On our own trail!

We finally did it! I rode Banjo and Bob rode Gilly out on our very own trail tonight. I thought we were crazy but Bob wanted to just do it - starting at our end of the trail. I wanted to walk them to Art and Vicki's and start the ride in a group and come back via our trail. But we were running late so I agreed to his plan.

Here's what we know. Gilly is an insecure horse and is known to spook at cows, goats and other animals. He does not like to be in the lead and doesn't like to go alone. He's going to be much better in a group. He's also pretty slow. Banjo is a go-go horse with the fast walking horse gait. So I had no idea how this would work out.

For a warm up we walked the horses halfway up the first hill then mounted. They were calm for the most part. Banjo would get way ahead then I'd hear Bob and Gilly catching up from behind at a trot - bump, bump, bump, bump. Over and over. Holding Banjo back wasn't difficult - it was just all the time. We could not just stop periodically, either. With Banjo, its like this: come to a halt, prance around, turn a circle, back up a few steps then go. We need to work on this.

We finally met up with Art, Vick and Alexis near their back gate. We rode together for just a bit when a turkey flew up and all hell broke loose. Gilly lost it and flew into Thunder who backed up and all but Montana jumped several steps. Bob stuck to Gilly and we were OK. We called it a night and turned back.

Coming back I worried they might decide to make a run for home, but that never happened. In fact I think they were just getting warmed up and calmed down. After unsaddling and unbridling inside the arena, they clung to us even without their halters. Nice.