Extreme Trail Challenge

Extreme Trail Challenge

Ellen and I planned, for the last 2 weeks, to go up to the show ring trails for the first time this year on a day that she was scheduled to go into work late.  We were both really excited about it.  We wanted to do it for the first time on a weekday because the park is so much more quiet than on the weekends when Ellen doesn't have to go to work.

She felt fine about crossing the different river crossing, and she didn't seem too nervous at all about riding through the Lagoon.  What got her worried was going on the hill right before the river crossing when the\landing.  She is fine when the planes are taking off, but when they land, they are so low that it looks like they could hit the trees.  (We ride very close to the airport.)  Dante has been known to spook at the planes, and Ellen can't seem to get over it.

If the planes were taking off--no big deal.  If they were landing, we weren't going to go that way--and they were.  We really, really wanted to go.  Ellen was extremely nervous, but she said she would try it.

The hill is not very far down the trail.  We marched up it, walked across the top and started down the other side.  About halfway down, we heard a loud plane approaching us.  Ellen stopped Dante, shortened one rein and waited.

The waiting is the hardest part...

The reason she shortens the rein is so that instead of shooting forward, if he does anything, she can control him by spinning.  He isn't a fast spinner, so it works well for him.

The problem with the low planes isn't the sound so much as he can see them just above the trees.  Even if the plane isn't in his line of vision, often he can see the large shadow on the ground.  The real question is, why don't more horses spook at the planes?

This time, it was the shadow.  It was about 3 feet wide, and it darted across the bushes and ground.  I saw Dante lift his head, get very tense--and then he couldn't take it anymore.  He took 2 steps to the left--only to see Cole standing there; taking a little nap.  Dante settled right down.  Poor Ellen's heart was pounding so loud that I thought I could hear it.

We proceeded down the hill, crossed the river and another plane came over us.  Since we were lower and the plane was behind us, it wasn't a problem.  Dante stood beautifully for it.  After that, we were beyond the flight path of the low-flying planes.

We had the fun part of the ride ahead of us, but Ellen couldn't get the thought of the ride back over the hill out of her head.  She just tried the best to stay in the moment.

We trotted through the Lagoon, crossed the street and headed for the big hill.  This is the longest, steepest hill in our park.  Cole got excited and passed up Dante to go up the hill.  Dante came behind; slower but very steady.  We were at the top for the first time of the year!

The park has recently renovated the trails up there.  They widened them, added drainage ditches, fixed the muddy sections and did a really odd thing.  They made 2 cement canals that cross the trail for the water to drain.  This is the first time we have run into anything like it on our bridle trails.  The first one is about 4 feet wide, so you have to step down a curb, walk a couple steps and step up a curb on the other side.  The second one is only about 2 feet wide.  It is possible to completely step across it or step down into it.

We intentionally wanted to try crossing them on a day when there wouldn't be any water running in them.  Honestly, we felt our horses would navigate them just fine, though we knew that other horses were having trouble with them.

Dante was in the lead.  He put his head down, sniffed the curb and stepped right in.  Ellen praised him and clicked and treated on the other side.  Cole did exactly the same thing.  The wide crossing was easy.  How would they do the narrow crossing was the question.  Some horses will try to jump a narrow, scary obstacle--not our guys.  They sniffed the curb and stepped right in.  What awesome ponies!

The rest of the trail is easy.  We were soon at the end.  We turned around and headed towards home.

When we got back to the cement crossings, there was a horse coming towards us on the other side of them.  They were going home.  She said her horse was fine going home, but he didn't like walking over them on the way out.  We told her it was our first try today, and we said how good they were.  Yes, we gloated a little bit.  They both demonstrated to her how they could cross them as if they did it every day.  

Ellen is always surprising me, and she did it again.  She decided to ride Dante down the big hill.  She has done it before in previous years, but not until she has led him down it a number of times.  It is a very steep hill, but once you get past the top part, it isn't that bad.  I opted to lead Cole, because sometimes he gets a little rushy.  This time, they were both perfect.  Next time, I'll ride, too.

We rode through the Lagoon and up to the river crossing before the hill with the planes.  Cole was almost across when we heard a familiar neigh--it was Starry!  Of course, Kevin was with him.  He arrived just in time to give Ellen moral support to handle the airplanes.

So, you may be wondering where Kevin was all this time?  He has a tendency to not wait for us when we are tacking up.  He left without talking to us about our destination.  When he saw the planes were landing, he assumed we weren't going forward with our plan and went the other way.

We planned to keep Dante close to Cole when the planes came since it helped him originally.  Kevin was to take up the rear.  We were all set for the planes.  There weren't any.  All Ellen's worrying was for naught.  The rest of the ride was uneventful.

We had a terrific 2-hour ride.  I'm so glad that Ellen gathered the courage to be able to do it.  She really is the bravest person I know.