4th of July Ride

If you've seen me between the 4th of July and the present, you will have likely already heard about my trail ride from the 4th of July. So much of this may be old news to those I've talked to or seen my Facebook, but I'll go into more detail in this post.

I've been trying to coordinate a group trail ride with my other horsey friends for quite sometime. I coordinated with two friends, but one of my friends bailed because she recently found out she was pregnant. It's probably best that I don't want kids because there's no way in hell you could keep me off a horse because I'm incubating a fetus. If my fetus can't survive a fall from a horse then it probably wasn't meant to be (too crass? ah well). Anyway, that friend was out and that left me with "M." 

My boyfriend, J, works with M so that's how we met. M also owns a mustang and is very active in protecting our horses. As luck would have it, he also had a horse for my boyfriend to ride! We planned a ride for July 4th at 8am. M was kind enough to drive an hour and meet us bright and early! We wanted to ride early because it was supposed to be about 90º and humid, we obviously wanted to avoid that. 

So M and his friend T trailered to "the park" which is about a 30 minute ride from where I board (another 3 miles). What I didn't realize is the only road to my boarding facility was hosting a parade later that afternoon. As Calvin and I walked down this road, there were tons of July decorations up and flags waving. For those who don't know the horse brain, let me give you an example. Horses will spook if anything is "new." Oh you repositioned that trash can from one side of the arena to another? It must be possessed. That car parked on the road was not there yesterday? Must be a mountain lion. Therefore all the "new" things on the road were very scary. The parade hadn't started yet, but people still asked us if we were a part of it to which I replied "maybe next year!" Calvin was remarkably good walking down this road of decorations, he continued walking forward despite staring and snorting at everything. Maybe we will join the parade next year! 

Once we (calvin and I) finally made it to the park, or where the trails began, I met up with everyone. J rode this beautiful Arabian mare named "Noor," M rode his mustang "Iskra," his friend T rode a Quarter Horse named "Wizard" (I think) and I rode my mustang Calvin (obviously). All the horses were remarkably good and about the same pace, which made for a calm trail.

T on Wizard and M on Iskra (left), J on Noor and me on Calvin (right).

These trails are nice because there are some that are horses and hikers only when you want a break from worrying about mountain bikers careening into your horse. Thankfully this hasn't happened yet and most mountain bikers are very respectful of horses.  

Anyway, here are the pictures from the ride! Remember to click on the pictures to enlarge them, enjoy:

J on Noor

T, Myself, and J

Noor didn't like stopping and waiting

J leading with M's fast arabian, me meandering behind, and T in the back.

This trail I chose wasn't too long, but it was very technical with rocks, step ascents and descents, single tracks, and stairs. The horses didn't blink an eye, but they did get a good workout! 

Calvin was happy to be in the middle

Don't let the sweat fool you, he had plenty of energy!

Don't throw me into the cacti Calvin!

J looks great on a horse, I'm thinking we should probably invest in another one for him ;) 

The horses from my POV

The end! 

I trained Calvin toward the end of our ride because he is herd sour, meaning that he does not like to be apart from his horsey-buddies, a horse version of separation anxiety. I separated Calvin from these other horses briefly so he can learn that being away from them is not the end of the world. We'd walk until they were just out of sight and when Calvin calmed down, we would turn around and rejoin the group. By the end he was more tolerant of them leaving, but we still need to practice this exercise.

These last few days I've been letting him rest with either easy walking rides without a saddle and hand-walking. Hopefully we'll have another fun trail ride soon as everyone seemed to really enjoy this one.