YES!!!

That's what I said on Saturday afternoon...at least in my head. Ok, so here's what we've been up to:

Altivo and I had a lesson last week with our instructor about how a horse can possibly be in a horse trailer without breaking it. (in case you don't remember, here's the blog posting explaining that...) So, my teacher brought one of the lesson horses with us to be a trailer buddy. When horses are riding in a trailer, some of them can be more comfortable if they are with a friend, so we made sure to put the trailer buddy in first, then loaded Altivo up.
He went in without fussing, but wasn't too excited about letting the divider close near him. After some encouragement, he allowed it to close and lock, and we stood outside the trailer to make sure there wouldn't be any anxiety attacks on the inside.

He made it that far! We then drove around in a large circle, and ended up where we started. We stopped, we listened. We got out, we listened. All quiet. We opened the trailer, and unloaded him. No issue. Now, this was important, since I had secured a slot in that very same trailer for the impending Saturday- a trail ride at a lake about 20 minutes away. A. Trail. Ride!!!!!!! Trail ride!!!! ahem. Trail ride.

Saturday came, and I could barely contain my excitement!! This was one of the reasons, maybe even the MAIN reason I have always wanted a horse- to go wandering around the wilderness on horseback, taking in the scenery, and discovering trails. All total, there were 3 trailers, and 7 horses. We made it to the lake, and unloaded Altivo.

The look on his face when he looked around was that of shock and amazement. His ears were perked forward, his head was up, and he sniffed the air, trying to figure out where he was. He wasn't scared, just curious.
He must have been quite a sight to see, since some people who were returning from their rides came up to meet him, and one of them even asked if riding him was possible, since they didn't think draft horses were able to be ridden. Say what?? Oh, sillies.....I educated them, and they were very nice with a pretty palomino. 

After tacking him up, I stared at him, trying to figure out how to get on him....mounting him is a pain as I'm 5' 4" and he's 16.2 hands...so I looked around....and found....a picnic table!


I led him to one of the picnic tables nearby, and he stood nicely while I hopped up. All 7 of us started down the trail that would lead to a lovely 2 hour jaunt. Oh, there was one thing he did NOT like!!

 Yes, a yellow wheelbarrow was parked near a muck pile, and as we came around a corner, it seemed to appall Altivo that anyone would make a wheelbarrow YELLOW. He startled, looked at it, quickly determined that it wasn't food, and walked on.  I'm aware that with alot of horses, the words, "Horse Eating" maybe be applied to the beginning of an object to describe things. Like, "Horse Eating Balloon", or "Horse Eating Mundane Object", since, being prey animals, they tend to fear things that to us, seem silly. One of the horses on the trail ride startled at a large rock, so therefore, it became a "Horse Eating Rock". Get it?
Well, nothing beside the wheelbarrow wanted to eat him, even when confronted with a lone cow. (HF calls it a steak-horse, and anytime I think of that, I giggle.)

Anyhoo, we meandered through the lovely countryside, up hills and down them, over a fallen tree, and to a lake bed. And he didn't trip once! I asked for a trot several times, and he happily obliged without the use of a Motivation Stick (aka Mr. Spanker), and he seemed to have a good time. Both of us, being out of shape, were dragging a little on the way back, but I can't wait to go again!!!

So there you have it- OH!! And Monday, he had his teeth floated, and I didn't get photos cuz there's this pesky thing called "work" that I had to do, so that I could pay the vet....but, the vet said there wasn't anything remarkable, just the typical points on the teeth, which to me meant that they needed to be done.
And I'm working on Altivo's Halloween costume- stay tuned for pictures!!!