Yesterday I took Dutch out for a bareback hack about the neighborhood. I was feeling particularly brave as he is know for being a handful when hacking out solo. But other than a few screams and a lot of jigging he was good as gold.
We did a 1/2 loop of the neighbor's hay field. We do not go along the road because there are horses across the street and Dutch cannot handle seeing them when he is by himself. It is always funny switching between the horses - Uno's neck is so short and level, Dutch is like riding a giraffe.
The hair over his injection scar is weirdly thick and fluffy even though the rest of him is not. It also is very white and is constantly clay stained and dirty looking. I hate it, and Dutch hates the constant hot toweling he gets to try and stay at an acceptable level of cleanliness.
Just down the road from the hayfield is a vacant lot. It leads out to two small clearings and a bunch of ATV trails. We are still trying to figure out who owns those ATV trails so we can ask permission to be there, but it is a lot of small hills with cleared walkways, and so it is a great alternative to hacking out on the road.
Can ears be more happy or forward? At this point, we were doing the world's slowest pranciest trot and he was snorting like a dragon. I was laughing so hard it was hard to take pictures.
Turning around to head home. We did not quite hit 3 miles, but we did have a nice 30 ish minute stroll which is more than enough for Dutch at this point.
Can we talk about how good he looks?! I was very afraid at several points this winter that he wasn't going to make it to the spring, much less be sound for riding. This winter has also been really rough for my mental health and as awesome as Uno is, there is nothing better for my spirit than time spent with Dutch. The fact that he is looking this good and feeling this happy means the world to me.
Today I will take both boys out for a hack focusing on more trot work and aiming for at least 4 miles. We got to enjoy the sun and low humidity while we have it.
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