Trailer Incident

I had a "trailer incident" with Divna the other day. Really surprising because both of our horses have always loaded and unloaded with no problem. Perhaps this was because of the cows...

A friend of ours decided to get a couple of cows to raise for food (I could never do that -- I would end up naming the cows and not wanting to butcher them. Our chickens are getting older and the egg production is not what it used to be -- people tell us to make soup out of them, but I just can't do it. I would be a vegetarian if I had to kill my own meat). They were young animals, about 500 pounds each, so he borrowed our horse trailer to transport them to his house.

On Sunday we decided to take The Girls down to Bluhm County Park to ride the trails, and we have to trailer them there now because someone bought the last section of abandoned railroad line and blocked it off so we can no longer ride there (sob!!). We got them both in the trailer, John went in the house to set the alarm and I was in the barn grabbing some last minute item I forgot to pack. I heard a lot of ruckus outside and ran out there, and The Girls were bouncing around in the back of the trailer. They have never done that before....I went up and started talking to them and got them calmed down, but it was really strange. I couldn't really tell what was going on, but it was almost like Divna was crowding Zora, and Zora was trying to keep her away.

We went to the park and just had a really nice ride. There were these beautiful flowers in bloom all over the place -- they were big white flowers growing off of this broad leafed 3-leaved plant that grows very close to the ground. (My friend Dee told me what they were called, but I can't remember what she said -- "Tremblis" or something like that ???) I usually take my camera on trail rides, but did not have it that day -- I was kicking myself for that. The pictures would have been beautiful (the picture above of me and Divna by the trailer is one from a couple of summers ago at Potato Creek State Park -- I just wanted a picture for the post, so I cheated!).

When we would ride the abandoned railroad line all the way to Bluhm County Park we would not go on all of the trails. The ride down there is about 5 miles, so we would always just ride the periphery trails and then head back. We have only ridden the main trails all thru the park a couple of times, and that has been years ago. It is not a park for winter riding -- the trails are just mainly switchbacks. In the winter when the leaves are all gone you can see the trail snaking around and it just doesn't seem to make much sense (it could make you "horse sick" like someone I know from the blogs -- Desert Rose, perhaps???). But when it is leafy, it is a neat ride partly because of the switchbacks and partly because it is pretty hilly for Northwest Indiana. But it was just a really challenging and enjoyable ride. We all loved it.

Then when we went to load The Girls to go home, I made the classic mistake of being too casual about everything. I am so used to Divna loading with no problem, that I walked in, tied the lead rope and turned around to leave the trailer. When I did, I saw that she only had her front feet in the trailer -- her back legs and back end were still outside. So I pushed on her rear end to get her to step in. She was having none of it. She started to pull back. I realized I needed to release that rope, but she had pulled it so tight that I could not get it undone, even though it was a quick release knot. So John jumped in and pulled it loose.

Divna was nerved up, so I walked her a bit around the parking lot to calm her down. It took some coaxing to get her to load. It sort of scared me -- I was afraid she would break her own neck struggling against that lead rope.

John is wondering if they could smell the cows and that is what was causing them to act up this time. I hope I don't have a problem with loading her in the future.

1st Post-Op Ride

On Sunday we had our first ride since John's surgery. I was a little nervous about it, seeing how Zora is such a handful, but he felt like he was ready. He had been working with her on a lunge line a bit recently, and we counted on that to wear her out enough to be on her best behavior. He lunged her a couple of times last week, and then again just before we rode. That is, once I was able to "capture" The Girls...


Check out this video -- they were being real stinkers running from me. They haven't done this in a long time. It is so strange how they mess with me like this. They would run and avoid me, then all of a sudden just decide to stand still and be haltered. I think they plan it.







I didn't realize you could hear me talking. Notice I never once said "Whoa!!" (Duh!!). You can also hear the halter buckles klinking together, and when I get close to the barn you can hear the Serbian music blasting!



So then John did a lunge session with Zora saddled up.











We hit the trails through the woods just around our house. It was a short ride because we didn't want to take a chance on him re-injuring his shoulder. Plus a really nasty cold wind had kicked up, and we were wimps about it. He said the only part that seemed to not agree with the shoulder was when he was getting in the saddle -- pulling himself up aggravated the surgery site a bit. But overall, it was OK. We should be back to normal riding sooner than anticipated. Originally we thought it would be a full 6 weeks, but here it is less than a month and he can manage it. We will still have to be careful and take it easy, but at least we won't miss all the Spring riding.