Two major milestones

I don't know which to start with.  Both have been a long time in the making.

Well... I'll just start.

Part the first:

In June I joined Weight Watchers online.  As of this morning, I have lost 20 lbs.  Why is this important to a horse blog?  Well, ever since I bought Peanut I carried in the back of my mind the worry that I weighed too much for him.  I even gained, at times, a good 20 lbs more than when I bought him which only compounded my paranoid worries.  But, yes, I now weigh less than I did when I bought the wee beastie.

Through the years, the percentage was ever present: the rider plus tack should be no more than 20% of the horse's weight.   There were times when I was really pushing that edge, if not surpassing it a bit.  Peanut is built to carry a heavier rider too, with a short back and thick, short legs.  Still... it bothered me a lot.

One of my reasons to lose weight is to get that worry out of my head for good.  To be realistic I would like to lose 50 more lbs.  To be vain, I would like to lose 60.  Weight Watchers really is working well for my lifestyle and I'm finding it very easy, so I'm aiming to have pictures of me and my horse littering this thing by next summer.  :)

Part the second:

Today Peanut and I took our first solo trail ride.  This is something that I have been terrified of but at the same time consumed with jealousy whenever I saw someone pottering along on trail alone with just their mount.  Well, Peanut has been so amazing lately that I thought I would give it a try.

Still, I was concerned.  He is still a mess on trail if we leave our companions.  For example, when Gene went one way and Mona and I another, he had a melt-down.  When Mona took one branch of a trail and Peanut, not paying attention, took another branch it ended up in a panicked Peanut once he realized what happened.

I was imagining that he would start calling for his homies, plant, refuse to move forward, dance, spin, rush uncontrollably as soon as we turned back home, and/or tense.  What I got was a horse that behaved no differently than when he travels in a group.

I was so proud!

I told Rick that we were just going to do the short loop (Gene has a boo where a saddle flap would go, so he just got a hand grazing), so I turned on the GPS on the phone and headed out.  The hardest part of the trail is the descent of the berm to the road, crossing the road and its bridge, and then getting through the first part of the trail-head.  I had thought about walking him out, completely tacked up, to a place where I could mount past the difficult areas, then countered with the thought that he was used to being mounted at the barn, so I should try that first.  And I did.  And it was fine.  And I was absolutely thrilled.

The best thing is that he was calm throughout.  Sure, he stopped every now and then and I had to ask him to go on, and at one point he did turn around after he finished investigating the broken remnants of a recently fallen tree, but no matter what I could feel that he was relaxed.  There were a couple of times when a crash in the woods spooked him, but he would just crouch a little and shift maybe half a step to the side, but it was no big deal.  In fact, the second time I found myself giggling at him.

When crossing the first stream, you have the choice on the other side to go up the marked trail which is a pretty decent uphill, or else a narrow, long scramble up the steep slope with a 90 degree turn a few feet up.  The past couple of times Anne and I took the small trail and the horses did great.  Today I meant to spare him that and take the marked, kinder trail, but he navigated his way through the stream until he was facing the harder trail.  He started to ascend, and I figured, well, why not, and urged him on.  He did great.

When I came out to the 4-way junction where I was planning to turn home (needed to stay where I told Rick I would be, just in case), I looked down the trail heading out into the park.  It felt like Peanut was ready to take me anywhere, so I asked him to turn down that trail instead.

I should note that this corner, and this turn, had played a big part in Peanut's melt-down when Gene left us, and after that he made it known that he preferred not to go down there.

He did let me know that he'd rather not turn that way, but stayed calm and eventually agreed to go where I asked.  After travelling down a bit I stopped him, gave him a cookie, and let him turn around to go home.  I was so proud.

During the ride Peanut was wearing his riding fly mask, and it seemed to be annoying him.  He kept stopping to rub his face on his legs or trees, so at one point I leaned forward, undid the velcro at his jaw, and pulled it off.  The flies weren't as bad as I thought they would be, so I thought it would be ok.  He almost seemed surprised to be rid of it, and then shook his head from the flies that promptly found him.  After a few feet, he was fine.  I stuffed the mask behind my treat pouch and we carried on.

The ride back to the barn was very quiet and nice, although when we got back to the stream he acted like he preferred to walk downstream instead of cross it, and he never rushed.  Even the parts where we have to hold him and Mona back from trotting downhill were handled slowly and calmly.

When we crossed the street and started ascending the berm to the barn, I spotted Rick in the distance and waved.  When he waved back I fist-pumped, then gave a thumbs-up.  We walked over to where he was grazing Gene, Rick gave Peanut a cookie at my insistence, and I dismounted.

I was so proud.  This opens up new worlds to us.

Ride stats for today:

Total distance: 2.27 miles
Total time: 43:59
Moving time: 28:29
Max speed: 5.69 mph
Average speed: 3.1 mph
Average moving speed: 4.78 mph
Elevation gain: 595 ft
Min Elevation: 158 ft
Max elevation: 349 ft