Bit of a YeeHaw ride this morning

Just a bit.   I am getting more and more confident with Sadie.   Today she was pulling a few antics but she never reared up and if she was crowhopping she was landing softly.    There was still quite a bit of snow on the ground so with that + the antics as we started I kept the pace to a walk.

Ole was a good riding buddy.   He scared me before we started.   A stray, or wandering the neighborhood dog slipped under the gate while I was brushing Sadie to come snooping for either some play or possibly food and Ole was getting after it some.  It was still a puppy and was yiping so I went running and hollering at Ole to let it go,  I had to get up there and grab Ole's tail before he did let go and the pup could go under the gate and run home -or at least down the cross street to the east of us. 

Now this happened to be a 'cattle dog' type.   Looked like Blue Heeler crossed with Border collie or something similar.   I've always distrusted Blue Heelers that were not under voice control of someone who uses them for actual work and has them trained to voice control.    Went ahead and saddled Sadie and we headed out.   She whirled around a few times and was acting like a green horse testing to see if I was going to bail out of the ride and feeling her oats.   We get a couple hundred yards past the cross street,  Ms Sadie using the fact that the neighbor was pulling out of his driveway as her last excuse to whirl around and I see the stray come racing around the corner like "Whee looks like fun"  or possibly he just wanted to join us because I had checked for a tag on his/her collar before and not found one but perhaps stray thought I was its new human from that tiny bit of interaction.

But I was really happy when Ole went back towards the corner and gave the stray the stink-eye and stray decided not to follow.   Sadie does not like dogs around her back end, and will get whirly and wanting to race home  with one that is just swirling even when she is calm to begin with -- I rather think that if stray had come in and tried to herd her I might have had more rodeo than I was able to handle with her already feeling quite frisky.

So we went out, Sadie went fairly decent once we hit the corner and turned onto the two track,  I went just a mile and came back.   I was not going to make my standard loop,  too much unsecured wire that could be hidden under snow and give the frisky young mare a startle if she suddenly felt wire across her leg.    Same stray must of been bored and kind of watching as it came around the corner towards us on the way home.   It was hesitating a bit,  I dismounted just to make sure my ride ended with me getting off by choice and Sadie jumped a bit shortly after I was off as Ole raced past us to chase the stray around the corner.  Ole slowed down, stopped and came back to us right after he turned the corner.   GOOD DOG.    

I have been seeing a CL ad for a couple weeks for a lost  dog with that breeding from the nearby town about 2 miles east of us as the crow flies.   I don't really think its the same dog as the ad dog had tan legs --was a Christmas young puppy picture and this loose dog did not have tan on it but I emailed them in case the tan in the puppy pics was mostly gone now.   I have no idea if puppies can have a baby fur effect like foals do.   I doubt I will be so lucky as it to be a match and loose dog to be taken home farther from me and owners keeping it better contained but you never know.