Trail Ride with H/Day 10

I am so far behind in reading blogs, that I don't even want to start. It's pathetic.
So the trail ride with H.
We took Ana and Santana out on the first trail ride of the year. I was kinda worried about how they would act. I hadn't ridden Santana in a couple weeks, and I have only ridden Ana a couple of times sense last summer.
We worked them in the paddock for a little while and Ana was doing pretty good. As was Santana. We got going, and headed for the other side of town where we kept the fillies for the summer. It was probably a little over a mile, and it took an hour to get there. Seriously that's lame. But, I had to remind Ana that she couldn't trot on her own whim, so I did one rein stops. So we got to Terry's brother's place, and the train came by. I was trying to get Ana to listen to me, but she wasn't taking any notice of the rope I slapped against her rump. She was running me over, not listening, and generally being disrespectful. I acquired a whip. I got her to move nicely backwards. She turned when I asked, and didn't run me over. The Rosen Farm (Terry's brother's place) is on a dirt road that leads down to a dam. So we went down there. I was getting tired of Ana's energy so there was this nice hill (dirt that was pushed in a pile and hadn't been moved in a while so grass was growing on it) that was moderately steep. I went up and down that thing for a little while and that seemed to help, but she still wasn't done. We went down a path that was next to and above the dam and it turned into a small grassy area. I let Ana go any speed she wanted. We also met a small group of little kids that wanted to pet the horsies. Of course we couldn't refuse. They just petted Santana though. Ana wouldn't stand still long enough.
We headed back towards the "hill" and ended up cantering. When we got back to the dirt road the Rosen Farm was on I just let Ana gallop. H was behind me with Santana and she let him gallop too. It wasn't even a competition. It was a total cream. Santana just shot by Ana like she was standing still. H had fun though. She said her horses don't go that fast.
I figured something out about Ana that trip. She likes contact with the bit. It's so weird. I have always thought that she didn't. I don't even know how I came to that conclusion.
The whole way there she wasn't consistent in speed, she would have failed a drug test, and wasn't listening. On the way home, when I kept contact with the bit she tucked her head, went slow (read trotted really slow), went straight, and was listening. She sped up or slowed down with very little encouragement. She never really walked, but she did do as I asked. I wanted to see if she would sidepass too. I put my leg against her side, and she took four neat little steps sideways. She did it the other way too. I had to show H too. She walked calmly past the scary water and didn't even care about the man holes. She amazes me sometimes.
We met more people who wanted to pet the horses too. Santana got petted. Ana wouldn't stand still. But the little kids were so cute. A woman was holding a little boy, and he slowly reached his hand out and touched Ana, snatched his hand away and giggled excitedly. It was so cute!

Today with the fillies I caught them all and brought them in from the alfalfa field. It took two trips. I was hoping that Dash and Toffy would follow, but once they realized I didn't have a hold of their lead ropes, they were like "skrew this" So it took two trips instead of one.
It was really funny when I fist went out there to say hello. All the fillies came up and said hello, and the big horses followed. So a herd of horses, clumped together were converging on my position. It made me laugh.
Terry and I set out a blanket in the back pen and proceeded to try to get the fillies to walk over it. Toffy would have nothing to do with it. Terry eventually went and got Frosty. Terry led Frosty over to the blanket, and she walked right on over it, without so much as batting an eye. I was like what the heck! Totally not fair!
We ended up putting the blanket next to the barn so Toffy couldn't get around it and I led both horses across... eventually.
Dash was pretty okay with it too. Coffie freaked out though. But after she went and smelled it I was able to lead her across without too much trouble.
And that was about all we did.
Pretty exciting stuff.