Whispering Rain Farms

I've got some pics now from Thursday!!

Here I am lunging him with the training lines on him.

I didn't have them very tight, but just tight enough so he wouldn't push his nose out. It was a great workout for him and he was giving to them nicely. Check out his new matching brestcollar!!

Here is a pic of me stretching Trouper's front legs before I tightened up the saddle for the last time to get on him. I do this to stretch him and to make sure he doesn't have any skin wrinkles under the girth.

Here is me and Trouper posing with Deb, a blog fan! Deb and her horse came down from Tennesse, near the Virginia border to spend a few days with us.

On to Friday!

Keith Smith came for Trouper's second trim.

Trouper's back feet were SO long. Keith was able to take off allot off of them! This came off of the back right, I think. WOW!!

Sherri came to help with Montana while Trouper got his feet trimmed and we found out it was her birthday, so we stopped for a popsicle celebration. I couldn't leave Trouper out of the fun!! He wasn't too sure what to think about his creamsicle. Check out this great shot Sherri captured!!

Here's another little grin. LOL

After our snack, it was off to work.... Here's a cute canter shot of me lunging Trouper. (The boogie man is behind him in this shot. LOL)

I went to get Trouper's bridle and the training reins and Trouper stood dead still while I was gone. Look how squared he was standing!!

I know it's not perfect, but this is the best he's stood since he came, I think!! We are getting somewhere!

When I put his training lines on Trouper Fri, I put them a little bit tighter than before. I wanted to ask a little more of him. He did great!!

After a bit of a workout with the training lines, I took them off and rode Trouper. He was a bit contrary for some reason. He seemed frightened of one end of the arena. It was very strange. A couple of the other horses were acting strange yesterday too, though. Maybe it was the weather. Who knows!

I wasn't feeling well, so I didn't ride Trouper for long at all on Friday. I did oil my saddle really well that evening, though. I knew it was calling for rain on Sat and I figured we'd end up caught out in it. LOL

You know, we had a big ride planned for today (Sat). Well, when the alarm went off at 6am, all you could hear is the rain pouring down! We pulled up the weather and there was really bad weather at the place where we were going to haul to ride at. It wasn't going away anytime soon either. We decided to stick around close to home and try to catch a break in the rain and just ride down the trails and dirt roads a bit. I was so excited and pumped about taking Trouper on his first trail ride, I couldn't miss out!! I had to ride somewhere!!

Well, after lunch, the rain slacked off and it looked like we might have a couple hours before we got drenched again, so we saddled up. Deb was still here with her horse, Gus, and my friend and fellow, horse trainer, Amy came up from Birmingham to ride Dakotah with us.

I was very nervous and excited about taking Trouper on his first trail ride. Deb's horse was acting very nervous as she was saddling him up and that fed my nerves more too. LOL Dakotah was great and just happy to be a part of the commotion and good ol Denny is solid as a stone.

The arena was very muddy, so I lunged Trouper for a couple minutes in the side yard. We all mounted and headed down the road. This was the first time I had mounted Trouper in the yard. He stood great! So, down the driveway we went. Poor Jamie was a nervous wreck for my sake. I was a bundle of nerves also as we headed down the dirt road.

We went about 50 yards down the road and was crossing over the huge culvert where the creek runs under the dirt road and, of all horses, Denny spooks!! It was so out of character for Denny, but Trouper, Dakotah and Gus figured he had a pretty good reason for spooking and they all did a 180* turn and in a split second, we were all facing the other way. Trouper wasn't sure what to do with himself. He lunged forward in front of the other horses before coming to a stop. I just turned him back around and off we all went again. Needless to say, that kind of broke the ice. It seemed like we were all more relaxed after that. LOL

Trouper gave the neighbor's mini donkeys an eye as we passed them. Luckily, we recently got a mini donkey, so Trouper has been getting used to him. He still wasn't too sure, but since the other horses were passing them fine, he figured he would too. We also had a car pass us within the first 10 mins of the ride and he did really well. Luckily they slowed down nicely to pass us.

Our dogs went with us and they were constantly darting in and out of the bushes. It made Trouper nervous for the first half hour, but he soon go used to it. Once we were on the paved road, we were passed by another car who didn't slow down much at all! It was a bright red car and Trouper shivered as it neared us and then jumped a little as it passed. It was only about 4 feet from us, so he had the right to be nervous. He'll get used to that, though.

Oh yeah! We also rode over the one lane concrete bridge!! The creek was in flood and rushing underneath it and there was standing water on it that was seeping off the edges and splashing down into the creek. Trouper was cautious and didn't follow Denny across it right away. While he was sniffing it, Amy passed me on Dakotah and went on across it. Trouper followed suite and went across it as well. I was very proud!!

We rode onto the land of the Smith Wagon Train campground. It was a beautiful ride through the woods. It had been drizzling rain a little bit and it picked up just a tad while we were in the woods, but we were only getting the drops from the trees, so it wasn't too bad. When we got out of the woods and into the open fields, we posed for a pic since Deb had brought her camera with her! We are actually getting rained on here, but you can't really tell in the pic.

We rode on through the campground and came to a closed gate. While Jamie called the owners for permission to open and pass through, Deb wanted to take a picture of me and Trouper next to the 5 MPH sign. LOL

Of course, Trouper and I will never miss the chance to pose for pics! LOL

The drizzle was starting to dampen us at this point. You can see that Trouper's neck and rump were getting wet and so was my shoulders. We found out that the owners had horses turned out, so we didn't open the gate to ride through. Instead, we decided to take the road on around through the back of the campground. Then, we took the trail back out to the woods again.

While we were riding in the woods, we could hear the rain getting heavier and heavier. By the time we came out of the woods, it was pouring!! We were debating whether to cut the ride short and come on home, or keep riding in the rain. I think we were all for riding in the rain, but Trouper's feet were starting to get very tender at this point. He had allot of his sole cut out just yesterday. We decided to take the short cut home, but we ran into Dani and her horse, Midnight, at the crossroad. She knew we were out riding somewhere and was out looking for us. I had put my cell on silent so it wouldn't disturb me and Trouper, so I didn't know she was out looking for us. We stood in the pouring rain and chatted about how crazy we all were for being out riding in it. LOL

Then, we were on the road again. We went back across the flooded bridge and he did even better this time! When we got to the creek at our house, we decided to go through it. Well, let me rephrase that, THEY decided to go through it and I followed. LOL I was nervous about the slippery sides and all of the low branches that were face level with me on Trouper. Well, Trouper never faltered! He slid a tad while going down into the creek, but so did the others. When we got to the creek, he walked right through it and right up the other side and into the road again. WOW! What a boy!! That was a wonderful way to end a great first trail ride!!

When we got back to the house, Deb took a pic of me and Trouper before I got down. It was raining still and we were DRENCHED from head to toe by this point. If you look closely, you can see the raindrops all on this picture. LOL Also, you can compare the color of my shirt and jeans to the previous pics. LOL

I was so very pleased with how well Trouper did on his first trail ride! I was also thrilled to be able to share it with Jamie, Deb and Amy. We had a great time!! Oh, and I am loving Trouper's new saddle!!! I had no idea how comfortable it would be on the trail. I normally have to reposition my self off and on during a trail ride, but I didn't have to do that AT ALL today!! My rump stayed in the exact same spot during the whole ride. Whether I was going up or down a hill, or down the road at a walk or trot. That is so awesome!

Thanks to Sherri, Deb and my mom for all of the pics from this blog! Also, thanks to Amy and Dean for coming to meet Trouper and see him in action! Trouper also deserves a big Thank You for taking such good care of me today!!