easter drive

What a gorgeous day! The sun was shining, the temps were perfect. Mike had to work so off to the barn I went. I spent a bunch of time with Shyloh and had her doing some work and stretches. 

But after that, Jaime and I took the ponies on an Easter drive! It was so nice to get out. I have not driven in forever and I was happy to be back in the cart. Ponies are so easy to harness and hook. And Meatball just makes everything so simple.

We went around the "block", which was about 4 miles. Meatball has turned barn sour and was not a very forward mover. Dexter was perfection, as usual. But Meatball. . . he has a built in GPS straight towards his home. 

At first, it was a constant battle to make him go forward and not try and turn around. He was walking. . .so. . .slow. . . Then, about the half way point, every drive way that would technically take us across fields and straight back to the barn, he wanted to turn down. And he made it a point to announce himself (or call for help because he was clearly being tortured) every minute or so. His next tactic was running out of gas and refusing to move. No matter what I did to try and get him to go. We were being left in Dexter's dust! As a last resort I vowed to scratch him down when we got back, he just had to keep going, because I knew he was itchy from all the hair and being sweaty.

Eventually, I got him going again, but he kept running out of gas. Unless we were passing people having Easter parties at their houses. Then he was a little show off with his cute trot and great listening skills. 

Once we made the last turn on the street of the barn, Meatball flat out trotted home. We passed Dexter and Jaime and kept on trucking. I let him go because it was controlled, he was still listening to me, and he was walking when I asked. 

We walked back up the driveway, stopped, and I quickly unhooked and unharnessed Meatball for his promised scratching. He was very grateful. Then I put him back in the round pen and he rolled and rolled. 

Dexter and Jaime caught up to us and Dexter was also put back in with Meatball. Then, weird as Dexter is, stood right over Meatball as he continued to roll some more. 

Aside from the flat out stopping and trying to get back home on Meatball's part, both ponies were amazing. People, running horses, bikes, motorcycles, golf carts, cars. . .nothing bothered them. And neither horses seemed tired from their first bit of distance since before winter. Gotta love some ponies!