Back to AhD

Sweet November.
During the last month or so, due to lack of confidence (wussyness) on my part and high reactivity and energy (brattyness) on AhD's part, we have not made good partners. But, today, I am proud to say that we are back in the groove.

Nights after work during the week, I had little ground work sessions with AhD, to remind BOTH of us just who was the boss in this relationship. To start today off on the right foot, I harnessed AhD up and ground drove him on a tote road. I was thinking of Donna and Linus.

I attached the reins to his webbed halter. When we hit speed bumps of misbehavior, I just folded the reins over his back and led him, practicing frequent whoas and backups. Since AhD was not wearing a bit, I was quite pleased at how this worked for us. I was exhausted and roasting in my fleece and heavy boots by the time we got back to the barn. AhD had a tiny bit of the edge taken off.
We posed for Sept mini-contest pictures, but I'm not wearing my SWEET new fleece jacket because I needed to stay with the red/orange theme for the woods.
We hit the trail.
AhD was high energy and very forward, but controllable. We zoomed here and there, with two of my dogs at our heels. Fake spooks or full-alert looks into the woods earned AhD tight circles. We did less circling than I expected.
When I saw this patch of beech, I thought of my friend and fellow RACer Betsy.
We went up and down a lot of hills in our area. Halfway down one very steep hill, AhD gave a little toss of his head and flicked his ears. Small signs, but right away I sensed that I need to give him something else to think about, and I urged him on with my voice and criss-crossed him sharply across the steep path. Whew! At the bottom of the hill after another head toss, I dismounted and we did some ground work to remind him that, hellloooo, I was not taking any of his sass today.
We walked quite a ways down this stream and let the dogs enjoy. On the way back, coming down off of a hill, I could tell that AhD was planning to jump the stream instead of walk through it like a good trail horse. I picked my battles today, and decided this was not the one. I thought, "I'm up for a jump!" and we SAILED across. I held him in check on the other side, turned him back around and made him stand to take this picture of the spot where he jumped the stream.
We had to bushwhack to bypass this fallen tree. AhD was a trooper! He is so good at that. I got a sapling whipped across my face and another across my neck, but the sting didn't last too long, especially when I remembered that I had to stop AhD a couple of times, back him up, and place him between trees to maneuver our way through that maze. I was on cloud nine at the way he so willingly listened to my every cue.

I was really happy with our ride today. Because I took charge and did not let him intimidate me, I got to enjoy the Maine woods on the back of my forward, willing, exciting mount. I think AhD was happy as well, because not only did he get out and about, but he was rewarded with some sweet lawn grass to boot.