We saddled fairly quickly and headed out. There was a very short very steep downhill section and Oakley decided to create his own mini-version of Man from Snowy River as he bolted down the hill at a trot/lope. Now this was not just a little downhill, this was pretty close to straight down, Derek handled it fine and Oakley stopped when he ran into me and Bandit. About 1.5 hours into the ride, Oakley started acting up going downhill. He was walking sideways, he was charging forward at a fast trot, acting uncontrollable at times, so Derek got off and walked him. He ended up walking for about 25 minutes until we got to the lunch stop at the river.
We unsaddled Oakley, the conclusion of his issue was that maybe his saddle was too tight and pinching. Lunch was great, here are some pics.
This is an end of a log at the river for lunch. Can you see the evil in that log!
After lunch, Scott asked if we were okay doing some hills. My thought was well Oakley does fine doing uphill, so should be fine. Well my idea of a "hill" was not what Scott had in mind, his hill was like going straight up the side of the hill! :) Nobody's fault, we just were not prepared to tackle something so big, it was a bit too much for Derek or Oakley. We started out okay but then we stopped to give the horses a breather; inwhich Oakley turned around. I could see that Oakley was possibly going to have an issue but by the time I thought it, Derek tried to get him turned around and heading up the trail, and Oakley stepped off the trail into a bad area where the ground dissappeared under him, there were logs down there and branches, Oakley jumped full into the mess, went down, Derek tried to bail and came off badly, landing on his back on a sharp stump, he pushed Oakley to avoid being trampled and Oakley jumped up/out of the "whole" and back onto the trail.
I jumped off, tied my horse and went down the trail, Derek was having a very hard time breathing and moving, his palm was cut pretty good. I was a little scared for him, I felt really bad that this had happened. After his 10 minute recovery, I ponied Oakley up the hillside while Derek walked behind at his slower pace. My horse Bandit thought he was going to die, I had to really push him to get him up that hill, it was a bit tough for him even.
Overall, they both turned out okay, although Derek is VERY stiff and very sore! They finished the ride just fine, we stuck to logging roads, we didnt need any more trail adventures. The hill was more than Oakley was experienced enough to climb. We are not upset at all, a lesson learned once again and it will in the long run help Derek to grow as a rider, I just feel so bad he is hurting. Not to mention he starts his new job tomorrow!!
Tomorrow morning should be very interesting, I think Derek is going to struggle getting out of bed! He said to me today after we got home "man it SUCKS coming off a horse!" I said "Oh well try coming off when you are over 6' off the ground and falling that entire distance flat on your back, as I did last year!! He just kinda shrugged and I said, NOW picture how unsympathetic you were to my pain.. lol He got my point! Not that he didnt care when I came off, but until now, he had NO idea just how bad it hurts to hit the ground whether you are 3 feet or 6 feet from falling.
So he is done with his old job, he can put the drama filled work environment behind him! We both are ready for that. I think this new job can potentially put him in a great position in the future as he can maybe help them grow and establish a side of their business they never considered.
Here's a cute pic of Scout and then of her and Oakley, she is just fascinated with him! She'll stand at the fenceline for 45 minutes, just starring at Oakley. Occassionally barking at him. Well time to put the laptop down and eat some dinner.. LOL Just as I typed that sentence, no joke, Derek says "are you going to eat?" Oh and we got a laptop BTW. :)
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