After our normal Sunday trail ride, I took Archie solo to the same trail on Monday.  He's a little more antsy when he's by himself and notoriously an asshole on that specific trail.  But I am determined to make him love it, dammit.

 I led him over to the access point and his ears were pricked the entire time.  I let him pack a snack, mounted and we headed off at a forward, springy walk.  There were a few times in the initial start of the ride where he backed off a little, but a squeeze was sufficient.

This mane is out of control and why the fuck not?

I just can't get over what being trail lead over and over has done for his confidence.  He had a few naughty moments where he crow hopped a few times, but all-in-all, he was amazing.  The little filly squeal he gave when I backed his ass into a tree was adorable.  And we marked a few things off the Crippled Horse Bucket List:  trotting and cantering in the woods by our lonesome.  Even if the canter was animated as hell and the trot was an egg beater because he was pissed, I'm marking that shit off.  I was grinning ear to ear when we got back to the barn.  If we did it once, we can do it again, and it'll only get better from here.

Oh, hayyyy.