Exciting ride today!

So...I went for a trail ride on Kieran now that we've been shown the trails. The BO had texted me earlier in the week and mentioned they'd done some trail clearing, and I thought that she had just meant that they'd cleared out the one tree that was pretty much totally blocking one path (you had to bushwack to get around it). Alas, they also moved the two logs lying over the trail in two places that were perfect to hop over. *sigh*

Oh well!

Anyway, Kieran was a champ. Sometimes he can get a bit insecure riding out alone be he was just fine and ready to explore with me.

The exciting part, you ask? Well, we'd started trotting down this one section of trail when all of a sudden, pretty much out of nowhere, we trotted up on these three guys who were apparently out shooting shotguns for the hell of it. (Myra says if it had been her on her horse, she would have been left in the dust...but Kieran was really good after the initial "oh crap where did THOSE guys come from?" reaction) I had no idea they were going to be back there and they had no idea I was going to be back there. It was...awkward. But they were polite enough and we moved on. I could hear them shooting from time to time but we managed to avoid each other the rest of the time (well, except for near the end of the ride when I took a wrong turn and almost ended up in someone's backyard and had to backtrack. They were headed that way to go out when I turned around to get back on the trail I needed to take).

Other than that, Kieran and I got in some good trotting and cantering (a lot more trotting than cantering) and I was able to do a lot of the trotting in two point with little issue! Not sure why it's so much harder in the ring, LOL.

Kieran seemed to really enjoy himself once I finally let him open up a little and not just mosey along, hah!

And it turns out the dudes I ran into are related to the guy who owns the land I was riding on so at least they were some random strangers. Well, from my perspective, I guess they were...but you know what I mean!

Also, anybody have any sweet itch remedies? I think that's what Kieran is developing on his neck and I want to nip it in the bud before it becomes a big problem. Currently I've just slathered the area in SWAT, but there's got to be something more I can do. Here's a pic!