Still Sore

I rode Peanut on Sunday.  He's still not too thrilled on the packed trails, but still fine on pasture.  He's better than he was on Sunday, but not perfect.  We ended up altering our riding plans to stick to fields.  It worked well for his feet but after a mystery spook (Rick said Peanut cantered in place for part of it) he just didn't calm down so it wasn't much fun.  We survived, I stayed calm, although Peanut felt like a quaking powder keg the whole time.

Upon recollection, I wonder if this has always been there.  He always tries to walk on the shoulders of the hard packed trails, and I always chalked it up to him being difficult.  Maybe he was really just seeking out the softer trail less travelled?

I think I'll get Peanut yet another pair of boots, and hope that these are the magical pair that don't spin.  I believe that these are the types of boots that Dawn believes will work best on his round feet.  I've seen a lot of endurance riders using them in articles in the Horse's Hoof.

It really makes sense, doesn't it?  He lives his life on a soft lawn.  I ask him to not only carry me, but to do so over hard, packed earth littered with jagged stones.  Well of course he won't be thrilled.  How can I expect him to be?  Maybe if I rode more than once a week.....

Anywho, I took him on a hike on Monday (I had a holiday off?  Someone inform the press!!!) and he didn't care about much terrain-wise.  He was curious and silly and wanting to graze (the fatty... he has some serious fat deposits behind his shoulder blades now...rrrr).  At one point, a still-spotted fawn appeared in the wide, grassy trail in front of us.  It regarded Peanut, then started to take some very determined steps toward us.  It stopped, kept looking at Peanut, and walked towards us again.  After a little bit, it made a quick right turn and jumped through the underbrush into some woods.  I wonder if it was lost and looking for its herd/mother and here comes a large, tan critter that confused it for a bit?

On Saturday, Rick and I took a 5.5 mile hike, covering parts of the blue and half of the green trails.  He did the GPS logging thing to track our speed, distance, and elevation.  We're hoping to have epic hikes become a regular thing for us.  We both could use losing some of the fat deposits behind our shoulder blades too.