India does well and things are blooming

India visiting the grave of General David Adams, a hero of the War of 1812, who is buried in the middle of the Oconee National Forest, along with his wife and children and his mother, but only General Adams gets an inscribed tombstone.

I took India to Horse Camp this morning, our first trip anywhere since she returned from a month with Kathleen Lindley. Our first test was loading in my trailer and India passed it with flying colors, walking right on and to her spot in the front, standing quietly while I shut the divider. Yay, India! And then I let her unload, which she did mostly well, rushing the last few steps. I loaded her again and off we went to Horse Camp.

When we got there, she off loaded very nicely, mostly. The last few steps were rushed, so I loaded her again, which she did well, and then I asked her to unload and this time, she moved a step at a time, waiting for me to tell her to move each foot.

She stood so very quietly tied to the trailer while I tacked up. Asia doesn't tie reliably, which is why she always wears a leather halter, and while I'm tacking up, she swivels from side-to-side and nervously eats hay. India gets an A+ for that portion as she stood like a rock despite the parking area being full of trucks, trailers, kids riding bikes, and horses screaming for their buddies.

India did pretty darn well following Saber, but she did not like going first and we had a few moments, but we worked through them. However, she's going to need a lot more work on this if we're going to do the ride and tie race in May. I'm going to wait a bit before sending in the entry fee, although I have reserved a paddock for her at the Biltmore for that weekend as I was afraid that they'd all be gone if I waited too much longer.

Although India absolutely balked twice about leading, she surprised me by willingly going first down a trail we'd never seen before and led the entire way. That gives me great hope. Heading back we saw lots of these:


We saw clumps of these flowers all along the banks of the creek. The picture doesn't really show how pretty they are.

And here is India tied again to the trailer. I put it last thinking it was taken at the end of the ride, but now that I look at it more, it's from when we first got there before we headed out. She came off the trailer with a bit of a sweat, so she's still not comfortable with trailering, but she did ride quietly in the back. I had hoped that Elaine could come along too so Lady, who is a a champ at trailering, would be along to provide reassurance, but Elaine spent the morning at the local Dodge dealer buying a new (used) truck as hers finally rolled over and died. It had lots and lots of miles on it and lived a long life, complete with being hit by two deer, but it finally called it quits. Elaine now has a new(ish) truck to haul her trailer.