Ride 72 - It just keeps getting better!

 I love my horse!!!  He just continues to exceed my expectations every time I turn around!  Today was a fantastic ride full of firsts.  The girl keeping her horses next door (we will call her B) had agreed to ride today after I got off work, so I tacked up and rode over there.  There was another girl there and we all three sat around talking for forty five minutes or so.  Chrome was very excited, giraffe necking over the fence to see the horses and pawing impatiently at first... then he did this!

Yep he took a nap!!  The other girl wanted to ride so B put her on the dark bay mare and she got on her chestnut gelding bareback with only a halter and lead rope because she didn't have a spare saddle or bridle with her!  Girl has guts!  So we trooped off down the road.

 Note the halter and lead rope?

Chrome was back to being very excited and up.  He wanted to constantly sniff the other horses, but I kept him away from them (for the most part).  Nobody got grouchy and no one got bit or kicked.  Yay!  For his first time ever riding on the road with other horses (and second time ever riding with other horses at all) I am so proud of him!  I can forgive his excitement because I was actually pretty excited to have someone to ride with too LOL!

The next thing I know Chrome is striding out, walking way faster than the other two!!!!  He totally left them behind!  We got so far ahead we had to yell to talk (I eventually circled him when we got too far ahead because part of the fun of riding with other people is talking and laughing)!  The chestnut gelding is about the same height as Chrome and is an Appendix, so I was blown away that Chrome out walked him like that!  The dark bay Quarter horse mare was a total slow poke, but her rider stayed on her phone (on the internet, not talking) most of the time so it wasn't a big deal lol.  Now I seriously want to ride with some Tennessee Walkers to see if Chrome can keep up!  They used to smoke us when I was a kid out on the trails.  :D

Another first!  Alpacas!!!  There were about seven to ten of them.

We were riding along and all of a sudden I remembered that there was a field of Alpacas around the next turn.  I asked B if they were still there because it had been a long time since I drove that way and she said yes.  I said, "Oh no!  Chrome has never seen Alpacas!  I'm going to die!"  She said, "My horse has never seen them either so I'm going to die!!"  We were laughing soooo hard!  Chrome stopped and stared, but then he spotted the horse in the pasture next door and totally ignored the Alpacas.  I'm glad he doesn't know they spit, because one was seriously giving us the stink eye LOL!

Crappy cell phone group photo!

The other first is that we rode in the dark for the first time!!!

It's hard to tell, but that's his head and neck in the above picture.  :D  He was not in the least worried about it being dark and luckily we didn't have any traffic.  I'm totally getting some reflective gear and blinking lights in case we get caught out after dark again.

This was the first time we'd taken this loop and it has a huge hill on it.  He was great going up and even trotted once, but I got off to go downhill because I had no idea if he would get too much momentum going and start trotting or trip.  He was great and it gave me a chance to stretch out my painful knee.  The hilarious thing is that even with me on foot we were walking twice as fast as the other two!!

The last bit of this loop shares the same road with the field of bulldozers as our other loop.  We did some trotting out there!  He trotted with two other horses trotting!!!  He was very strong and I could tell he wanted to go, but he stayed at a trot.  :D  He even stood still next to the bay mare while B loped some circles on her gelding.  He watched them, but never moved an inch.  So proud of him!  There were even times during the ride when the bay mare would be behind us and B would ride into the ditch and lope away on her gelding.  Chrome wanted to go, but he kept walking!!!!

He only spooked twice.  Once was on my way to her field at the very beginning of the ride.  I have no idea what it was over (but we were going by the "Junk Lady's" house so there was plenty to spook at), but it was just an in place spook.  The second time was more like a flinch and I don't know what it was either.  He did look at some stuff like signs, trailers and a yard full of crap for a yard sale.

I'll be honest and tell you he was NOT on the buckle for this ride and he was very strong at times, but he was never unmanageable or dangerous and my arms are not sore so it's not like he was pulling on me.  He was just an excited giraffe almost the whole time.  Toward the end of the ride when it was dark he did finally drop his head and slow down to walk behind the other two.  :)

The total ride with us sitting around talking and the ride itself was almost two hours.  Also we went a total of 4.24 miles and he was walking as fast down our driveway when we got home as he did when we left.  He didn't sweat and didn't seem tired or sore at all.  :D  I'm so glad that Chrome is proving my pessimistic, paranoid self wrong hehe.  He's such a great horse!