Skyline Benefit Ride

Today was the Skyline Farm benefit ride. After a week of horrible weather, hot, humid, sever thunder storms and rain, Today dawned a lovely, clear, cool day. The ride was offering a 6 mile distance and a 12 mile distance. I was going to ride with Mary-Jo and since it would be her horse, Arthur's first public trail ride, we decided to do the 6 mile ride. Cierra came with me. She rode with Bonnie and Missy, who was riding my horse Marie. They did the 12 mile ride. Bonnie picked up Missy and met me over at Upper Pond stable where we picked up Cierra and Tinkerbell. Bonnie hauled Tinkerbell and Cierra rode in my truck with me. The ride was held at Snowfields in Pownal. We arrived around 10:30-10:45 am. Bonnie, Missy and Cierra's ride time was 11:20 am. I had put Marie's boots on at home so Missy just had to groom her and get saddled up. I hoped Luke would not get upset when Marie left without him. He was very good about it. Marie didn't make a fuss about leaving him behind either. I just let Luke graze as they rode off and he was distracted enough by the lush grass to not care. Mary-Jo and I had saddled up with the others, so, once they were out of sight, we put their bridles on and got ready to go out. We were going to be the last of the 6 mile riders. We headed out about 11:45 am. The first part of our ride took us though the large cross country jump field. Luke was eager to go but behaving well. And though Mary-Jo was quite apprehensive, she did fine and her horse Arthur was very good. When we entered the woods, Arthur was startled by a riding coming towards us but he just froze and stared for a minute. Not too far into the ride we came to a bridge that crossed a river swollen and rushing with rain water. It was a long, high, narrow bridge. It was built for horses so a sturdy safe bridge, but scary looking for any equine that has never seen something like that before. Luke only hesitated a moment and then carefully crossed. He was a little concerned but did fine. Mary-Jo got off Arthur and led him across and he did great. Mary-Jo wanted to cross it again so I had Luke lead the way back over the bridge. We then had to cross it a 3rd time to continue on our ride. By the 3rd time Luke was not in the least concerned about the bridge but was a little concerned about my sanity. 

The trail consisted of a very nice mix of fields, single track woods trail, dirt roads and just one very short section of tar road. The woods trail had some muddy spots but nothing bad at all. Especially considering the torrential rain fall the previous day. Out on the dirt road, we did a nice long section at a steady trot. Arthur seemed to really enjoy it and went nice and steady. Mary-Jo was very pleased with him. When we were nearly back to Snowfields, I realized we would be passing close to the bridge and asked Mary-Jo if she would mind going back over it again so I could take some pictures. She didn't mind so we rode the short distance back to the bridge. After taking some photos, Susie and David came by us. They were doing the 12 mile ride. Now this got Luke wound up. He wanted to follow Susie and her horses. He fussed and danced and fussed then fussed some more. But, I was able to hold him. Mary-Jo got Arthur to lead the way across the bridge leading him and I followed her over. I then talked her into mounting back and and riding him over it for the return trip back to our trail. She did and Arthur did just fine. We were both very proud of him. Once we got back up in the field, Luke had a bit of a melt down. He was still upset about not being able to follow Susie and he saw some horse in the distance and I think he thought one of them might be Marie. He got very prancy and did a bit of a sideways dance going up the hill through the field. Arthur at first got a little excited but then settled down and was fine. Luke did too eventually but it took him longer. But, once he was over it, he was over it. 

At the end of the trail, we ran into Joanie and Pam and chatted with them for a little bit. Then we rode down to our trailers. I was just getting Luke untacked when Bonnie, Missy and Cierra rode in. They said they had a good ride but said the first 6 miles of there ride, up to Bradbury Mountain, was kind of rough with a lot of mud and roots. Missy and I sponged Marie and Luke and I filled their hay bags. We got our lunches and sat behind Bonnie's trailer and had our lunch. Susie and David joined us. When we finished lunch, I cleaned the trailer and picked up the poop around my trailer. Susie left while I was doing this. I loaded up Luke and Marie. Bonnie and Missy left before I did as I was waiting for Mary-Jo. Arthur was being a little balky about loading into her trailer. It didn't take her long though to convince him to load up. I pulled out of my spot and pulled into the grass to drive into the arena to turn around and promptly sunk enough to get stuck. AGH! And once stuck, I could not get my 4 wheel drive to engage. We unloaded Luke and Marie to see if that helped but it didn't. So, I had to go tell the ride manager who found someone to bring a tractor down to the arena to pull me out. I called Bonnie to let her know we would be a while. We told her she could just turn Tinkerbell out into her paddock when they got to Upper Pond so they wouldn't have to wait for us. While we were waiting for the tractor to come, Cierra jumped on Marie bareback. Marie could have cared less as her head was buried in the grass. Once my truck and trailer were out, we loaded Luke and Marie back up and had an uneventful trip back to Upper Pond. Cierra even managed to get back in time to do her job of bringing the horses in for the night. It was a good ride and a lovely day.