Trail Ride Firsts

Angela texted me yesterday.  She wanted to see if we could get everyone together for a quick trail ride after work.  I ened up being the only one available so I told her we could load the boys in my trailer and head out for a quick ride.

I forgot I'd told my niece I was going to be at the barn and her mom texted me right about the time I was getting ready to hook up my trailer to let me know they were almost there.  I had to make a quick decision.  Meghan is going to be 17 this year (OMG) and she's been riding inconsistantly with me since she was 13.  She rides Charlie pretty well but he's been at my house since I had his shoes pulled because of an abcess.  I was pretty sure the Charles was sound but I've never taken him out on a trail and he isn't exactly in a working frame of mind with a couple of weeks off.  Despite some nerves I asked Angela if we could take two vehicles so I could bring my niece along for her first real trailride.

At the barn we checked Charlie to make sure he was sound, and he put on quite a show rearing and bucking on the lunge line.  Great.  At least he hops right in the trailer.  Loading Tax gets easier each time although he did decide to pull back after I'd started to tie him and hit his head scraping just about all of the hair off his forehead.  I'll have to get some pics of my lovely scalped horse.  That's never going to grow back before our next show! 

Soon we were on our way but it was later than we anticipated so we decided to go to Rattlesnake Bar, a horse assembly on a local river closer than our originally intended destination.  Sounds lovely doesn't it?  Actually I've never seen a rattlesnake up there but the scenery is beautiful.  I was a little nervous because the trail, while wide and clean, it drops off steeply to the river on one side most of the ride.  I remember the first time I rode it thinking I wasn't sure I ever wanted to ride it with Tax and now here I was with not just Tax, but Charlie who I've never taken out on a trail and my niece who hasn't been out either.

We started out with Megs on Charlie because she prefers him usually but he decided he wanted to hop around and threaten to rear like an idiot.  I offerred to trade and she took Tax, who was thankfully quiet and well behaved the entire trip.  After one scary hopping incident where I got my belt caught on my saddle horn Charlie decided to calm down and focus his engery on making it up and down the hills of the trail.  We rode for about 40 mins total without any further incident.  Everyone loaded back in the trailer calmly.

Here's to a sucessful first trailride for both Megs and Charlie.  I'm proud of them both!