First Trail Ride

This horse is going through so many "firsts" so quickly! I've only had him for 1.5 weeks and today he went on his first trail ride! Now the property where I'm located has a road thats 1 mile long down to the front gate, like an extremely long dirt driveway. So I've taken Calvin on this road by himself to prep for trail work. Since this property backs up to a Wilderness preserve, there are trails from within the property which is what we did today!

I suspected that he would be very good on trail as long as other horses were with him. He's actually very brave, willing to walk over logs, on tires, over tree stumps, or even inadvertently the mounting block all without issue. The other day, a huge water-truck came within 3 feet and passed us on the road and he just watched, not even one flinch. The only issue he has is when he thinks I'm making him leave other horses. He'll then try to spin and return home as he doesn't quite trust me on his back yet. On the ground, I can walk him on trail and he's very good. So for his first trail ride, I wanted to make sure he had other horses to follow so that it'd be a good experience for him.

Here are some pictures from my point of view:

Baby Calvin strolling happily in the back. Over rocks, up hills, branches touching him, all no problem! 

Tight spaces didn't bother him either! Luckily this mare in front of him liked him because he got up close and personal. He has a great walk though, surprisingly long-strided and could easily catch up to the horses without having to jog, if we ever do endurance or some sort of competitive trail riding, that will come in handy.

Starting to go uphill. There were some points on this trail where there was a drop immediately to our left and a steep bank to our right. Luckily, he paid enough attention to keep on the trail and follow the horses in front, but it made for some "please dear Jesus don't let him spook right now because I might die" moments. 

Overall, he acted like a completely broke trail horse. Absolutely nothing phased him! We even saw another horse & rider way up on the hill and he just watched and didn't spook! The only thing he could work on would be paying attention to where he's going. Babies often get distracted, so on uneven terrain this meant that he would trip or start drifting toward what he's looking at. This is one of those practice makes perfect things, and him growing up will help too. For our first trail ride, I couldn't have asked for a better behaved horse!

After our ride, mounted patrol came to our property. As mentioned above, we back up to a wilderness preserve. Unfortunately, it isn't open to the public, and this includes our horses :( Apparently a few years ago horses were allowed back there, but apparently, horses destroy the environment (sarcasm) and now they closed it off. Therefore, mounted patrol goes up in the preserve's hills to make sure no rogue riders are there (because apparently their horses don't ruin the environment? This is where our taxpayer dollars are going people!). Hopefully they'll open the preserve up again soon, then we'd have so much land straight from our property!