Ride 87 - Hills

 He doesn't look like a crazy, green five year old....

First of all, I totally forgot about trying out the Endomondo app.... cry.  I guess we will test it out next time.  I had my hands a little full today anyway.  Riding a green young horse in a halter out on public roads when it's cold, windy and he hasn't been ridden in a week is a little interesting LOL!

Not to mention he's a fat hippo.... but apparently the camera loves him and removes weight instead of adding it hehe.  So the bit didn't come today like I hoped it would so I just rode in the halter again.  He was totally chill while I was tacking him up so I really wasn't expecting him to be such a spitfire!

We went almost three quarters of a mile down the road and I was excited to see that with all of the rain the gravel road up the steep hill was soft!!  It's normally like concrete so I refuse to ride on it, but it was nice today, so I decided to do some hill sets to wear his butt out.  He wasn't being bad, just very energetic, a little spooky, balky around the neighbor horses, high headed, etc.  Just green horse behavior on a cold day.

This is looking down the hill.  Hubby stood at the top in the curve so he could see if traffic was coming.  The hill is actually twice this high, but has an S curve in it and I don't feel comfortable going up there with the idiot teenagers who drive really fast down it.

Here we are at the top.  He was super alert, looking for horses or things to spook at.

Here is a video of us trotting up the hill.  We went up three times which totaled only about .15 of a mile.  It wasn't far, but it's fairly steep.  Steeper than it looks!  Also in the video is a herd of cattle following us and a clip of me grooming him when we got back home with my dad using the leaf blower on the porch nearby.  You just have to watch it to see how wild and crazy he is around leaf blowers.  ;)


After the hills we continued around the block, taking a short cut through a field, so the total ride was 3.35 miles although it took us an hour and five minutes because I kept having to do lateral flexions when he was being balky and gawking over his shoulder or trying to turn around.  He quickly figured out that was no fun and at least stopped trying to turn around.  :)

The field we cut through.

This is the field where we had a stalemate at a little dry creek bed that had a muddy spot and a puddle in it on a previous ride.  This time, because of all the rain it was full of water at least a foot deep.  Hubby rode his bike through it and got his feet absolutely soaked when he stalled out.  I felt really bad because it was so cold, but he's fine.  Then I asked Chrome to go through and he didn't hesitate at all.  He walked right out to the middle, slammed on the brakes and started pawing.  I mildly freaked out, yelled and kicked him forward.  He lunged forward, stumbled across those deep ruts and half trotted/half cantered about two strides (kind of like a huge spook forward-seriously wish he'd gotten it on video) and then stopped and looked around like he couldn't figure out why I was freaking out..... I hope he doesn't think there are alligators in there now!  I just really did not want to get soaked with that cold wind!

So we continued on and he was hyper all over again. Come on horse, didn't those hills wear you out at all??  We went by a neighbor's field of cattle.  He was feeding them and trying to catch a calf to put an ear tag on.  Chrome eyeballed them like they were really scary.  Silly horse.  My neighbor complimented him which was really cool because he's an older guy who I've known forever but he rarely ever talks.  We continued on and another herd of cattle followed us a long way (you can see them in the video).  When hubby was taking the video he zoomed forward on his bike and Chrome started to take off after him lol.  It caught me off guard because I had him on the buckle and I was watching the cows.  Pay attention while riding a green horse!!  :)  It was fine though.  He was only trying to trot to catch  up.

When we got back on our road he finally calmed down and realized how tired he was hehe.  He actually worked up a sweat amazingly!

 Sweaty pony, hard to see with his color (his withers are not wet).

Love my photo bomber.  :)  It's weird he looks butt high in this picture...

Then I asked hubby to get some better pictures of my new helmet....

 I never saw it coming..... just kidding, he was yawning.

 Modeling is boring when you aren't the subject...

 Seriously Chrome?  LOL!

You can see how the straps around the ears are attached to the outside of the helmet instead of laying flat against my ears.  Lytha, you were right though!  The chin strap was way too loose! I tightened it easily two inches.  I had the helmet tipped too far forward.  When I pushed it back it gave me a lot of slack in the chin strap.  Thank you for pointing that out!!

 Sweaty pony.  So abused.

 Hubby took a picture of me taking a picture of Chrome.

 Close up of the helmet I promised.  :)  I love it! 

Chrome's pretty hooves just because (although I still see a little flaring).

The asphalt keeps them so smooth.

Hard working, thirsty pony gets a drink.  That salt (see the video above) will do that to you.  :)

My hippo!

Those of you with geldings, do you notice if your horse drops like this after working?  He does that after almost every ride.  He also does it during grooming, but I know that's because he's relaxed and enjoys it.  After the ride though just seems weird...

 Being cute.

Yes I still love you even when you're a crazy, green baby horse.

So we had a fun ride.  I hope he isn't too sore tomorrow after doing the hills.  It's such a hard balance between strengthening his stifles and doing too much and making them sore.  :\  This horse is so complicated, but I love him.

P.S.  He really wasn't as bad as I'm making it sound.  He was just very forward, alert and excited. I never once felt afraid!!  Yay!  :D