Another great ride in Garland

Amy on Washburn, Kyle on Moxie, Cindy on Louie and Susie on Spark

Amy on Washburn and Kyle on Moxie

I had a wonderful ride today and I soooooooo needed to get out. I've been working at the house picking rocks, and picking rocks, oh and picking more rocks...... and I needed a play day. Amy invited us to come up to ride with her in Garland and Susie and I were more then happy to join her. I was going to meet with Susie at the gas station in Richmond but my by parking brake cable broke on my truck and was dragging. I didn't really want to deal with it at the moment so Susie picked up Louie and me. We went to Amy's house and followed her up to where we park in Garland. Kyle was with us and was riding Amy's horse Moxie. We were also joined by another woman Kim who I'd never met before. She was riding her Appy stallion Reiny. What a nice boy he was. It is so nice to see someone using their stallion. So we had a nice mix of equines. Three gelding one mare and one stallion. An Arab, a mule, and Appy and two Morgans.

None of us are all that familiar with the trails in the area other then one very nice loop we've ridden a few times. So, today we did a little bit of exploring. It was a fabulous day. The bugs are gone now. It was sunny and in the low 70's with a slight breeze. At the start of the ride we went around some corn fields. It had rained the night before and it was just a little slippery. We decided to ride up to what we thought might be an overlook. There was on an ATV trail and there was a sign at the start of the hill that it was for experienced riders only. So, for sure we had to check this trail out. It was a fun climb to the top. There was a short section of some slick rock but we were able to manage it. Unfortunately, there was no view from the top. We spotted a trail going down a different way. It looked like a hiking trail but we decided to check it out. This trail was quite steep and went down, and down and down. We came to a spot were the trail had some VERY slick rock with a bit of a drop after the rock. The footing on this was dangerous with what we had for shoes on our equines and the footing on the side of the trails didn't look good at all. Not knowing if the trail would get better or worse, we decided it was not work risking injury to equine or riders to continue down this trail so we turned around and went back up. So, the ponies got quite a work out on that piece of trail.

Kim on Reiny, Amy on Washburn, Kyle on Moxie and Cindy on Louie



Amy on Washburn and Kyle on Moxie

Kim on Reiny


Cindy on Louie, Kyle on Moxie Susie on Spark and Amy on Washburn

What is fun about this ride is that there is such a nice mix of different kinds of trails. Dirt roads, roads around fields, tote roads and single track trail. So, there were some places we could move along at a good pace. Right from the start Louie was feeling his "oats" and was a little bit excited. Not bad and doing well listening to me but I could feel he was excited. Every time we sped up to a canter, he was a little wiggly, shaking his head and I could feel that he was just itching to let off a buck. I quickly corrected him each time and he held it together and kept his feet on the ground. While exploring another trail, we had to go around a big blown down tree. The go around was a bit tricky footing with mud and rocks. Louie went through this with a bit more enthusiasm then necessary. I was proud that he did not hesitate though he did some interesting leaping going through. He did not scramble in fear, he landed each leap very nicely and I managed to stick with him. Not much farther down the trail we came to a bad snowmobile bridge in a swampy area that we could not cross or get around safely. So, we had to turn around and go back. When we came to the blow down, I encouraged Louie to take the go around without the leaping. I was pleased that he toned down his enthusiasm at my request.

Towards the end of the ride as we were cantering up a dirt road, Louie finally could not stand it any longer and he let fly with both back feet. It was a very smooth motion that was no problem for me riding him but naughty all the same and I let him know he was bad. When we got back to the trailer we had planned to have a tail gate lunch. I had baked and apple crisp and brought it along. Our ride was longer then planned and Amy needed to go to make it to her daughters soccer game. So, we ate the apple crisp and then headed out. Susie and I had our lunch while driving home. Hey, nothing wrong with having desert first I say! It was a great ride.

Cindy with Kim's Appy/Arab stud Reiny