Today I got a call from a gal at the barn that has become a friend of mine. She had the day off work and so did I so what did we go do you may ask? We went on a wonderful and amazing trail ride! Yep a real trail ride in this wild wild west that we have.....finally! As some of you may know I have been quite hesitant to do a trail ride out here. First reason being the over abundance of rogue snakes and cactus danger, danger, danger! However, the other more prominent reason being the lasting memory of my first trail ride. The vision of being launched face first over the front of Sparky's neck, doing a 180 in the air and landing (bad shoulder first of course) on the not so forgiving Arizona desert dirt is still burnt into my brain. This little accident resulted in the 100th and some-teenth time that my shoulder dislocated, a large abrasion on my hip that has since scarred, numerous scrapes and of course a traumatized horse. Yes, Sparky is an AMAZING horse but every horse has their not so shinning moments and this was certainly one for both me and Sparky. To this day, I'm still not sure what set him off be it the change in open environment, the trailer ride over, the thought of being left behind, or the large life threatening rocks and sorrel cactus (perhaps Sparky is afraid of being poked by a cactus too?) None the less something certainly set him off. But lets look on the bright side, there is no doubt my horse can do one heck of a piaffe! (that's an upper level dressage move if you didn't know)
Check out Piaffe here:
Anyways, long story short I have not been out on the trails since. But fortunately that all changed when I met Darrah who convinced me to ride her horse out on a trail with her. His name is Victory, a 16 year old Arabian rescue gelding and he is such a sweet boy! He is practically bomb proof, nothing will scare him on the trails and he is such a good horse. It has been so much fun to go out on the trails and just explore, talk and be with the horses. My hope is to get my confidence built up and then we will pony Sparky with us on a few rides until his confidence is built up again.
We call him Vic for short.
This is us trailblazing it through the desert.
This is the Maricopa trail that runs right behind my parents house and literally has miles and miles of trails to go on.
We found this pretty cool looking bird/hawk in a nearby tree.
Did I mention it goes right behind my parents house. There it is, kiva and all.
On the way back home...
Goodbye trail.....can you see the top of Victorys tail?
Looks way fun, Piper! I would be scared to trail ride in the AZ desert, for sure! But looks like you conquered a fear and hopefully Sparky can get out on the trail with you soon.
Looks way fun, Piper! I would be scared to trail ride in the AZ desert, for sure! But looks like you conquered a fear and hopefully Sparky can get out on the trail with you soon.
ReplyDelete