It was a LOVELY day Today. Sunny, In the low 60's with a nice breeze. It is school vacation week so I called Pam last night to see if Cierra could ride with me today. Cierra is a young lady, (15 yrs.) that has previously ridden my trusty mare Marie. Cierra has her own horse, Tinkerbell, now and I was sure she would love to take her own horse trail riding. Tinkerbell is quite young and does not have a lot of trail experience. So, today would be a good day as it would just be the two of us. And I decided to take them over to ride on the Lorax trails in Pittston. The property is privately owned so little chance of running into any problems. And as Tinkerbell is barefoot, the footing at Lorax would not be a problem.
For once, Luke was not all that dirty so I only had to do a quick grooming, load him up and I met Cierra at Upper Pond stable. After much fussing between her mom and the stable owner, we had all of Cierra's gear stashed in the trailer and Tinkerbell ready to go. I was pleased that Tinkerbell loaded onto my trailer with no problem. She only hesitated for a moment to take a look inside then hopped right on. I have a slant load, step-up. We did have a little trouble getting Tinkerbell off the trailer. She stepped out with one foot and the drop scared her and she went back in and was quite determined to stay there. We could have unloaded my tack compartment and folded that wall back and let her turn around to walk out but I figured it was better for Tinkerbell to learn to back off. It took about 10 minutes but she finally did it. Cierra did a great job of handling her. Tinkerbell was shaking all over when she finally came off and she was a little sweaty from nervousness. Poor girl, she really was scared but settled right down as soon as she was out. Tinkerbell was a bit bug eyed looking around as we saddled up but stood nicely and stood still as Cierra mounted up. And of course Luke was a good influence as he's a such a quiet boy.
Luke took the lead and Tinkerbell happily followed us down the trail. Tinkerbell was very relaxed and seemed happy to be out. I think it was a nice change for her as most of her riding has been in an arena. That's why I was worried about how she would be on trail but she took everything in stride. We walked for quite a while but as I saw that Tinkerbell stayed quiet and relaxed, we picked up the pace and did some trotting and eventually some cantering. We cantered up one hill and Cierra passed me. That is the only time Tinkerbell did anything naughty. She kicked out at Luke when she went by. But, Cierra had kept a good distance when passing so Tinkerbell missed. Tinkerbell was very good about listening to Cierra. On another stretch when we were cantering, Tinkerbell wanted to pass Luke again. Cierra was easily able to hold her back. And Tinkerbell never even hesitated about going through the water. Cierra was so proud of her horse and was grinning from ear to ear the whole ride. It was so much fun taking them on their first trail riding adventure together. And Luke seemed to sense this ride was a little different as he toned down his power walk without me even asking and was very laid back today. Good mule!
Tinkerbell loaded up good for the ride home. I wondered if she would fuss as she'd had a bit of a scare with unloading. When we got back to Upper Pond, Tinkerbell was again nervous about backing out but it only took a minute or so to get her to do it. She was trembling again with nervousness but was such a good girl. I can't wait to take them both on another trail riding adventure!
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