New Year's Day Ride

[Mtn_trails]

My trail club has a traditional New Year’s Day ride and this year was no different. However, what was different was the glorius SUN we enjoyed. Usually it’s rainy and drab, but this year the sun shone and the air was crisp and cold. We had a huge turnout with about 20 riders and we all broke up into groups and rode out for about 2-1/2 hours. The parking lot was jammed full with more rigs arriving every few minutes. There were 23 horse trailers in the lot and about 5-6 parked out on the road (a no-no). So not just trail club people but everyone with a horse in the tri-county area were hitting the trails.

After our ride we had a nice “tail-gate” party with everyone bringing a potluck item. We even had a gas stove/oven combination (very cool) so had hot stew and chili along with coffee and cocoa. We all stuffed our faces and visited until it got too cold to hang out outside so we loaded up and went home.

I wish I had pics to show but alas my camera was on the fritz. Anyone else have a NYD ride to tell about?

[Simbalism]

A group of folks I ride with usually do a NYD ride. This year the forecast was for lots of rain. So the ride is postponed to this Saturday. We also do a pot luck afterwards. We usually have at least 20 people, so should be a fun day.

[baylady7]

Mine was just in the ring as the ground was snow, ice and mud around the farm. However the footing in the ring was just lovely and I rode for a good hour, was sore the next day (I was doing dressage work, as opposed to my usual hacking ride). Great news is that I had my first ever breakthrough at getting my horse to “lift” his front leg in response to a whip touch. He is schooled in over a dozen tricks, including “lift” where he lifts and holds his front leg out. This was the first time I asked him to do it from the saddle- cue was tap on the shoulder and verbal “lift” command. He did it four times during our session, was rewarded with a sugar lump and a good neck scritching. He is so clever!!!

[cloudy18]

No, but that sounds awesome. It was pretty cold here, so we didn’t do anything. A riding club has a Christmas lights ride in December, where the horses wear lights and other Christmas decor, and they ride to the bars in town and then have a potluck at one of them. I was able to go this year but it was cancelled due to icky rainy/freezing weather. :no:

[Simbalism]

Well our “postponed” NYD ride was awesome. Twenty people showed up. We mostly break up into smaller groups according to how fast you want to travel. I had gone by myself, and hooked up with a nice group of folks(about 6 of us). We mostly just meandered, but had a few good trots and I did one canter to catch up(my mare was very laid back/lazy). It was in the 40’s, sunny and pleasant. Great day for a ride. I tried to take a few pictures, but my memory card was full. It is a little hard to try and delete pictures as you are riding up and down hills. We had a great potluck afterwards including hot dogs on the grill, beef stew, some nice salads,and lots of desserts.