DAY ELEVEN - A Lot Of Hills

Thursday mornings are the day Donna and I get together for a 2 mile walk up and down the road, and last Thursday, I brought Possum along, and yesterday, we added Big Mack to the group! He was just coming off of a lunging lesson with Ryan, and I was told he was much better than Monday.

So, off we ambled, down the hill, not without Big Mack and Possum stalling a few times. When we got to the bottom of the hill, their was a town bulldozer and big town truck doing work, and then man was very nice and turned his machine down as we walked by. Big Mack has the stride of moose, and Possum and I were constantly behind a few paces. It was an excellent experiment, though.

Once Big Mack and Donna walked away, and I put Possum back in the paddock, Possum got upset for a few minutes, running back and forth and whinnying. He settled down after a few minutes, though, and I went in and cleaned up and did some chores.

Around quarter to three, I tied him up to the tie in the stall and gave him a good grooming, sprayed him down with more fly spray, and tacked him up. I mounted from the stump in the paddock, and we walked around there for a minute or two, then headed out the gate and around the back of the house. We did the small loop in the back yard, then down over the stone wall to the back of Dad's house and down the trail. When we got to the road, we turned right and walked/trotted back up the hill.

We trotted for a few minutes past our house and then ambled past the Dodge barn. Possum asked if we could go visit Mack, who was grazing in his secondary pasture, but I insisted we keep going down the road. We walked, very slowly, all the way down the steep hill, then crossed the road and went straight down Heads Hill Road. We said hello to the three cows hanging out in the back corner of the field, then walked past the abandoned house and barn and into the cool woods. The path is nice and wide and grassy and runs alongside some streams. We got as far as the bottom of the hill, where it begins to get too rocky to safely continue (though we did amble up and down that last year.. I didn't want to take the chance this time, however), then we turned a tight turn and ambled back. We trotted briskly at a few points, and Possum had his head up high and his ears pointed straight ahead when we arrived back at the abandoned home and barn. We walked past the cow field, crossed the road and ran into Luanne at the bottom of the hill. She and I discussed a plan to go riding at the trails around her place, then Possum and I started walking up the hill.

Riding the path behind Heads Hill Road

 Half way up, I decided to dismount and hand walk him. He was huffing and puffing, and I let him stop and rest a few times. Finally, we got to the top, and I remounted him at the corner of a stone wall in front of Lenny's house. Then we walked home.

I gave him a soapy wash down, rinse and scrape, then sprayed him with some of the coat polisher for good measure. Then he got about 25 minutes of hand grazing. We had been out for a little over an hour. He got his pellets at 5:30 and lots of hay and fresh water. He was very good and got in a lot of exercise to boot!