Missouri Fox Trotter club sponsored ride was attended by Lucky Star. We got to park at the wonderful S&S Campground Extraordinary. Steve was there to make certain all was well and when I missed my turn off, he guided me safely to the campground where Hope was anxiously awaiting our arrival so she could eat lunch.
Note: It’s wonderful to trail ride with people who make egg salad sandwiches, peanut butter sandwiches and dessert. Thank you Hope for feeding me!
Carol came to join us and off we went. Carol rides a million trail ride miles every year.
Note: It’s wonderful to have experienced trail horses to lead the way up and down the muddy ravines and cross the streams. Thank you Carol.
This is a not extreme difficult and not extreme easy ride. There are short steep 4″ muddy hills strewn with rocks and narrow muddy hills to clamor up and down. Every now and then you get a glimpse of a beautiful lake. We saw some rock formations that were wonderful.
Our first challenge was a tree that had fallen on the trail. It was about two feet off the ground and wide. Carol’s mare hopped over it. Lucky reared up with his front legs to get over it and then hopped over with his back legs. I’ve never jumped obstacles with him during our short time to ride. His confidence was extreme.
I’ve forgotten how inexperienced horses react out on the trail. My memory has been reinstated. Our first muddy down hill was upon us. Chip was leading this time and made a successful trip down and over the stream. Lucky thinks his job is to be right at Chip’s rear end. He impatiently waited my signal to start the down hill descent. His first muddy, rock strew hill and he trotted down it while I screamed silently. We argued while going down the hill which slowed him down somewhat. We arrived alive at the stream and walked through the mud and water. Whew!
That’s when I remembered about inexperienced trail horses.
A good trail horse is supposed to have the head down and watch where they are stepping. Lucky Star did pick that skill up about half way out. His thought was just to plow thru ditches, mud and rocks like they didn’t exist. Lucky Star is very sure-footed, thank goodness.
There were pleasant times where Lucky Star was self piloted and slowed down when the horse in front of him slowed down instead of wanting to run into their rear. He really did well at that.
Lucky Star waded through all the mud water crossings without leaping. That was really really nice.
Then the muddy uphill ravine was upon us. It’s a narrow trail much deeper than the landscape. The trail is muddy. It’s muddy on the trail and the on the sides. The landscape is brushy. You can’t avoid going thru the muddy ravine. By this time Lucky Star had learned to dislike the sucking mud. So we went up the ravine’s side. Lucky Star was trying to get out of the ravine onto the high ground, even though there was no room for a horse. So we ended up climbing the muddy wall of the ravine. That made me a little bit emotional as I pictured us falling sideways. Thank the Lord on Easter Day to get through that patch.
Oh yes, the tree. We were standing on the trail. I went next to Carol to hand her my GPS. We went between her and a big branchy cedar tree. It was not my idea to ride into the thick branches of the tree. I handed Carol my GPS and then Lucky Star and I disappeared into a tree. That was fun too.
We went 4 muddy miles today. Lucky Star did fantastic on his first hilly and muddy trail. He’s a horse of anyone’s dreams.
Next week is arena riding to work on perfecting his gaits and getting a canter going. Yee Haw
