Ride out alone , trying this again! Aug 15th

Our next ride out alone. I get ready at 5:30pm , While I tack up I have a big glass of Boones strawberry wine. :-D

I get kizz all tacked up and set my stirrups down  1 notch each . Then take coby and tie him in the Shelter along with a hay net :-) I really hope this encourages him to be quiet when I leave!

I grab my crop this time (in case we have the same refusing problems as last time) mount up and start down the driveway. (Coby doesn't say a peep )

All along down the driveway kizz keeps kicking one leg out. He's a little upset. But I push him along and ignore it. We get on the access road beside us and trot up along it. We trot all the way to the top and go over into our first field. He starts to stop a bit so I start doing lateral work all along the field. We get to the little rock wall path and go right through. Then through the next field with no troubles. The trail is as wet as I've ever seen and it takes a little convincing to get him to go through. The short trail up to the ant hill road he trots along happily. We trot along a lot of the ant hill trail except where its wet. Then when we get to Maple Ridge road he perks up and is happy to go along it. We go further along the road than we normally do and take a road down to the railway (which means I skip the field with the cattle along it)

We trot all along the road to the railway fine. A man is running his power saw in the woods by the road but Kizz doesn't mind! He's used to Chris running one!

Once we get to the railway the big ditch he doesn't like to get onto the railway is a lot more wet than normal. It takes some prodding but he goes over fairly well. We canter along the railway for a bit until we come to some wet spots that he jumps sideways to avoid so we slow down. I'm happy that by lowering my stirrups one hole my knees aren't aching as bad as normal and also I haven't lost my stirrups when we cantered like I worried over. (Although that only happened in the indoor arena and I do look down a lot when I'm in an indoor so that may have been throwing me off balance some!)

We see Kaaren and Odin on the other side of the washout on the RR. It takes a few touches with the crop but he jumps it. Kaaren & I walk up the RR and chat. We turn in the old caverhill  road and walk up there. We trot when the bugs get bad but along there we see two moose. The horses get antsy and won't go ahead for a bit. But after we chat a while then head out they're fine. Kizz takes up the rear and keeps checking all around to be sure there are no sign of the moose. Haha

We canter almost the whole way up the hill. It's long and steep but Kizz does pretty good even though he has a hard time pacing himself yet. He just wants to gallop up it. We hold back and stay with Odin. At one point he spooks and jumps into poor Odin a bit but it isn't too bad. We continue on. At the top we walk a ways and then turn and walk back down the long hill. It's getting dark when we hit the RR again. So we decide to split up and head home but  Kaaren heads back with me a ways so kizz will have no trouble leaving odin. 

  We trot on head steady and I tell her we are good. So she turns and heads home. Kizz and I trot the long way down the RR to the washout. He gives me a bit of a hard time to cross but we do it. It's getting really dark by time we get to the ditch off the RR to head home. But he goes through really well.  I stop and give Chris my husband a quick call to tell him where I am and that I'll be taking the Maple Ridge road at the top of the fields home!

We canter along once we hit the nice good road! We gallop quite a bit of it even! I'm so nervous about being in the woods in the dark that I'm not nervous to gallop even though its been probably 15 years!!

one benefit to it being so dark ?? theres nothing for kizz to spook at!! Lol we slow down and canter slowly and trot some up the rockier road through the fields by the Blaneys. He whinnies loudly ! He's happy to be out of the woods I think! I am too! Riding in the dark is no fun!

When we get to the pave we trot on home! When we get home Coby whinnies when he sees us and Kizz whinnies back, he knows he's home and he's happy to see his buddy!!

yes,. we've got this!!