TeamTucker rides alone

Team Tucker had a gorgeous morning to go out for a ride....alone. No other peeps.

I shined up my saddle and turned the stirrups while it was windy yesterday. I'll keep turning them with a broom handle. I do think it helped.

We started out by going through our home obstacle course. Kind of a warm up. The wind was gusting a bit. The computer is saying about 10 mph.

Tucker is good in the wind but once we went down the driveway and got on the road, he acted very alert.

I decided to go to the right instead of the left today. Tucker was on making sure he was keeping an eye out for us. Not ridiculous but definitely watching for trouble. He wanted to turn for home at the end of our fence line but I kept him turning until we were facing leaving once again.

We got to the dog corner and no dogs on the right but a new dog barking on the left. I had to encourage Tucker to continue forwards. I told him the dog was safely behind the fence!

Tucker was pretty hesitant all along there and when we got to the next corner, I could see two dogs running loose in the desert. I let Tucker rest and watch them. They didn't seem like a threat but I decided to circle the mailboxes and then turn us around to go back the way we came. I wanted it to be my idea that we were turning around.

At the dog corner I said "Surprise, we are not going home. Make a left and go east young man." He did that nicely. He was still being a lookey loo. I asked him to jog and walk and jog and walk for that half mile. We actually got to trotting a bit and I think I was posting the trot for 200 feet or so. Woot! I did NOT start bouncing like a rag doll at any point!

We made a right turn and walked and jogged to our sandy road home. Surprise again, Tucker. We are taking the big loop trail through the desert and then back to our sandy road. He did quite well at listening.

I think we were riding for about an hour and a half. I think Tucker is still not sure he can trust me to be a good leader when we are doing a new route alone. We had been on that road before but from the other direction and with Brownie the Wonder Horse. I think the way to overcome that is to make sure we keep going out by ourselves.

Here is is standing at the patience pole at the end of our ride.