Last week I was invited to go on a trail ride with a friend I hadn’t ridden with before. At first I hesitated because the last time Odin and I rode was in August prior to the 3-week vacation Randy and I took to catch up with relatives we missed during COVID.
As a side note, COVID is still going on and worse than ever; we felt comfortable going as we and all our relatives are vaccinated. Several weeks post trip, none of us have contracted COVID.
Back on the subject, I decided to see how Odin felt about a refresher with saddling, trailering, etc.
Saddling, check! Unsaddled and put tack in the trailer tack room.
Trailer loading, check!
Driving to the trailhead, check! Odin was a bit sweaty, which is not surprising as he’s still nervous about even short drives.
Unload, check!
Next step, see if he can be civilized in a new environment.
This step took a while. I asked him to focus on me by having him change directions frequently, back up, walk with me, etc. After a few ground work exercises, he settled down to graze between looking around. By then my friend drove in with her trailer.
By then I realized I didn’t know where I had put my tack room key. By then Odin was settled enough that I could focus on opening my truck door to see if I stashed it or dropped it on the floor mats. Nope!
Maybe we were going for a short in-hand walk.
Then I felt a lump deep in a deep pocket. The key!
By then Odin was settled enough to want to eat hay from the bag tied to the trailer while I saddled him.
Getting to the actual trail requires a short walk along a quiet road. Most people ride this section and I have before too but my friend wanted to lead her horse to make sure her horse was also “with her”, in other words not focusing on all the potentially scary things along the way. Hand-walking, along with a little ground work, are great tools for making sure your horse is focused on you and not on all the bogey-monsters.
Once we arrived at the trail, we found convenient stumps for mounting. My friend assured me she knew where we were going. I’m not familiar with these trails so was content to follow along.
Until, an hour or so later when she mentioned that we had ridden too far south and now the trails weren’t quite as familiar to her.
I was getting tired and thought Odin might be too as we were not in shape for an all-day ride.
At a fork in the trail, she guided her horse north but Odin wanted to go west and was rather adamant about it. Ordinarily I get to be the driver but in this situation, his sense of direction is better than ours and about 30 or so minutes later we were on familiar ground again.
Ultimately the trail ride was 3 hours. Odin balked once about getting in the trailer but I was gently persistent about that and he got in. My friend was still hand-grazing her horse. I offered to stay and help her load but she waved me on. Turns out, she needed help and thankfully was able to count on other horse people to help her load. Her horse is a bit of a stinker about loading. Next time I will stay and help even if she dismisses me.
The weather this time of year is a bit iffy for regular riding but Odin gave me great confidence that he remembers his training and is willing even after a long break.