Fella is a trail BOSS and now I'm hooked!

[paulaedwina]

I’m just pasting this from another forum. But suffice it to say I am so stoked and love to do this regularly. I hack out at the barn -we have 95 acres -but this time we were in the woods -Michaux forest in Pennsylvania with one other person (my friend Laura on her QH mare, Roxie) and it was awesome. Fella is a 12 (?) year old percheron standardbred cross. We’ve spent some time fitting up on conditioning hacks at the farm (hill hacks 4 miles -mile 1 warm up walk, miles 2 and 3 WTC, mile 4 cool down walk). Now I’m jazzed to maybe find someone (I don’t have a trailer) to haul out with me to the forest for some conditioning trail rides -WT.

REPORT

We went 6.9 miles in Michaux forest. It was mostly gravel road and dirt road, but we also went into the forest -like goat trail stuff. In the beginning Fella was a little tense where we were parked so after we tacked up I walked him around the parking area a bit. Funny thing, I was setting up mapmyfitness so I was paying attention to my phone and realized that he was relaxed. Huh; don’t be lookie if your horse is lookie! :winkgrin:

Started off on the gravel road going into the woods and he felt a bit stressed -short fast steps, and stiffness through the body. I just made a point of not feeding the fire. So I asked myself to relax my butt (literally, my butt) in the saddle. I had to do that a few times but it wasn’t bad.

He did spook at a few things -little spooks -more like looks. The big boulders they use to mark off and block trails apparently eat horses, so does the road fabric peaking up from under the gravel. The dead Christmas tree required a circle back to Roxy (my friend Laura’s horse). But all in all it was completely fine.

When we got to the real woods (in the photo we’re about to enter the woods) I thought maybe this would be tough for him since he’s convinced that trees eat horses. I thought Roxy would have to go first and we’d follow close behind. Nope! Roxy was like, “I am not going in those scary trees” so Fella had to take the lead. He hesitated a bit and then he like attacked this trail. He put his head down and just took it! It was pretty cool! A couple of things made him go, “huh?”, but then he’d just do the equine equivalent of squaring his shoulders and saying eff it. At one point we were wrapping around trees to get past some tree fall and he stepped on some deadfall that jumped up at him. He did his SPOOK in place and then stepped all over it.

I think Fella got a real charge out of this. He was like, “I am doing this! Follow me!” We covered all kinds of terrain; gravel road, dirt road, rocky goat trail, leaf trash, you name it! I told Laura Roxie was the bait horse just in case we had to run from a bear or something. That’s okay because Fella was the brush hog horse -I hit like every spiderweb!

Paula

[lawndart]

Yeah Fella! Once you get hooked by the Trail Bug, you never want to go back. I’ve been trail riding for 35 years and I still love it.

[Pocket_Pony]

Congratulations and good for you! Trail riding is so good for their brains and their balance and learning where to put there feet and trusting you and you trusting them!

Hint - for spiderwebs I always carry my dressage whip. When I see a spiderweb, I wave my whip through it so before my face gets to it, it has been cleared out! The whip is also useful for clearing leaves and sticks off of your horse’s butt. If you become very clever with it, you can hit flies - at the very least, you can get them off of ears and neck and shoulders. It also makes a good back scratcher or glasses-pusher-upper. And if you get any weirdos near you, you can smack them up the head with it (jk . . . or not)!

[Flash44]

Awesome! I still want to come out and ride with you one day!

[GotMyPony]

There is nothing more fun than riding your horse in the woods, fields, crossing creeks, bridges, etc. Good for you, hope it’s the first of many trail adventures for Fella and you. Well wait, there is - it’s doing all that and camping with your horse for the weekend or longer!

(If you really get hooked, check out NATRC or endurance )

[paulaedwina]

Thanks, guys. It was pretty awesome. I think back to the first time I attempted to trail ride with Fella. It was a few years ago at Artillery Ridge in Gettysburg. That lasted a few minutes. We were both so terrified!

I am still buzzing from yesterday. It seems to be all about trust; my horse trusting me and me trusting my horse and my skills. Now I want to do this all the time. I wish I had a trailer because I’d be up in the woods a couple of times a month fitting up with some long miles of WT in addition to what we do at the farm.

I am definitely interested in some endurance -like 12 milers because I don’t have the attention span for 25 or 50 mile races, not to mention I have a draft cross. I’ve been in contact with a woman I know who does it and she’s given me some pointers. Like tomorrow for instance I am going to take Fella’s resting pulse and his working pulse and see how long it takes him to recover!

The trail we took is mostly the one my dogs and I regularly wog (walk/jog) so I was familiar with it. But now I’m looking at the map to see where we can go off trail and already have some ideas!

GotMyPony, I thought about camping, but I am not much of a camper myself so I don’t know how much fun that would be. I guess I’d also have to get Fella used to being tied to one of those lines or being in a temporary coral. Hmmm

Paula

[Simbalism]

Sounds like you had fun! It is so awesome when you can tell that your horse trusts you and will do whatever you ask. My friend and I recently moved our horses to a new farm that is 80 acres. We have been having a great time bushwhacking and creating trails. We go out and ride thru the woods marking with bright colored tape and trimming back some branches. The managers SO then goes out with the 4 wheeler and cleans up stuff a bit more, fills in holes and spray paints markers on the trees. Our dogs go with us and have a blast running thru the woods and swimming in the creek.

[Pocket_Pony]

Paula, if you enjoy it and want to “do more” than wander around in the woods (which is perfectly fun for me in its own right, but if you have access to the same trails and get bored…) and find yourself always on the same trails, you can still do a lot with the situation.

You have a western saddle with a horn now, yes? You can loop the reins over the horn and practice steering with your legs and/or work on transitions up and down through the gaits. You can loop the reins over the horn and put your hands under your butt and feel your seatbones and how you are weighting each seat bone, noticing if one side is more pronounced than the other; you’ll see how small of an adjustment you really need to make in order to be even.

You can leg yield/zig-zag down the trail (if it is wide enough), you can circle around trees, you can side pass over logs, you can back between two trees, you can do TOF/TOH to go around corners.

One fun thing I like to do to test my horse’s innate sense of direction is to let him decide which way to go home (provided, of course, that I’m on a trail that I know well so that I know the way home). Again, I drop my reins and let him choose. People may say not to let your horse make those decisions, but I like understanding how my horse thinks and the choices he makes. You never know if you’re going to have to rely on your horse to save your bacon if you ever do get lost. (This happened to a friend of mine - she went out late in the day, didn’t really know where she was, got lost, but didn’t trust her horse to find his way back to the trailer. I 1000% trust Mac to know how to get home - he’s proven to me that his instincts are very good. It doesn’t mean always following the trail because he will find the most direct route, even if it means blazing new trails. But I wouldn’t have known that unless I practiced.)

There are so many great things you can do on the trails other than moseying (which I also love). A world of adventure awaits you!

[skydy]

Glad to hear you are having fun trail riding through the woods!

A whip or crop really does come in handy and you must be prepared to dismount and re-mount when you (inevitably) drop it.

[paulaedwina]

I like the idea of letting him choose a path and see what happens. Laura (my friend who came with me) is interested in blazing new trails, sort of like what Simbalism described, but not quite as intense. We school on our conditioning hacks -it is a very valuable tool IMO!

I have been in contact with a buddy who rides endurance to see whether I can take Fella with her and her greenie as she starts building him up. I’m learning about ECTRA from her. We went our 6.9 at a walk fairly easy because of our conditioning rides, so we’re doing pretty well.

I carry a quirt http://handmadewhips.com/image/jackquirt.jpg so it conveniently loops on the horn or on my wrist. And I can definitely mount from the ground or a stump or whatever. Fella isn’t especially tall, just wide.

Paula

[LesleyW]

Is he the chestnut in your pictures? Pretty cute! I would have guessed Belgian cross, not Percheron.

[paulaedwina]

Yes. He’s got the bright red from his Standardbred side I imagine. https://www.flickr.com/photos/52967336@N00/20332065858/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/52967336@N00/20493915166/in/dateposted-public/

Paula

[gooberethics]

What a handsome boy Fella is!

So glad you had fun on your trail ride! I just love them. I’ve always wanted to do endurance rides/competitive trail rides…I bet they would be fun.

[BasqueMom]

Congrats–would love to do that! My old horse, Fudge, was an absolute wimp by
himself (help…butterfly will eat me type) but in a group, he had to be first and
nothing fazed him. Crazy beast!

[cutter99]

There is nothing like trail riding and lawndart is 100% correct- once you start, you can’t stop. I’ve competed in a lot of different disciplines, and always said I would sell my soul to the Devil to cut another cow, but even that pales compared to a good trail ride. And if you have a horse that enjoys it too, it just makes the experience even more complete!

If you are not far from Micheaux, there are all kinds of trails in that south central PA area with TONS of variety.

And if you want to avoid a real addiction, do not ever horse camp! That is one from which you have no hope of recovering!

[paulaedwina]

I am looking into ECTRA, but what I’m interested in is any local clearinghouse of trail rides -long ones in Southern PA/Northern MD ish? My trail buddy isn’t as hardcore as I am so I am not sure I can get her to take us out more than once a month or so. I’ve kind of started her conditioning Roxie at the barn but I don’t know if she’s going to be dedicated to that -it isn’t really her thing. Although she did love the heck out our first conditioning ride yesterday so fingers crossed.

I don’t have a trailer, but I will happily contribute to regular maintenance and fueling of a person’s trailer in exchange for 2-4 distance rides per month (Fridays and Sundays). I just don’t know where to put that request. Craig’s list?

Paula

[lawndart]

[QUOTE=paulaedwina;8270605]
I am looking into ECTRA, but what I’m interested in is any local clearinghouse of trail rides -long ones in Southern PA/Northern MD ish? My trail buddy isn’t as hardcore as I am so I am not sure I can get her to take us out more than once a month or so. I’ve kind of started her conditioning Roxie at the barn but I don’t know if she’s going to be dedicated to that -it isn’t really her thing. Although she did love the heck out our first conditioning ride yesterday so fingers crossed.

I don’t have a trailer, but I will happily contribute to regular maintenance and fueling of a person’s trailer in exchange for 2-4 distance rides per month (Fridays and Sundays). I just don’t know where to put that request. Craig’s list?

Paula[/QUOTE]

You can look into http://www.womenontheedgetrailriders.org/
I found them when looking for a horse for sale. For the price of a shirt you become a member. I don’t think there are any yearly ‘dues’ or such. If you click on their member page it goes by State, there are quite a few listed in PA. I don’t know if any of them are nearby to you, but it is worth a shot.

IMO, find the right riding partners is KEY. For years I rode with an older woman who only wanted to walk, s.l.o.w.l.y. While I enjoyed talking to her, it was fairly boring for me. I have finally found 2 women who are my riding SISTERS. We love to search out new trails, work to maintain existing ones, and just enjoy our horses together as often as possible. We WTC or gait on every ride. I think our horses enjoy it as much as we do.

[Bogie]

Good for you for conquering your initial nerves and sticking it out on the trails. My horses and I both enjoy exploring. Foxhunting for me is perfect because we go so many great places and during the off season I do a lot of trail riding.

I suggest that you get a program like “Map my Run” for your phone. I use it to help navigate and a few times it’s been very helpful when I need to figure out where I am and which way is home!

I also really like to know how far I ride on a given day. Last week a friend and I rode 9.6 miles in a state park and were surprised we covered so much territory.

[Pocket_Pony]

[QUOTE=lawndart;8270696]

IMO, find the right riding partners is KEY. For years I rode with an older woman who only wanted to walk, s.l.o.w.l.y. While I enjoyed talking to her, it was fairly boring for me. I have finally found 2 women who are my riding SISTERS. We love to search out new trails, work to maintain existing ones, and just enjoy our horses together as often as possible. We WTC or gait on every ride. I think our horses enjoy it as much as we do.[/QUOTE]

Word. I have friends who are friends outside of riding, but I don’t like to ride with them because we don’t like to do the same things and I find it stressful to ride with that person (trespassing, for one!). Other friends I love to ride with because we like the same thing. Mostly it is our chance to chit chat and so we do ride slowly (I do a lot of WTC solo) but we do some WTC, too, whatever everyone is comfortable with.

Poke around and see if you can find a trail club to join. Where there are trails, there must be a trail club!!