I still remember the difficult stuff when first starting a horse on the trails. Lucky Star discovered that he hated muddy gullies , so he tried to walk on the sides of the steep gully, or climb the gulley and get stuck in the trees on the top. Then I remember the stopping at the water crossing and the eventual jumping of the water crossing. I remember Lucky casting back and forth on the trail trying to find the right grove. I remember running down the steep rocky hills, screeching to a stop at the water crossing…jumping and then trying to walk sideways up the other side. And let’s not forget the tree knee banging as the horse walks on the narrow winding tree filled trail. Lucky has become an excellent trail horse now, but taking a new trail horse out until they gain the experience, it’s the stuff of memories.
The above didn’t happen today with Cisco. So, I’m going to take this opportunity to pass my joy along.
We rode with Chas and Louie. Louie is a young horse with a lot of experience on the trail. I asked Chas to lead and off we went. Cisco relaxed and followed calmly. He didn’t try to ride on Louie’s tail. He kept a decent distance behind with me asking him to keep his distance with the lightest of pressure on the bit. We moved along with loose reins. No charging up, just going along at the speed I requested. Oh the joy #1.
A scary spot came up not too far along the trail. It was still fairly open meadow at this point, but the trail narrowed by some trees that had ventured into the meadow. Louie didn’t like the look of the narrow spot, so I asked Cisco to lead the way. Cisco walked around Louie and led the way through the narrow spot. This happened again a couple more times, once when Louie decided he wanted to stop and urinate, except we were headed on the down side of a short steep incline. Neither Chas nor I thought this was a suitable place to stretch out, so Cisco led the way again. Oh the Joy #2.
Now we are in the narrow trails of the forest. The trail winds around the trees. The trees want badly to bang the rider’s knees. Cisco passed the trees wide enough…without me asking…to spare my knees. He knew to go around the trees wide enough to keep my knees safe! Oh the Joy #3
There are other tree parts that want very badly to either decapitate you or scrap you off your horse. These are called low hanging branches. Occasionally, you need to stop your horse and ask to side pass or move over to avoid the deceptive killer branches. Cisco stopped and moved sideways as I asked. On particularly low hanging branch growled in frustration when Cisco neatly stepped sideways and let me drop my upper body down to the saddle horn at the same time! Oh the Joy #4
Louie and Chaz lead the way through most of the forest. I do have one complaint. There was this cobweb with the spider in the middle of it right in the middle of the trail. Chas screamed at the cobweb, but failed to take it down. Cisco and I went through the cobweb with the spider. I made a violent gesture to kill the cobweb and smack the spider away. I did a girl scream too! Cisco just plodded right along. Oh the Joy #4
Cisco walked steadily though a rock filled dry water crossing. We did come to a real water crossing. He walked through the water. He looked at the water and went right through it. Oh the Joy #5
Louie led the way through a mud sucking spot. Cisco saw the mud and heard the sucking noise of Louie’s feet. We then jumped the mud spot. It was a nice smooth jump that anyone would have been able to stay on. I’m not going to include the jumping the mud bog as part of the joy, but the jump was smooth and low. I made a note to be aware of mud bog spots in future trail rides. Oh the partial Joy #6
Chas’ dog. Sanford, came with us on the trail ride. Nothing Sanford did made any difference to Cisco. Sandord followed. He went to the side of us, He got in front of us. He passed the horses. Cisco was fine with everything Sanford did on the trail. Chas asked me before we started if Sanford would bother Cisco on the ride. Since this was my first trail ride with Cisco, I had to reply…”Don’t Know”! Now I know that dogs rustling about in the forest is fine with Cisco. I bet deer rustling about in the forrest will be equally a non-event. Oh the full Joy #7
Out of the forest into an area near houses. Nothing was going on with the houses, but Cisco didn’t need an adjustment to the scenery change. Oh the Joy #8
We left the houses area and went into the wide open 100 mile view. We crossed a long dam. A boater was in the water. Cisco and Louie now were gaiting along at a smooth very fast flat foot walk. Oh the Joy #9
We came to a small block toilet that looked a little strange in the wide open landscape. We did slow down to look at the outhouse. We needed a break too, from the effort. The horses were really sweating now. We had a good breather and proceeded along. Oh the Joy #10
We arrived at the trailers. Cisco was a little excited now, but he stood still while I got off. My legs and knees were in shock that I had gone for such a long ride and refused to hold my weight. I had to hang onto the saddle for more than a few moments before the shock wore off and my lower body decided to be self supporting. Oh the Joy #11 for standing still when I needed it.
Oh the Joy #12 when Cisco loaded right into the trailer. I wanted to end on an even number Joy…
I had twelve huge Cisco joys today. I also had much joy to be riding with Chas. I had much joy when watching Louie on the trail. Chas has told us in an earlier Facebook post that Louie was gaiting wonderfully on the trail. I looked over when Louie as doing a flat foot walk side by side with Cisco and almost had a heart stoppage…Louie has an amazing gait. He is a beautiful gold champagne with beautiful curly white mane and tail and the cutest head ever. I might have to take along a pacemaker the next time I ride with Chas and Louie!