In the heat of the day

All hosed off after a hot ride

I have not had near enough time for riding by my standards, so yesterday I raced home from my 9 to 5 job, and made a beeline for the pasture. Trax wasn't thrilled about going to work in the hottest part of the day, but he wasn't bad either.  Let me explain....Trax is a horse that is generally full of energy, going forward has never been his issue. Stopping however can sometimes be a different matter.  It was pretty hot yesterday and he was actually quite happy to just walk the trail rather than hit it at his "million mile trot".  This isn't to say that he didn't pick it up when asked, but when given his choice of gaits he did choose to walk which is unusual for him.

Trax is so much fun to ride, he is different that any other horse I have ever had.  Sometimes we throw him and Killian in the trailer and run up the road to some state land and ride up towards the Casper Mountain. There are cows up there and Trax is all cow horse.  He can smell them from a long ways away, and his whole demeanor changes.  His ears go up and you can see him looking all around searching them out.  If you drop the reins and give him his head, he will go straight to them.  He's a cow working fool.  Sometimes I wonder if the reason he enjoys it so much is because he is always the bottom rung horse in the herd.  Pushing cows gives him someone to push around!

One time Tom and I (that's my boyfriend) were riding up

Tom on Killian

 there, it was wicked hot that day too.  We were headed back to where we had parked the trailer and Trax was feeling good that day.  I had dropped the reins since we were getting close to the trailer and figured he would just go to the trailer and stop, which a normal horse probably would have done.  Instead he makes a wide u-turn and heads back up towards the mountain where all the cows had been.  It was as if to say, "Hey, those cows are still there, we've got work to do!"   Like I said, he is different.

My favorite gait on him is the "million mile trot" that I mentioned earlier.  It is not a fast trot, where you would have to post to ride comfortably, but an easy trot where you can just rock a little with him and he can surely cover some ground at that pace. 

I do not have many pictures of me riding him.  Since no one else in my family seems to be capable of working a camera but me, its hard to get a picture of myself!   This is one that my friend Jamie took on her last visit from Michigan. Not a  very good picture though.  Of course part of the problem too is that Trax is generally in front of everyone else so most of the pictures are of his big fat butt. When I look at this picture though I find myself wondering why I am pulling on his mouth like that.  No wonder he has such a hard mouth.  Gonna have to work on that!

So anyway, I am glad I finally got to ride yesterday.  Now I just need to get the other three out  and about a little bit too. Its no wonder they are all getting so fat.  They don't get near enough exercise!