To Be Loved By Guinness and Jessie: In Touch With Their Inner Thoroughbreds

We've been riding nearly every day for a week and the horses are starting to settle into a nice routine. Guinness has started to chill out quite a lot, actually. At one point last week he was so mellow out on the trail that we wondered if the big fella was feeling alright! :)

Guinny looks like a bay in the setting sun!

It's really been neat to see our bonds forming. Shanna and Jessie spend most of their time as a team, as do Erin and Guinny. Occasionally we swap horses and that's equally as fun and insightful, but for now we're all working on cementing our relationships with our primary horse.

Relaxing with the horses in the back yard

Guinness definitely seems to trust Erin a lot more than he did even just a month ago. Every ride brings about some new, scary thing and it's evident that he's listening to her and more and more willing to just take a deep breath and move forward. We've been working a lot on this -- trusting that when the human says, "go, it's okay, trust me and just move forward" the horse will really not be eaten by the scary fern or mean sign post. Jessie is definitely more bold and compliant than her big brother, but Big G is clearly making good progress in this department.

Guinny likes it rough....

It's been such a pleasure to take them out and not have an undercurrent of fear about what might happen -- before we got the horses to the house there was always an element of concern when riding Guinness. His quick startle response can sometimes be a lot to handle, but as he's getting more and more experience with new and different things he's really maturing into a lovely horse. There was a good period of time when we had our doubts about his ability to run cross-country without spooking at everything, and now we're actually excited about the prospect of doing so with him! Our favorite professional eventer is a woman by the name of Allison Springer. Her Olympic mount Arthur is incredibly spooky. But she has believed in him and learned to tap into his inner workings in a way that gets him to focus on her voice and her leg/seat/hands and to trust her when he's afraid. Those two serve as a constant reminder that, while we're not looking to become Olympic eventers anytime soon, it is possible to be successful on the cross-country course (or in a hunter ring with those dreadful plastic flowers) with a horse who tends toward having the jitters.

Once Jessie gets in the trailer she has an awesome time in the real world!

Our latest adventures have included hauling up to the Coronet Bay trails up near Deception Pass twice to ride with our good buddy Laura and her intrepid mount Zee. There are unbelievably gorgeous trails through the old growth forests there, and it's well worth the 4-hour round-trip. There is plenty of room to canter side-by-side along the roads and the horses enjoy the views as much as we do. The narrower trails aren't too technical (Guinny is still learning "hoof placement awareness") but still provide a challenge. The ride lasts about 2 hours at varying paces, which is a nice amount of time to be out.

We can ride to the ends of the earth and back on this trail....

We also recently discovered the Snoqualmie Valley Trail that runs for 31.5 miles and starts minutes from home! The Tolt Pipeline Trail is the one that literally runs past our driveway and connects 3 miles up the road to the Snoqualmie Valley Trail! How fortunate we are for truly endless rides without ever having to get in the trailer! (Although we're working on that too)

Speaking of the horse trailer.... little Jessie is still choosing to be suborn about getting in. Some days it takes just a few minutes of coaxing for her to decide to hop in and others it takes days. And multiple attempts. On the extremely rare occasion she abjectly refuses to get in. Period. We're not sure why she's so reticent to get in, but there has clearly been some issue in the past. When we picked her up in Oregon after purchasing her it took us 2.5 hours and a cadre of helpers. The whole thing was a mess and something we vowed would be different once she got home. But Jessie has a mind of her own (which is normally quite sensible) and getting in the trailer just isn't something she's been willing to do without issue. Yet. Thankfully she's very food-motivated!

We have practiced it many times, feeding her inside, loving on her like crazy once she's in and always letting her get back out if she'd prefer. Thankfully she's not upset about being in the trailer -- just getting into it. Once she's in she hauls like a lady and has a thing or two to teach Guinny about standing patiently. (He paws like a maniac while she's contemplating getting in). Last week we wanted to haul out to the Redmond Watershed for a leisurely ride but Jessie had other ideas. After about an hour of trying to gently coax her in we gave up and Erin just rode her on the front yard trail. Jess had a ton of energy (no doubt frustrated by all that stupid trailer nonsense) so Erin let her gallop a good way. To start the afternoon, Guinness was not excited by the idea of having his sister out of sight, so since he was in the trailer already and they needed to practice being separated, we hauled him up the road a few miles to a place where the Tolt Pipeline trail crossed the main road. We unloaded him and then Erin somehow managed to stay on for the ride home. Guinness, not dealing well with the separation from his beloved Jessie, tried to insist on passaging and cantering in place all the way home. Eventually the pair managed to come to an understanding in the woods, until Guinny heard his girlfriend calling to him. Needless to say, both parties were full of adrenaline but it all worked out rather well. And once they returned safely home Erin saddled up Jessie for her gallop. She more readily walks off the property with out Guinness but she's full of GO! So after a good warm-up Erin decided to see what the pretty girl could do -- Jessie is definitely half Thoroughbred! And quite fit -- after her gallop Erin was the more winded of the two!

Last night we enjoyed an easy hack of about 5.5 miles. We've been trying to discover the point where the Tolt Pipeline Trail meets the Snoqualmie Valley Trail. Unfortunately to cross from one trail to the other we've also got to cross a major road. But last evening we were short on time and decided to head back without such an adventure. With the horses good and warmed up (no only do we just hack along the trail but we practice all sorts of things like shoulder-ins, half passes, bending and flexing, collected and extended trots and canters, etc.) we decided to let them both run a bit. Erin knew from experience that Jessie was willing to come back to a walk after her gallop and never once attempted a buck or anything else naughty. Thankfully Shanna took her word for it. Not having let him run before, she wasn't so sure about Guinness. But since he was being a rockstar she gave him his head as Jessie and Shanna galloped on up ahead. With the rushing noise of wind in our ears and stinging our eyes to tears, the 4 of us hauled ass up the road for a few minutes. It really is a toss-up to determine who of the 4 of us had the best time!

Sometimes the Scary Red Ball isn't quite so scary

We SO love having Guinny and Jessie here at the house with us. After having euthanized our Akita Tori a few weeks ago it's been especially nice to have their love and affection right here. How fortunate we are to have two perfect horses in our family, right in our own front yard. They love to be turned out in the lush back yard to graze for a few hours every afternoon. They're two peas in a pod out there. Standing side-by-side grazing together, they always get along nicely when turned out. Unfortunately Guinness is a bit of a pill when it comes to being in their stalls. Lately he's taken to biting Jessie hard on the neck as she enters and exits her stall, and since their doors are adjacent we've had to rig up a wooden barrier to keep his teeth from making contact with her flesh. It's amazing because he's so sweet to her any other time, but when he's in his stall he's quite a shit! Hopefully the hot wire and extra wood will prevent any more "sharking" occurrences....

Some sights around the barn: