Flying Above Ice Canyon

The roads finally dried out enough to take my equines out for their Outward Bound lessons, so the plan is to tack them up and take them for walks until it is normal and natural to trek around. When we are the maximum distance away from the school, we will stop for a bit of target training, which they like well enough that I can use it as a reward. The training location of the day was across the bridge and down into the sands of Ice Canyon. Chester, Cracker Joe, and Tobiah all got to go before lunch, then in the afternoon, I started with the horses.

Paisley has never been across the bridge, so this was a big deal for her. Normally when she is out, she loves to run around like a wild nut and frolic in the sand - we always let her follow along last year at liberty. She goes totally jubilant, but I am trying to get her to realize she can't be so frisky when she is on a lead rope. She did great on the way over and then when we got to the sand, I had her lay down a couple of times. I thought things were going well, so we ventured a few hundred yards farther to the gas well pad nearby. There were cows on the far side of the pad. Cows with large thick horns! Paisley got really excited, but I tried to distract her with some targeting requests and then head back to the sand. When we got back to the wash she started galloping around me on the end of her rope. She wasn't pulling, just tearing around in a circle, then suddenly she lifted herself in the air like a Pegasus. It was incredible! The photo I have borrowed here shows the movement. Imagine that the horse is a black and white pinto, and the human is me, imagine that we are in the middle of nowhere. Yep, you've got the idea now. I think she just was being joyful because she quickly got back to work and we had no trouble on the way home. I hope that flying leap will remain forever etched into my minds eye. She could be trained for the Spanish Riding School if she wasn't a big pinto.

I did not take Cisco out of the gate, however..... we walked the perimeter of the property, including the still-snowy trail on the hill. He did great, following on the sweetest soft feel. I would like someone else to be with me when I finally get brave enough to go off property. I really do not want him to get away and run home EVER. He has really settled down though, so I really expect it to be a non-event.

In other news, I posted something about the Hinny Whisperer's Bookstore on ImagineAHorse forum. A very trollish person challenged me for having books on it that I haven't read... trolls go around discussion groups and try to start fights, for those of you who don't know. He said that I "didn't deserve it", but he gave me a link to a very interesting resource, archive.org. They have old books available to be read online. There are a few under the keyword HORSEMANSHIP. Here is the link.
ARCHIVE.ORG

In the fairy tales, trolls would do stuff like give you a treasure, wouldn't they?