This is Carson, waiting while I take snap shots to send to his mom, with Sage standing in the entrance to his ‘Man Cave’…….
I don’t know what it is, but Sagebrush is Magical…..the smell is like Stef Catnip….all I want to do is roll around in it and snuggle my nose deep into its velvety branches. It has such a mysterious aura about it, tough as nails, its bark all gnarled and twisted, yet leaves the softest, delicate sage color……and it is everywhere alongside us as Carson, Griffy, Sage and myself head up the trail behind the Ran
ch. Our destination is alongside the Hwy, and then across, seeing how deep the snow still is up here (hmmmm not that deep). Carson needs some experience with fast, loud traffic, and although infrequent up here on Hwy 8, if we
wait long enough, someone is bound to drive by and give us a wave. We’re in luck! Two semi’s pass us by, and Carson could really give a snort, so we put a little check in that box, and cross over and up to the gravel pit, circle the Excavator (yaaaawn) and GALLOP up the trail….yee-haw! This is what we’ve been waiting
for, and he feels like he is spring loaded and although his head is high at first, after 4 or 5 strides, a rub and pat, he settles into a ground gaining, dog leaving run that leaves both of us breathless and smiling! Oh! Look a new trail that the trail fairies must have put in since I was last up ( either
that or things look different in the snow!) so we head up, but it looks all up hill in a big way, so I take a moment and call a board meeting, in which the dogs were dismally uninterested, so that left Carson and I to make a unanimous decision to return down. He picks up the speed a bit, so I think this is a great time to work on a soft feel ( hold until he gives, then release nice and quickly) and lateral moves, all the while feeling for him…looking for such softness that he keeps his mouth quiet, and carry on down on loose rein. We do this pretty much all the way to the gravel pit, and are getting some AMAZING true half passes and are really moving together, step by step…this is VERY cool to both of us, and Carson feels no pressure to preform, just almost enjoying
using his body. It certainly relaxes him, so onward, through the pine trees we go, now down a steep, slippery gully, threading our way through big rocks and dead fall, and both of us searching for the easiest way back up to the plateau…Oh…I see it too Carson! A big buck deer….but swoosh, he’s gone and I call the dogs off like some maniacal 
banshee….(sheesh!) haha! Carson doesn’t seem to care, and we wind our way down to the slipwire which is happily open already, across the highway and onto Dot Rd. Now we have great footing and wide dirt track, so re-visit our soft feel and hold for longer now, and over into that nice leg-yield and back, holding the same flexion, going the op
posite way in a half pass, loose rein, blow, blow blow. NICE! I drop out my rope for a couple attempts at snubbing onto the dogs, but they got wise to this game months ago, and I satisfy myself by catching wily, invisible white-faces…..Oh they are slippery devils today….I peer around at Carson as it seems to me he is rolling his eyes….;~.
And here we are back home again….I promised Carson a roll in fresh snow, so into the empty pen by my horses for a nice visit and apparently very satisfying roll.
Thanks Little Buddy!
Lunch for me, and oh darn! Another horse to ride…………Bliss.