Cathy Rides Bow in Cowell
Today (4/23) Cathy rode Bow through Henry Cowell Park. Bow did fabulously - in fact, I aspire to his level for Big Al.
Judy and Nadia and Ali and I met Bow and Cathy at Cowell. Nancy brought Bow for Cathy, and Cara and a new horse-in-training to pony. Judy and Cathy reunited while Al and Nadia waited patiently by the trailer. Bow and Cara waited patiently in their trailer. Bow's backside is the one on the right - he's going to be a big boy!
Nancy got Bow out and Cathy appeared to be happy to see him. However, she was somewhat dismayed by the state of his grooming, so she went at him with a brush - not her teeth, as the photo implies. It took awhile, but he cleaned up nicely, and when he got tacked up, he looked downright respectable. As the last picture shows, though, he hasn't completely turned into Big Bow, there are still signs of Baby Bow.
After Cath got him groomed, she had to clean his feet. He's going to be the star of the barn at that - he not only lifted his feet and surrendered them completely. As long as Cathy got to examine feet, Nancy and Judy both had to take a closer look at Cara's front foot - they just couldn't stand to have Cathy doing something with a horse while they just stood there.
Shortly thereafter, we hit the trail, with Nancy riding Cara and trailing the palomino mare. Cath was aboard Bow and looking very relaxed. Their first challenge came at the creek, which not only had water in it, but a horrifying log. It took some studying on Bow's part to figure out a safe route, and some negotiation Cathy's part to remove "first jump over the log" from the plan, but they got it worked out and Bow crossed uneventfully - the very best way.
After that, I didn't get much chance to take pictures. We went to the Observation Deck, where Ms. Perfect Nadia drank from the fountain, just like she always does. What a brown noser! Bow and Cath and Nancy and her team showed up shortly thereafter and we just rode through the park. If you look at the large size picture of Cathy and Bow, you can see what Cathy looked like for most of the ride: she kept her mouth loaded with carrot bits, just in case she got a chance to reward Buckwheat.
Bow negotiated logs, stair-steps, a bridge, mud, crossing between multiple downed logs and a couple of creek crossings. Nancy is going to bring him home on Friday and check him out on our trails, but he looks good to go. Zephyr definitely has some catching up to do!
