Have I mentioned I don’t like surprises? ;P Especially not of the kind where I thought I was set to have a fun jumping lesson, only to find out that since our regular instructor was ill, we were set to ride out instead. Not only do I always get a little nervous riding out (even on Murphy, I can’t get used to the sound of hooves on a road), but its pretty darn dull to do it at the riding school seeing as we have virtually nowhere to ride any longer. In short, not a great ‘lesson’ to help with the depression that has hit me hard since I got back home.
There were some nice bits to it, though. Murphy loves trekking out, though I am sure he’d prefer galloping across some fields to the sedate walking alongside roads and short bit of trotting that we did, and he gets very alert. He doesn’t spook, but he’s very curious and will give anything of interest a good long study, and while most of the other horses walk along with their ears slightly ‘flopped’ and relaxed, he spends most of his time with his ears forward and his attention peaked. Occasionally, he will stop to check something out, but most of the time he just looks very closely at whatever caught his attention as he walks by.
When we rode away from the stables, we spotted a deer in a field to the left of the road It was quite far away, and I don’t think any of the horses noticed it. On the way back, however, Murphy stopped suddenly just as that field came into view, now on the right of us. At first, I didn’t see what he had spotted, but then I looked further out into the field and saw not just one but three deer. Very interesting, Murphy thought. I am sure he would have wanted to pop over and say hello, had he been allowed.
Other than that, it was a very sedate little trek, though Murphy thought the bit of climbing we did was great fun and he really picked the pace up then. He also thought it was a good idea to go fast downhill, but there I had to tell him I didn’t quite share his opinion of what constituted ‘fun’. He’s getting fairly good about listening to my opinions, both when ridden and when in the stables, and overall his behaviour on the ground is much improved. We had a little talk about his difficult side (his right) back in the stall, and after he had brandished his teeth in my direction a few times, he grudgingly gave in and moved aside (chewing in a mostly submissive fashion) when I nudged his right shoulder.