A puzzling hike

It was warm and dry yesterday (unlike today's rain), so I decided to take Peanut on an epic hike.  I was toying with the idea of riding, but it is a very, very good thing I didn't.

In our little corner of the park, Peanut was basically fine.  Just wanted to graze and kept looking back at Gene who was grazing in the first field.  No biggie.

Once we walked over the bridge to the main part of the park, Peanut lost it.  He kept staring down a chestnut thoroughbred that was grazing on lead over by the parking lot, and that chestnut stared back.  After that, he was gone.  I did stop him, pet his neck, talk to him, and he came back a bit.  Once I stopped, however, he turned back into a worry-wart.

He spooked when he first caught sight of that horse, and would not stop freaking out.  I tried to lead him down a field to a wooded trail (he didn't seem to be enjoying open areas), and he was freaky, kept looking behind him, and kept rushing to the point where I would circle him around me.  Even after we lost sight of the chestnut over a rise he would not calm down.

As we got closer to the woods he was behind me on my left.  Next thing I knew there was a lot of sound on the right and I looked over to see Peanut, on the ground, scrambling to get up from his knees.  After a few frantic, crawled steps on his knees he regained his feet, shaking and with his chest fluttering with his heart.

He was terrified of where we had come from.  He refused to go into the woods.  He didn't want to go anywhere but at the same time didn't want to stay where he was.  He was confused and having a breakdown.

I don't know if I have ever been afraid of my horse on the lead before, but at that point I was.  I honestly felt the domestication drop for a moment, and in place of my happy-go-lucky puppy-horse was a large animal who was ready to go muscle to muscle against me.  He was a prey animal and I was in his way of self-preservation.  I felt something getting ready to blow in him....

Once I took a moment to recenter myself I talked to him and tried to guide him into the woods and out of the open.  He came back from that precipice and turned back into my terrified puppy-horse.

We went a ways, he kept stopping, looking behind him, and was jumpy.  Of course, an open area soon appeared and, at the top of a far rise, were two horses being ridden along another trail.  They caused immense worry, and I struggled to get him back into the woods on the other side.

Luckily, this was a good stretch of woods and so we walked and walked.  He would occasionally stop to stare behind him, and when I did stop to pet him and talk to him he would then try to turn around.  I was hoping to get far enough along where we didn't have to retrace our steps in those fields.

Eventually I was getting so tired of forcing him to walk with me that I made an agreement with him that if he walked calmly, normally to that tree up ahead, we'd turn around.  After resetting our goals a few times, I finally had him walking calmly beside me and stopped easily with a verbal whoa.  I gave him a treat, a hug, and we turned around.

On the way back, he was back to my puppy-horse.  No more nerves, nothing.  Even going past the areas where we had the most trouble were drama-free (and only then could I pull out my camera).

I really don't know what happened.  We have walked and ridden that trail before, and he was always fine.  For some reason, he just couldn't handle it.

I was so glad to get to the barn and hand him off to Richard for a moment.  Checking, it looked like we had only covered about 4.4 miles total, but it was intense.

From last week, meeting the downed tree.

But someone listened to my email, and the path was clear!

Soon after we turned back to home, and back to my puppy-horse.  This is normal on our hikes.  I don't mind as long as he always perfectly honors verbal whoas.

Even if something caught his attention he didn't freak out.

Grazing calmly where he was down on his knees just half an hour or so before.  I don't know if he caused the divot, but I wouldn't be surprised.

On the way out they were marking an endurance course.  Peanut actually didn't care at all about the truck that kept stopping and the person who kept leaving little pink flags (a lot closer together than I expected, very easy to follow).  Peanut's normal reaction to these flags is to pull them up.

This one's for Funder!

Getting closer to home.

Finally!!!!