Fun times

Since I promised Dan we would back off on the work some, we took a fun hack tonight. We hit the trails and while I knew we needed to mostly walk, it was hot and buggy, so we added some fun stuff. We did a bit of trot and a bit of canter. We jumped over two little logs and he was great. We trotted the first one and landed in a nice forward canter, which he politely came down from. Then the second one he broke to the canter a stride or two out, but jumped nicely and didn't bolt on the backside too bad! ;) Really, he didn't. He got big and happy for a few strides but came right back. Then we had a deer bolt across the field in front of us. He was chill about it. But the deer reminded me of him. It was taking such huge airborne strides and just covered the distance quickly. :)

 We splashed in the lake a bit but it's not as much fun without pals. Then as we were heading back, I tried to get a picture of the lake from the trail beside it. It was gorgeous out as it was getting to be dusk and was a bit misty over the lake and the lighting was great. Well, Dan was getting antsy anyways and as we rounded the corner he saw a bait bucket. A big green bait bucket. TERRIFYING! He spooked, spun, and bolted. I got him back after a step or two and we tried to go back and look. It took a few tries and he was honestly scared. But once I reassured him, he was brave and got much closer. It was so cute because you could tell he was honestly scared, but as soon as I reassured him, he took a few steps forward before spooking himself again. :) Yay!!! He trusts me! Mostly. ;) 

So yep, a nice fun relaxing ride. :)