The most ridiculous trail ride… EVER.

Ollie is still (worryingly) a little stiff in his hind end. I’m hoping that he is just foot sore, and that when the farrier comes next week to put shoes on him (for the first time ever! I’m really curious to see what happens) he’ll start to feel better? But then, This is a horse we are talking about. And it’s never simple with these animals is it? Anyways, since he was stiff, I didn’t want to do anything to hardcore. But a nice walk trail ride with 3 minutes of trot for Tanta’s rehab program sounded great! So off Brianna and I went! The first interesting thing that happened was a big dump truck zoomed passed. But lucky, both of our horses are used to cars/trucks and nothing came of it except a couple snorts. Next. We turned off the road with the big truck and onto the small one that leads to the beginning of the trail, so we walked down the new road, and past a (in Tanta’s mind) VERY scary rock. at the end of the road I could see someone I knew walking a horse in hand. Both Ollie and Tanta clearly saw this horse, so I figured they wouldn’t spook. Lol. Famous last words. Once we got closer- directly across the road from them- my horse JUMPED into to air, then landed with his front feet… in the ditch. He proceeded to jump back out of the ditch, almost leaving me in it. It was kinda funny actually. We moved on, and nothing very weird happened for awhile. The horses were a little crazy, but It was a given considering how windy it was out.

Then, we reached the end of the trail and got to another road. I love this one road, it is generally quiet. and there is two big hills and they are perfecto for galloping up! The timing worked out great and Brianna’s alarm went off saying it was time for 1 minute of trot! So we got to trot up one hill, then we went down it, and at the base of the hill… is an old rusty truck that  hasn’t been used in 30+ years. That both Tanta and Ollie have seen SO MANY TIMES. But, guess what? Of course Tanta (who was leading) saw it and spooked all the way across the road, almost falling down the ravine on the other side. Luckily B managed to get her under control in time.  And, we proceeded. Theeeeeeen, when we could literally SEE our driveway, we were that close, a large truck turned around the bent behind us and spook Ollie like crazy. He, (surprise?) once again, JUMPED INTO THE DARN DITCH. What on earth horse? And then he and Tanta Proceeded to gallop down the road with me and Brianna hanging on.(maybe 40 feet? The bolting didn’t go on for thhhaaaaatt long… but?!?) I honestly have no idea why. Ollie has NEVER. Spooked at a car in the whole 3 years I’ve had him. And neither Brianna nor I have known Tanta to do something like that either. So… what the?!? I won’t take him out on the road if he acted like this, and he never has. Also, how come I ended up in a ditch TWICE in one ride? Ollie’s never showed any interest in jumping into ditches before today!

Total score.

ditch: 2

Maren: 0

 

Clear rounds day = Success!

The clear rounds day I Mentioned was on Saturday, and it went really well! I did four rounds, one at 2’3”, one at 2’6” and two at 2’9”. Ollie was super!

I did get some media, but it’s not the best as it was just a cell phone camera. Oliver is so cute though, he makes up for the not very good photo quality.

here is the video of my first 2’9” round.

 

 

And here is lots of pictures!

2’6”

2’9”

Trying to slow down… (2’9”)

2’9”

2’9”

2’6”

2’9”

The show itself was great! But remember how I said that we trail ride over? We do… and we did. However, apparently blackberry bush cutters like to work on Saturday? With their big noisy machines? And block the whole trail while chopping it down? The “absolutely nightmareish” (in the horses eyes anyway.) Tractor/chopping machine was smack in the middle of the trail that my sister and I needed to take to get to our show. Also, it was turned on.

Picture photobombed by my horse.

Ahh that’s better. (But not really…)

Clearly it was scary. We ended up having to dismount and lead our horses (Brianna was riding one of our coaches horses Foxy) past the big scary machine. Which was fine. It wasn’t a big deal… but… there was a… creek right behind the bush cutter. So we ended up walking through the creek and getting completely soaked and having our boots fill up with water. Lovely. Also take into account that all this is happening before 9am so it was quite cold out. Luckily, after the creek there was a log that we used to mount up again, and the trail ride continued without incident. Or… did it? From my house to the show grounds, is a 20-30 minute hack. You have to cross 3 creeks + 2 large lake-like puddles. At that point we’d crossed 1 creek and 1 puddle. We crossed the next puddle without a problem. Then came the next creek…

A Little History.

this is the creek that goes by the name “treacherous river”

after the “Treacherous river” is what goes by the name of “hippie campsite.” OR “party area” OR there was even one person staying there who was a Sasquatch hunter? When it is a hippie camp (that is what it was on Saturday, which is much better the “Party area”) It often has 1-5 school buses that have been converted into RVs, 1-3 tents. 1-4 cars, and a couple couches scattered around in the bushes for resting on. There is also normally at least one dog. Did I forget to mention the people? There is always lots of hippies hanging around to. Because the “hippies” don’t normally say much (just something like “heeeyyy duude.”) they are fairly scary for the horses-people hiding in bushes + mysteries dog woofing that cannot be seen + lots of school buses. It’s always fun to ride past. Haha… not.

Weeeeeee!!

also, Happy April fools everyone!* I couldn’t think up any cool jokes this year unfortunately (NOOO!!! 😫) but I read the funniest posts on Emma’s blog and on Emily’s blog. Maybe I can think up something like that next year? 😁 (hehe, beware.)

*this post is not a April fools joke, as much as I wish the hippie camp didn’t exist, it does. 😦