Ride Date - 04 December, 1999Ride Date - 04 December, 1999On the way to the round pen, Taylor did a little "capriolet" (all four feet off the ground and kicking out) when I stopped to talk to Alana and Derek. Afterwards, Taylor and I did a more intent round pen session on this day. We started with 5 minutes of cantering in the right eye until he asked to come in. I brought him in, petted on him for a while, and then sent him out for some walk/trot transitions in the same eye. Then I repeated this in the left eye. Took some of the "attitude" out of him for the clinic. And he was a good boy in the "back up in a square" ground exercises and even better in the saddle.
I went with Tricia on this ride. Stacy blew us off and took the afternoon clinic instead. Muttering something about White Trash Par-Tay the night before?
Our goal was to be back by 3 PM and "follow the sun." I think we succeeded admirably!
Tricia and I left Marin Stables around 1:15 PM and headed out Canyon trail (0.69 mi).
We stopped Taylor in the creeks that are starting to the cross the trail.
Then petted on him. This was a Jimbo suggestion that worked well to reduce the
"water dances" later on in the ride. We hung a right on Concrete Pipeline
Fire Road (0.1) and jogged down to Taylor Trail (0.52 mi). We walked, jogged and
trotted up to Sky Oaks.
Source - Tamalpais Trails 4th Ed. Reproduced without permission.
We walked down Sky Oaks Road (0.1 mi), then waited in line with the cars to ask the ranger if the new maps had been printed yet. Nope. We "introduced" horses to a young German Shephard bitch. She barked and growled, but Taylor just gave her the eye. I felt like saying "my dog's bigger than your dog" but I stifled myself. We hung a right and went on Bullfrog Fire Road (0.83 mi). Fortunately this was still dry. I pulled Taylor off the trail into a spot dried grass raised out of the saddle, and whistled. He stretched out by walking backwards with just his hind feet and "decaffinated." Sometimes I think this horse is a closet Saddlebred. I wish I knew how to teach him to do that when I was mounting from the ground! The stretching, not the p*ssing!
We walked through a lot of water puddles without incident. We even went by the "Morgan-eating" logs in the quarry without a problem. I let Taylor bite it just for fun. We even heard some frogs this time! When we got to the real "fireroad" part, I reminsced about hiking here with son Chris and crunching through the ice in the winter. Tricia and I did a little collected canter to the end. Mine was "a little rough" according to Trish. We'll have to work on using more seat/half halts to collect, and not just depend on "downshifting" with the reins.
We jogged down the Old Bolinas-Fairfax Road, turned into the parking lot and went up the hill (~0.2 mi) and got a great view of Bon Tempe Lake in the sunshine. We jogged/trotted on teh Bon Tempe Sunnyside Trail (0.6 mi) past the fathers/kids and couples that were fishing. Very pretty! Next time I'll have to bring my binocs and see what waterbirds were on the lake.
We hung a left on the Hidden Cove Trail (0.33 mi). We trotted a bit, and stop to bite the Morgan-eating log. Taylor and I had to "chat" on the downhill... he really didn't want to just walk. We crossed Sky Oaks Road and hit Shaver Grade (0.6 mi). Taylor was getting worse with the jigging. We spent a lot of time backing up the hills. Again, Corinne's clinic pays off immediately! But this time it didn't take the "jig" outta Taylor. It only drove Charger (Tricia's horse) nuts.
At Jimbo's suggestion, we stopped for a couple of minutes at Five Corners to remind the ponies that "bookin' back home" wasn't in the cards. then we walked (Taylor backed up and did shoulder forwards and did half passes!) down the Deer Park Fire Road (0.6 mi) to Boy Scout Junction.
We took the fire road connector (0.1 mi) down the hill. I had Taylor on the bit stepping down the hill, but no real walking. We crossed the stream via the creek bed very nicely and took Canyon Trail (0.6 mi) home. Taylor was jigging a lot, so turned around and let Tricia go on ahead. I turned Taylor around and let him walk backwards back to the barn. I was able to aim his hind quarter quite well after Corinne's clinic. Then I let him walk. At the big ring I turned him around again and walked him backwards down to the mounting block.
We got back just shy of 3 PM. So overall, about 1 hour and 45
minutes. I threw the cooler on Taylor, had a Bud longneck, and kicked back.
Tricia showed me the pictures from our last ride. The "three musketeers"
picture is pretty funny. When I get it scanned, I'll put it in the description of last week's ride.
Charger, Tricia, Mike, and Taylor.