Hoss and my extra water bottles. Lunch was a choice of a variety of lunch meats and chips and such.
Hoss was his typical self on the trot out. I showed him the whip before we started out in an effort to get him to trot appropriately. He did better on the way back than on the way out, since Kody was back at the vets. His CRI (Cardiac Recovery Index) was 48/52. That's not considered all that great. The heart rate should be the same or lower on the second check than on the first one. I had a feeling, though, the vets weren't really doing it right. The trot out area probably wasn't long enough, and I don't think they waited long enough between checks. Hoss's CRIs in the past have always been the same or lower. Based on how he was performing and how he was recovering, though, I figured he was fine.
During the second loop we had to climb a rather rocky hill. Kaity noted we "usually rock the hills." To which I couldn't resist responding, "Well, this hill is 'rocking' us!"
We finally made it to the downhill side. Kaity hopped off and led Kody down the hill while I continued to ride. It was an ugly downhill Very rocky and rutted. It was still nice to be heading down rather than up.
At the bottom of the hill was a cow trough where we stopped to let the horses drink. Hoss and Kody snuggled up pretty close to each other, so when I wanted to hop off to sponge Hoss, I had to dismount on his right side. As I was swinging my leg over, my left hamstring cramped. I wound up lying on the ground getting the cramp to release while Kaity wondered if I was going to make it. The cramp let go and I managed to get up and sponge Hoss.
After getting back on and making our way down the trail, we picked up the trot and Kaity immediately noticed Kody wasn't moving right. The same hip he was favoring after his fall at Nevada Derby seemed to be giving him a problem again. We gave him a little time and Kaity rubbed him a little, but in the end it was clear they were unlikely to make it in on time. They were walking.
Hoss and I continued on. Hoss wasn't particularly happy at first, worried about his buddy, but he settled in to trot us the rest of the way in. At the road crossing, I asked the volunteers if they might be able to reach ride management to give Kaity and Kody a ride back to camp. They were able to, and later Kaity and Kody had reached camp before we made it back.
We pushed back to camp and finished nicely.
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