Riverbed Trail + Trailering Practice

I've been trying to plan a trail with M for a long time and today it finally came together. I was excited because Calvin was going to be able to conquer crossing water and we'd have some wonderful company. Luckily, M was kind enough to offer trailering assistance over to his place (thanks again M!). Trailering Calvin is always a challenge. Well not the trailering itself part so much (even though he certainly enjoys pawing and screaming his head off), but it's more just loading into the trailer. He isn't afraid of the trailer mind you, he just...doesn't like it. Why he doesn't like it... I can only speculate that it's because trailers mean leaving home, a place that he's more-than-happy to stay. It also means being away from another horse for more than 10 minutes, the horror! Well Calvin, to that we say "man up" and that he did...eventually (and with lots of "encouragement").

"Get me off this thing"

Once at M's house, he loaned my boyfriend J a horse and we set off! M was nice enough to take lots of pics of us. I was busy trying to focus baby-brain and J was trying to figure out this horse-riding thing. 

Setting off--Calvin and Noor.

 

Going through lots of sand, great for his feet and legs!

 Calvin's introduction to water was...unique! Although I shouldn't have expected anything less from my goofy boy. M's horses walked right in of course, having done this trail many times. Calvin then had a moment of "hey guys wait don't leave!" He snorted at the mud and water for a second... then walked right in. But then he realized water was well...wet...and definitely trying to eat him! So he managed to run sideways to try and escape it? I don't know. He managed to get both of us even more wet than necessary in the process. 

This picture was taken by J from the shoreline. You can see that Calvin basically ran sideways (as he's doing in this shot below haha) like "ew get this stuff off of me!" M and his horse Iskra, to the left, took a more direct approach to the other side. They missed out on the more exciting sideways approach ;)

"I'm just half-passing mom!"

He eventually calmed down

Here I am brushing off the sand/water off my legs and saddle, glad I rode in my endurance saddle today!

"Oohh who's this pretty lady?"

"I'll follow you anywhere!"

Dry land momentarily, hanging out by the graffiti under the freeway. This graffiti changes all the time, interesting to see what people come up with.

Then we had to cross the water another time, under the freeway. Here we hit some deeper water, but nothing like peer-pressure to encourage him to get through, good job baby! 

All finished and heading home

Overall a great trail day!  This experience was also so good for his brain, he needs to get out more. We had lots of fun on new trails and we got to cross some serious water for the first time, for both myself and Calvin. Hopefully we'll be able to have some more trail rides soon, we love getting out and exploring, especially with friends! Now... to go look at horse trailer listings...

I wish.