Hello! It's been a while...lots of adventures with Starlette on the trails, but I had such fun yesterday, I thought I'd post....
Being a nice, warm, sunny day this Saturday, as usual, I planned on taking Starlette out on the trails. I had also discovered there was going to be an endurance ride, and since I was trying to figure out what both Starlette and I would be good at and have fun, too, I wanted to see what it was about, and possibly meet some people.
I arrive at the trails and it was a hub of activity. Besides the endurance ride, there was also the regular riders. Starlette was her usual excited self, but we have come such a long way from last fall, I had no concerns about riding her alone at all.
The club had marked off 10 mile, 15 mile, and 25 mile loop of trails, and I had an inspiration to follow the 10 miles trail, and see how we both would do. We had been adding trotting and cantering to our rides for the last few weeks, so I was not concerned about us making the ride as long as we did a lot of walking. I had all morning, and I figured it would only take us 2 hours or so. How hard could it be to follow some pink markers?
Off we went around the first few miles. We did fine, mostly walking, some trotting. As we were walking along, I heard a “clink” that was not normal, looked down, and there was my cell phone on the ground. I had forgotten to zip up my fanny pack! Now, I have not gotten off of Starlette on the trails yet...I ride in a dressage saddle, and she's almost 16 hands, so even with me being 5'7”, that's a long stretch. But I had no choice but to find out how she'd behave, and also if I could even get on her. I did find a broken tree, dismounted, got my cell phone, and lead Starlette over to the tree. She stood right next to it, and let me get on! I gave her lots of praise for that!
We continued on the trails, and and the markers crossed a road into the county park. We walked/trotted right along, through beautiful woods, along ridges, and down into valleys. We spooked a turkey, saw deer, and she only almost spook-almost-dumped me three times...once when we spooked a deer that was sleeping 3 feet away and bounded off – even startled me – and once when we were going through a knee-deep water and she saw the stop sign ahead – and once was just being silly spook. But now her spooks are not the spin/bolt spooks, but the drop shoulder, shudder and look spook with only a little spin.
The ride went along a dirt road, and right at the turn someone was having a birthday party...complete with a saw-horse with helium balloons pointing the way. I saw that and though for sure that we'd have a major issue going by it...and all Starlette did was stop and stare at the balloons for a few minutes, and look up the road at the party. We proceeded without incident – and I really let her know what a good girl she was!
Along this same road a few minutes later a group of six competitors on Arabs came trotting up behind us. They passed, and Starlette got worked up with letting them go ahead. I asked if I could ride with them for a while, and we went about a mile with them, trotting and cantering. Are those endurance riders every crazy! And super-fit! Starlette had a blast...her racing breeding showed and she was galloping and wanting to pass the leaders! We rode with them until they turned off for their 25 mile stretch. Starlette at that point didn't want to leave them, so she threw a fit...crow-hopping, spinning...and slammed herself into a tree that had a widow-maker hanging, which broke up and came crashing down all around us! We were very lucky those logs didn't come down on top of us, as they were very large and would have hurt! After that, Starlette decided to behave, and even when other groups of competitors passed us, she waited on the side and behaved herself.
At some point along the way, we either missed a turn, or the markers were not clear; we ended up looping around on a trail we had been on already and back to a road we had already gone down. Now, I am getting pretty tired and cranky, and while Starlette was still full of energy, I could tell she was finally getting tired. This was after about 2 ½ hours on the trail. I pull out my map of the area, and find out we are on the other side of the park! I decide to take the direct route back, and we trotted and cantered some, walked a lot more (I was getting worried about tiring out Starlette too much, or making her back sore, even though she was not showing any signs of either) and I swear we both gave a sigh of relief when we saw the parking lot and the trailer about an hour later.
So, we rode for about 4 hours, in the hottest part of the day, alone, more than 10 miles, and survived! I have a new respect for endurance riders – they are doing long distances, fast, and have to maintain their horses to pass the vet checks. I am seriously considering trying this next year with Starlette.
Starlette and I also deepened our partnership and built up our confidence – I really believe she trusts me to take care of her more now, and I am trusting her to take care of me, too!
Oh, and she has loaded on the trailer several times on her own!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment