Sunday, August 26, 2012

Jasper goes camping. Again.

In 2009 I took Jasper horse camping at Farragut (this would have been about 3 months after I brought him home from the track).  This was pretty much his tightly-bundled-ball-of-nerves expression the whole time:

 

Three years under our belt and this year went much better.  He chilled out at the trailer, walked (ok, power walked but still...) happily down the trails, and was calmer and more confident in general.  When the other horses trotted up behind him he didn't tense up, go sideways, or take off.  Was willing to trot slooooooooowly so the horses behind could keep up.  In this picture he is standing still, which is usually something worth taking a picture of, but was more the norm this trip.

  
 Note lack of white ring around eye.  He's pretty skinny from 3 weeks of living in a group pasture at the Ranch where I work.  Where he was very bad.  Back home now snarfing up the calories.

 
 The ground is really rocky so the pens are made out of trees in an A-frame formation. 


The trails at Farragut seem to go forever and vary from single track through some pretty dense woods to double track out in big open fields.  This is the path on the way back to camp.  You had to go between a giant horse eating rock and a tree, but heading home has its incentives.