Peanut 4/28

Peanut went on a trail ride today to Stoney Forest. He was being ridden by a true novice rider who has only had a few lessons on him, and they are the first lessons/rides on a horse she's ever had. Marie knew the rule was to keep his ears at "wither level" and to keep asking him to relax and put his head down whenever he popped it up to look at anything.

While riding down the road to get to the park, we rode past a house that had two riding mowers going in the front yard, with a kid on an ATV popping around the back of the house repeatedly as he was riding loops around the yard. Right next door was a large birthday party going on, complete with balloons tied to the mailbox, people parked on the shoulders of the road on both sides etc. Both Peanut and Ariana just walked past, relaxed and without a care in the world. We kept on walking past houses full of barking dogs, dogs that people inexplicably let run loose on weekends (and were out in the road checking us out), an entire large herd of cows, chainsaws, traffic, and all kinds of noise and commotion. The only thing he didn't like was a gunshot, which his rider put his head down, told him to go forward, and just buried his nose right up Ariana's butt for about 10 strides. He then calmed right down and kept on strolling.

He really handled everything in stride with a COMPLETE beginner on his back. We went into the forest and he walked right through a stream with no problems or hesitation, went uphill and down without a care in the world, negotiating the trail with ease. As we were coming back to Legacy, we picked up speed and he gaited down the road and up the driveway, relaxed and happy. He as a little tired and had to be encouraged to gait, but was happy to go forward.