riding log
Jan. 27th, 2004 10:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kirkcudbrightHad a really nice ride on Sunday. Sure, it was the kind of cold where your ass could freeze and fall off, and you wouldn't notice until you went to sit down. So I unpacked the long undies (for the first time this winter), and the wool socks, and the second pair of glove liners, and the down vest, and wore my good warm Lands End coat instead of my 3-season smells-like-horse barn coat. And, despite the cold, I felt overdressed, until the moment I was on the horse and moving.
This was probably the longest trail ride I've done solo. Usually I go out with a group, or stay at barn and do ring work. But by this point, I know how Cheyenne behaves on the trail, and I'm confident I can handle him. We walk/trotted about a mile and half out, and decided to take a scenic detour on the way back. So we headed up a trail neither of us had been on before, through the thick of the forest, about half an hour before sunset, cold and getting colder. And came out just about where I thought we would.
Horses have an excellent sense of direction. If I was completely lost in the dark, I'd give the horse his head, and he'd take me straight back to the barn. 'Cause it'd dinner time. But it wasn't dark, and we were back on trails we both knew, and he galloped flat-out from the Upper Salem Pond bridge to the Cottage Road trail, a distance of at least a mile, barely slowing for what we affectionately call Dead Man's Curve.
When he gets going, it's like firing the solid rocket boosters. You go fast and far, but it's kind of hard to shut them down. He gets really excited, and starts throwing his head around when you try to bring him back under control. It's a hilly, rocky half-mile from the main trail back to the barn, and you walk it if you have any sense. So he wanted to trot the whole way, and we had the sort of conversation you have with a two year old. Oh, and he has this nice thick coat from being outside all winter, which was now sweaty felt. It took a long time to walk him out.
But I'll do it again.
This was probably the longest trail ride I've done solo. Usually I go out with a group, or stay at barn and do ring work. But by this point, I know how Cheyenne behaves on the trail, and I'm confident I can handle him. We walk/trotted about a mile and half out, and decided to take a scenic detour on the way back. So we headed up a trail neither of us had been on before, through the thick of the forest, about half an hour before sunset, cold and getting colder. And came out just about where I thought we would.
Horses have an excellent sense of direction. If I was completely lost in the dark, I'd give the horse his head, and he'd take me straight back to the barn. 'Cause it'd dinner time. But it wasn't dark, and we were back on trails we both knew, and he galloped flat-out from the Upper Salem Pond bridge to the Cottage Road trail, a distance of at least a mile, barely slowing for what we affectionately call Dead Man's Curve.
When he gets going, it's like firing the solid rocket boosters. You go fast and far, but it's kind of hard to shut them down. He gets really excited, and starts throwing his head around when you try to bring him back under control. It's a hilly, rocky half-mile from the main trail back to the barn, and you walk it if you have any sense. So he wanted to trot the whole way, and we had the sort of conversation you have with a two year old. Oh, and he has this nice thick coat from being outside all winter, which was now sweaty felt. It took a long time to walk him out.
But I'll do it again.
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Date: 2004-01-28 04:05 am (UTC)