I could tell Hoss was feeling the previous three days' riding. He hit the trail well enough, just not as cheerfully as he typically starts a morning. I sort of nursed him along, catering to him just a bit.
We started out with another horse we had spent a little time with the previous afternoon, but she decided she'd rather be with a different horse which was going faster than Hoss. They really weren't a good match anyway. Both of them have that tendency to not go forward with the "brakes on" feeling. The two of them together just fed off each other and neither would really move out. While Hoss was a little sad to be left behind, I was a little relieved.
Hoss didn't get terribly upset over being left behind. He usually realizes he can't keep up with another horse in fairly short order. This day he settled in to being alone in relatively short order.
The problem started when another horse passed and he decided he didn't like that. He wanted to try to keep up. I could tell he wasn't going to pass, either, and I could just feel I'd have to beat every step out of him if I tried to make him. Since the other horse is typically faster than he is, I held him back. Several times I had to work him a bit hard to keep him from bolting off after the horse.
We were a few miles from camp when, lo and behold, that little mare caught up to us. Now I really had a horse with an attitude. I let the mare and the horse she was with past us and held Hoss back the rest of the way in to camp. I hoped I had let the mare get far enough ahead that, by the time our hold was over, she'd be gone.
We went to the trailer for our hold, and I shoved food at him and hoped he'd forget about the mare. When our hold time was over, I checked out and we headed for the trail.
At the entrance to the trail, there was the mare, tied to her trailer. Oh, dear. Hoss really didn't want to leave now. How could he possibly leave the love of his life behind? He would barely trot, then started swinging his head around to look for her. No amount of tugging on the reins would get him looking ahead. He even started doing this bending thing and made it clear he was going to find a way to make me slow down no matter what. I eventually ended up using the end of my crop to bop him in the face to make him face forward. It didn't cure the problem, but he started to take me a little more seriously.
Once another horse passed us, Hoss started doing a little better, but he was still looking for that mare. And finally, she caught up at passed us. I was annoyed enough at this point there was no way I was going to let him keep up with her now. I kept him back and let her get far ahead of us.
We eventually did catch back up with the mare. She had started to go off, and the rider had slowed her to a walk in the hope of her getting better. It eventually became clear she wasn't going to get better, so the rider got off and started walking the horse back. I now had to make Hoss pass the mare and get down the trail.
There was some doing involved in getting him to keep going. Despite another horse ahead of us, who had also been riding with the mare, he was stuck on the notion of staying with her. It took some doing, but he finally let it go and trotted on down the trail. It helped when he realized where we were and were getting close to the finish. He even got a little cheerful.
We finished well and happily.
I spent a little time at the New Year's Eve party, but I did exactly what I said I would. I rang in the New Year at 9pm and was in bed by 9:30.
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