Trail Riding in Birds Hill Park

Woot woot!! Trail riding today!! Was up around 8:30 this morning as Keith has set the alarm. So we got up and Keith noticed a buzzing noise coming from the furnace fan. So he played around with the furnace controls a bit and then went downstairs to see what was going on. Seems like something went again on the stupid thing. Agh! Why does it always break down?? So we called the furnace guys, but they're closed until Tuesday because of the long weekend.

While Keith was dealing with that, I started getting all my stuff ready to go trail riding in Birds Hill Park with Kelly and some other girls. Grabbed all my stuff and left the house around 10. Did a stop by the gas station to fill up the truck and grab some snacks for myself. Once I was done there, I headed over to my parents place and hooked up to the trailer. Once everything was secure, I went to the barn to grab some grain, hay and protective boots for Dollar. My tack was at the pasture so I didn't have to worry about that. Got everything organized and loaded and then went to the pasture to get Dollar.

Got out there and grabbed Dollar (who was hiding in the bush), grabbed the tack and loaded into the trailer. Dollar seemed pretty happy to be going somewhere. Got everything in there and fully locked up and headed on my way. Sent Kelly a text saying that I'd be there in about 1 hour.

The drive there was uneventful, just had to drive on the #1 for a bit, which was a pain due to construction and it being 2 lane almost the entire way. Took a bit of a detour getting to Kelly's barn as I couldn't get directly onto the road that I needed, so I had to take a different way, but it all worked out.

Got to Kelly's barn with no issues (unlike last time), managed to get the trailer turned around. Didn'trealize how tight it was because last time I was here, ht etrailer hadn't been lengthened yet. Once I was parked, I went and found Kelly and asked her if I could let Dollar loose in the arena to loosen up a bit before our ride. She said sure, so I got him out of the trailer and let him loose in the arena. All he did was walk around and go look at himself in the viewing room window and walk around some more. Didn't feel like running at all. Since he seemed like he was done walking around, I grabbed him and tied him up in the alleyway and gave him his grain. I met Natalie (another one, not my sister) who was riding with us and Michelle, who also boards where Kelly is. We all got our horses ready and Kelly gave me the fly-mask that I asked her to pick up, so I put that underneath his bridle to keep the flies out of his eyes. And he looked so cute!!

Dollar looking cute in his fly-mask

 

Ready to go!!

Kelly had to kick out some horses and then we all got ready to go on our ride. And the nice thing is that this group doesn't run! Yeah! We headed off down the driveway, just all chatting away. Dollar seemed pretty happy to be out and about.

We walked all the way to Birds Hill Park and then proceeded to inside the park. Before we got in the park, we found something dead on the trail taht we were on. Me and Kelly couldn't figure out what it was, so we decided to take a picture of it. And then Dollar decided to step on it when he turned around. Oh boy.

The dead thingy

Michelle was having some fun with Renegade because Renegade wanted to do his own thing and kept going everywhere else, except where we were going. Silly Renners. We were heading out to some fields to walk around in the had some xc jumps, but we came across a little bit of construction zone. It almost looked like they were making a road going through the field for something. I tried getting Dollar to cross it, but he wasn't doing it. So we walked back to the road and that's where we saw a pony pulling a cart. Looked so cute!

Heeeere's Johnny!!

Pony pulling a cart

When we got across the main road, I saw the wall jump and was going to trot Dollar over there. I guess Dollar accidentally spooked Taffy, Natalie's horse and he ended up bucking off Natalie and trotting off. Natalie landed on her back. Kelly told me and Michelle to get Taffy and she would look after Natalie. I was slowly walking Dollar towards Taffy while whistling fo rhim, but he slowly kept walking away. So Michelle gave me Renegade to hold and she got a hold of Taffy. Natalie was up on her feet but was feeling a bit dizzy (she wasn't wearing a helmet), so we walked over to the picnic tables that were nearby and let her sit down a bit. She said she was fine a couple minutes later, so she hopped back on and then we went to the wall jump.

When me and Dollar got closer to it, he stopped about 5-10 feet away and just stared at it. Lol. Always looking out for me and scary stuff. I got him closer to the wall and then we continued on our way. On the next road, there was a paved shoulder, so I had Dolalr walking on there to help toughen up his tendons.

Walked all the way there and found the XC course. Played around in the water complex for a bit and then kept on walking.

Marching through the grass

Standing in the water jump

Kelly & Johnny

Found some small xc jumps and decided to try Dollar over one. Nope. I jogged him up to it and he just stopped, trying to figure out what this thing is. He tried putting his leg over it, but decided not to. Oh Dollar. So I found a smaller one and actually got him over it! He still seemed like he was being cautious, but that's OK, I'll take that. Kelly got some video of us doing the jump and then we just walked around the field for a bit.

At this point Natalie and Michelle changed horses and Taffy was pushing Natalie around, so Michelle offered to ride Taffy and Natalie took Renegade. We waited while Michelle re-did the cinch and lengthened the legs on the saddle before heading off to the ranch to grab something to drink.

Walked all the way to the ranch and Dollar just kept marching way ahead of everyone and I had to keep stopping him so that they could keep up. Seems that Dollar likes being in charge. Lol. Got to the ranch and tied up the horses to the hitching post and went inside and sat where we could see them. Got a drink and some pizza pops as I was pretty hungry, wtched the horses and chatted around the table for a bit. Pretty good conversations. After a while, there where some kids outside who started feeding all the horses some grass and all the horses seemed to be loving the attention. Nice.

Dollar waiting for us at the ranch

After we were done at the ranch, we got the horses ready to go and started haeding back to the barn. And the horses knew that we were heading back because all of a suddenly all the horses were marching pretty good. I was talking to Kelly during the ride back and I swear Dollar was trying to rush back. He was almost speed marching and tried trottingon me a couple times. Such a silly boy. But I got him back down to a walk and continued on. We got to the highway to cross and Dollar stood at attention while we waited for the cars to pass. Almost all the other horses were moving around and Dollar was barely moving a muscle. Yes, he's a gentleman. Got over the highway and continued the march home. By now allt eh horses knew that we were heading home, so we were all speed marching. Oh well, it's a good workout for Dollar.


Got back to the barn and started getting everyone untacked. No breathing issues with Dollar because we just walked so I wasn't worried about him. But by the time we got back, we had been gone for 5 hours!! 5 HOURS!!! OMG!! But me and Dollar really needed that. It was a good workout for us. I gave him the rest of his grain and got him ready to go home. Talked with Kelly for a bit more while Dollar finished eating and thanked her for the ride. Definitly have to do this again. Once Dollar was done, I loaded up everything and got ready to hed for home.

On the way home, I did a quick stop by Deacon's Corner to grab something to drink and eat and continued on our way. Got to my parents place in good time, dropped Dollar off at pasture along with my tack and then dropped the trailer off at my parents place. Went inside and Mom had some pizza left over so I grabbed that and shoved it down my throat. Natalie told me that I had to take Mars back to pasture because Sam was in too much of a hurry to bring him back before. Sigh. So I went to the back, put his halter and lead rope on him, hopped on and rode him back to the pasture. Wow, high as a kite. Natalie was picking me up at the pasture, so she drove beside us so that Madison could see Mars. Got to the pasture without Mars killing me, put him in there with Dollar and then headed home.

Got home around 8:30 and hopped in the shower as Keith doesn't like me smelling like horse. Once I was all cleaned up, I spent the rest of the evening with him and didn't get to bed until close to midnight.

So this actually took care of a couple things on my 101 list:
#27 - Go on at least 1 trail ride a year (1/3)
#45 - Try at least 1 XC jump with Dollar (non-competition)
#20 - Get a fly-mask

Sweet!!