Trail rides!

This past weekend I had an Ohio horse friend come up and we went trail riding and had a great time.  Thankfully the heat wave broke on Friday and while it was humid, the temperatures only got into the mid to high 80's and all was good.  On Saturday we hauled out to the local high school and picked up a rails-to-trails trail with the intention of riding as far south as we felt and then calling SO and having him come pick us up.  Unfortunately there is a bridge that has to be crossed that was completely impassable so we instead turned around and rode home since the trail passes much closer to my house than I thought.  Overall we had a 2 hour trail ride and the horses handled it very well.  They got a well deserved hosing and lounged around in the pasture for the rest of the day. 

The best story of the day was around the App, my friend wanted to use her western saddle and it only fit the App so that is who she rode.  He was, not surprisingly, quick and ready to go-go-go at the start of the ride so I used the TWH as a road block and we ran the App into the TWH's butt when the App wouldn't slow down by being asked nicely.  About 15 mins into the ride the App was still not listening and, in perfect timing, at the same time the TWH gave a hard swish of his tail to rid himself of a bug and his tail bag bopped the App pretty hard on the forehead.  The App backed off, shook his head and settled down for most of the ride.  It was too funny, karma reprimanded the App for not listening.

Sunday before my friend left I gave her a lunge lesson on the TWH and I helped her overcome the mental road block of riding without reins to develop an independent seat.  The TWH is much more forward than the western horses she normally rides but she did really well and was able to successfully walk, trot and canter without reins.  I am very happy for her and hope she keeps practicing.  She has a newly broken 3 yr old she is riding in a Dr Cook, if she develops her independent seat I think that mare will really develop into something nice. 

RB3 came out Sunday after my friend left for Ohio and we went riding on the long loop and picked up the trail until we reached the bridge.  It was about a 1hr 45m ride, not bad at all.  Think that we may ride on the road until the next road down to get around the bridge and keep riding south some time.  That should be fun, the trail is fairly well maintained and isn't nearly as bad as I expected.  I had to dismount a few times and do "trail maintenance", moving newly fallen trees out of the way, but the trail seems to be semi regularly mowed as the grass/weeds were less than knee high.  I may look into joining the group that helps maintain the trail, meet more people and have some fun.  If only there were more hours in a day I could do so much more.