Onegraypony, I bet you will love hunting. I"m looking forward to meeting you next month.
Likewise! I really think it’s quite up my alley as well. I seriously cannot wait!
Riding in the open is one of the things that I most want to do, but it’s also the thing that scares me the most. I’m working on it, bit by bit. But I rarely have anyone who can ride out with me, and I’m not wild about going alone.
I started by hand-walking my slightly barn-sour gooberbutt until I got so bored with that that I just had to get on. It also helped that the handwalking made him quit calling out, jigging and carrying on. However, he’s not a spooky animal in the least, so it was just the barnsourness that we had to get over. Your mileage, of course, will vary. I realized that I had to get out while the ground wasn’t frozen because frozen ground hurts more 
I also take my cell phone and have that strapped to my carcass.
And the trails we have available to my barn have been unusable since Hurricane/Tropical storm Irene. First they were flooded, then they were a sea of mud, now it’s hunting season. Oh well, hopefully we can restart our trail riding program in the spring.
Sorry about the trails, yikes! Hunting season around here is rather perilous to ride during as well. I’ve got a high viz vest, just ordered reflectors for my helmet and bridle and I have flourescent wraps as well. I also don’t venture into the woods during hunting season but will walk around the field a little bit. Sundays there’s no hunting, so we go for our long ride then!
Okay…dumb question but must ask. Do you think the safety vest would truly prevent rib breaks/spinal breaks, etc
I think it will prevent some of them, but also helps with general soreness (from what others have said). In my mind, what it will help me with is the freezing up that I tend to do NOW that I did NOT do when I was a kid, that I think causes the majority of the pain when I fall. Well, and the majority of the falls. If I think I’m invincible, I’ll probably ride like I am, and that was one of the things that helped me ride well as a kid (if that makes any sense).
I think we need a seven step program for all of us. I DOOOO know my boyfriend and mother do not relate and have claimed me obsessive compulsive when with horses and all that comes with it.
snort I remember my mother being quite aghast when I said that I would split up with my husband if he tried to make me quit riding. Luckily, he realized that, and has not tried to prevent me from doing so, and is even sitting here looking at trailers for me as I type. grin I have him trained well. It did cause the end of my first marriage. My ex-husband told me one too many times that I was talking about horses too much and off he went. Of course, there were some other factors there too, but they were all along the same lines.
We understand the consequence of falling, and therefore there’s always that thought in the back of our minds.
Control of the horribilizing in our minds is a HARD thing to manage. Today I was out in the big field, a new field for the pone and I to ride in. He kept bulging toward home and I kept getting this unwanted visual of a spin and bolt for home. I knew that if I kept thinking about it, sooner or later I was going to ride like that was going to happen and it would end up happening! That’s one of the really unfortunate things about horses - they pick up on what is in your head!!!
So I practiced redirecting my thoughts “no, we’re just going to continue walking forward and straight thank you very much pony” and sure enough, forward and straight we walked, and though he was faster heading toward the barn, he kept walking and did not break gait.
Horses are an exercise in control of the mind just like meditation is. I think that’s why I always feel SO good after I ride Well that and the wine and ibuprofen 
