So yesterday my friend Courtney and I started out to go for a trail ride. We sure picked the perfect day, as it was very windy, a little overcast and slated to rain. However, the temperature never fell below 70, so it was warm enough for us, and we decided to just saddle up the newbies and go. Courtney's mount is a five year old paint gelding without paint markings who has just had about a month of training put into him. She has done well with him, and so we figured we could take him on an inaugural ride outside of the round pen or arena. Apollo, my half-Arabian, has some respect issues that are completely all my fault, as I have become timid for some reason when riding. I used to be fearless when it came to riding, but I think having a baby changed that. I am working on correcting that imbalance.
Back to the trail ride. So we start out, heading down a dirt road that *supposedly* leads down to the river and through to the government land access road, in order to reach the national forest. Sadly, we were led astray. We were told that we would have no problem with this shortcut, but it turns out that we did have a problem. Several problems, in the square and lumpy forms of settled bovines. Now, normally, this wouldn't be a problem, you would just open the gate, go through, close it, travel quietly through their domain, open the other gate at the end of the pasture, go through, close it, and go about your business. Not so, says the horse. Or both horses. You see, Apollo and Ollie did not tolerate the presence of the ruminants, and would not stand still to listen to reason. So we ended up wandering around in the river basin looking for an alternate route. No dice. But Apollo did almost rip his hind legs apart on a piece of barbed wire, and Ollie was almost impaled by a well-placed tree branch, which ended up skewering his saddle. Courtney and I ended up walking most of the way, to avoid being clotheslined by low-hanging tree branches.
All in all, it was a fine day. Ollie was introduced to trail riding in a somewhat unorthodox manner, and Apollo was able to display his mastery of idiocy.
