One of your favorite riding memories?

[walktrot]

The day we were attacked by a carnivorous chipmunk. You know the type - capable of consuming an entire horse in one bite.

He was spooky and reacted to noises. The BO constructed her new indoor arena with stalls on the shared wall between the barn and arena. Every time someone hit the back wall of a stall with a pitchfork he spooked. He always took a huge leap to the left. I was a new rider at age 53 and it took me a few years to develop an adequate seat.

He never got over the sound of rustling leaves. A bout 5 years later we were on our way to the back field on a dirt driveway that went through the woods. All the sudden I heard leaves rustling. I could feel his feet getting ready to take off. I saw the chipmunk run out, headed straight for us. Looked like it was going to run underneath him. It was huge!!! Brown, at least 8-10 inches long including the tail, with a beautiful pattern of stripes on its back. Truly a threat to his survival.

I was so proud of myself! I remained in the saddle! The chipmuck ran around his back end. He calmed down and we continued on our way. Turns out it was a vegan chipmunk, which is indistinguishable from the carnivorous variety.

[PineMeadowFarmNC]

I have several but one that comes to mind was riding bareback on a moonlit night in the snow through the fields and woods around my house. It was silently peaceful and beautiful. I can still remember how it felt that night with just me and my horse.

[2tempe]

Two favorites:

1. Week long ride Connemara Trail in Ireland. Nice horses, fun people, lots of different terrain, Best vacation ever.
2. Way back in my 20’s, had a QH mare and all we did was trail ride in the large park near our barn. In the winter days when snow on the ground but not icy, I would climb on her bareback (because it was warmer than the saddle) and off we would go thru the woods, lovely, peaceful, long walks.

[Baybear]

I did the Connemara trail many times best experiences ever. So sad they’re not around anymore

[Spudsmyguy]

Many years ago I went to a local tree farm for a solo ride with my favorite and most wonderful Woodrow and my dog Carrie. It was a misty cool day and we had a peaceful ride through the woods. The part I loved the best was taking a break on the ground and sharing fig newtons with my dog and horse. Just three friends enjoying a day together.

[Eclectic_Horseman]

One memory has strangely stuck with me for over 50 years.

I was riding a grey Arabian gelding- not a particularly fancy one- down the beach at sunset. I don’t remember his name, but he was snow white with little shiny flecks in his coat. As the sun went down, the arch of his neck caught the colors of the sunset and reflected them back: pink and orange and gold. I was just a teenager, but I remember thinking, “wow, I am going to remember this for the rest of my life.” And here I am remembering it.

[ReSomething]

I had a whole summer in 2007. Riding one particular lesson horse, blind in one eye and a little reactive on one side, but they didn’t talk about that which was unfortunate. Jumping him in the outdoor was a dream, I learned SO much. We moved into the indoor and he had some issues with the lighting and turning on his poor vision side, then our busy period at work came up, no riding for 6 weeks, we began the cross country move process, bittersweet ending as I left the barn.

[Salty]

I love this thread so I’m adding some more.

When I was a kid, I used to ride a friend’s palomino Tennessee Walker. We were kind of in a trance, booking it down a forest trail, when a hawk swooped down onto a rabbit right beside us. That horse never broke his stride.

In my 20s, I boarded at a stable that backed onto Bridle Trails Park, east of Seattle. We used to gallop through the woods jumping all the things. I felt like I was in a C.W. Anderson illustration.

[RedHorses]

Very few of my best horse memories are of competitive events, but this one weekend with my fourth horse was special.

It was my favourite endurance ride, not that I’d done very many by then. It was the closest ride, and one for which I did a lot of pre ride volunteering.

The previous ride had been my first attempt at doing two 25 mile rides in two days, and I had pulled out halfway through the second day because my horse was tired. That had been a mostly flat ground ride, and as this one was in the big hills I thought two 25s would be too much that soon, but I wanted to do one. Plus there was a 13 mile night, training ride that I really wanted to do.

I ended up entering the Saturday 12mile Set Speed (which is graded based on time and final heart rate - no placings), Saturday night’s 13 mile training ride, and Sunday’s 12 mile Set Speed.

For Saturday’s Set Speed I set a goal of achieving a Grade One finish. I rode alone, and my horse was super. He did everything right, and managed to pass the scary cows without dancing. As we approached the end of the second last field on the last loop, I heard thundering hooves behind us. I looked back and saw a loose horse cantering along. I decided to run down to the corner where the track went out of the field, dismount and turn to face the loose horse. My horse let me catch the loose horse and lead both back along the trail to where I found the rider (who had already dismounted before her horse bolted). Despite the delay, we got our Grade One finish.

The night training ride was a great experience. My horse was really good, and we traded off leading, following, and being tail with the other two riders. The loop used for the night ride shared trail with the loop I had ridden twice for the Set Speed earlier in the day. It was amazing how the horses went over the rough parts without a stumble or hesitation. I hadn’t previously done much night riding with this horse, yet he took to it as if it were an every day occurrence. As a training ride there was no grade or placing, but we did pass the vet with top marks.

Sunday I was the sponsor (responsible adult in Endurance) of a first time Junior rider. She was good company and eager to learn all she could. We had a good ride despite a rainy first loop. The sun came out for the second time round. My horse didn’t put a foot wrong all day.

This weekend is a special memory not because of the successes in each event, but because my horse had had so many challenges in getting to the point of being capable of doing this sort of thing at all. It felt like we had finally got things figured out, our partnership was solid, and were ready to move forward.

It was also the last competition we ever did. The wheels fell off for good a few months later, then the neuro diagnosis came the following year, specifically Wobblers six months later, and euthanasia last fall. The promise of that weekend was never realized, and it remains a treasured memory of how things could have been without the neuropathy.

[TWH_Girl]

Pretty much the entire summer of 2020 when I had some great trail rides on my late TWH gelding Trace who is in my profile pic. It’s never about what amazing feat we did, just about feeling connected, comfortable and spending that precious time together. Now that he is gone, it’s even more special to remember it.

I really miss him

[Edre]

I was going through some old photo albums and I came across one that I think didn’t immediately come to mind because it wasn’t something “fun” or “exhilarating” in the sense that I had gone and done something that was noteworthy, in the sense that a lot of these stories are.

But - the day I sat on my horse after nearly six months of stall rest, with only hand walking allowed. He had finally been cleared for tack walking. I was terrified to get on him the first time, he hadn’t been sedated at all through any part of the process, but I remember standing on the mounting block with my knees shaking. I gave him a peppermint… and then quite a few more, and at the point when I had run out of treats to give him, it was either give up and walk back to the stall or get on…and I got on.

He, in his typical way, didn’t see what the big deal was, and we did about 20 minutes of walking in an empty arena that day (the BO had dragged the arena that morning and I remember the footing being pristine - no one had ridden, yet) and I was honestly pretty composed (too busy being terrified to be emotional) but at the end when we pulled up in the centre of the arena so I could dismount I remember just staring between his ears and thinking I had not known if we would ever be able to get him to this point in rehab, if I would ever be able to sit on him again, if I would ever be able to see that view, the world through his ears, again, and finally tearing up at that point.
I had my phone in my pocket and got a picture of the view from the saddle in that moment.

It was an ordinary day, in a plain barn, with no audience, and we didn’t do more than walk around an arena - but for me, that ride will always be the height of my accomplishments as a horse person. It was the culmination of hundreds of miles of handwalking, of hundreds of hours of rehab, of wrapping, of cold hosing, the vet visits, the sleepless nights of not knowing if I was doing the right thing, if I was making the right choices. I don’t know if I will ever have a ride that I am so proud of as that one.

[J-Lu]

Great thread!

Two of my favorite riding memories came from an OTTB I rode in Southern NM. 1) We would (several of us) walk up the sandy arroyos for a couple of miles to assess the footing and obstacles, then walk back down. We’d gallop up the arroyo knowing the sand would eventually slow the horses down. There’s nothing like letting a former race horse flatten out to a gallop and letting him go until he’s tired. 2) We did the same thing across the sand bars in the Rio Grande when most of it was diverted to crops. Sand bars with areas of water in between that tired the horses. I felt safe enough to let him flatten and run knowing that relatively shallow water would slow him down. So incredibly exhilarating. And such a beautiful environment.

Another was when I went swimming with my mare - she was so game for it - and so good as we both did that for the first time. I didn’t know what to expect but she was confident and I loved it. I let her decide where to go and when to go to shore.

[chestnutmarebeware]

My first self-pay horse as an adult was an OTTB who was a hunter who was sold to my boss who wanted to do dressage (he was gorgeous and very flashy and that may have been why she bought him)

Turns out he hated being micromanaged and boss imported a dressage-bred warmblood from Switzerland. She knew I’d ridden hunters my whole life and generously offered him to me for free, provided I take some lessons from her trainer (who went on to marry Steffen Peters a few years later) to verify my riding ability and learn his dressage buttons.

Other than putting the required polos on backwards (never used them for hunters and jumpers), and having to ride in a dressage saddle for the first time and losing my stirrups every few minutes, the lessons went well. She was the kindest trainer I’ve ever ridden with and I actually halted at one point and said I wasn’t used to riding with people who were nice to their students,

But my best memories are of her yelling “hunter leg” regularly. It made me laugh every single time and I still love the memory.

She told my boss I was an excellent rider with the light hands and seat the horse needed, and he was mine after two lessons.

[Phaedra1]

I have many good memories, but one that stands out is when I was riding my pony bareback on a winter evening. As we galloped along a bush trail, my pony suddenly swiveled her ear to the right. When I looked over, I saw a beautiful deer standing there, grazing and illuminated by the sunset shining through the trees.

One time, I was riding my pony in a hay field and we were cantering along. The pony I was riding always made sure her rider didn’t get too confident. There was a jump up ahead that we had always jumped before, but this time, she thought I was the one who was supposed to jump. As we approached the jump, she started to jump, but at the last second, she turned. As a result, I ended up flying over her ears and going at least ten feet past the jump. Once I got up, I realized she was still standing there. After a couple of minutes, I realized how fun it was to fly, so I suggested that I do it again. However, my friend was shocked and said, "What the heck?! You could have gotten killed!

[ParadoxFarm]

@PineMeadowFarmNC

I have several but one that comes to mind was riding bareback on a moonlit night in the snow through the fields and woods around my house. It was silently peaceful and beautiful. I can still remember how it felt that night with just me and my horse.

Yes!! Me, too. As a kid I remember a super fun ride in the snow on a moonlit night. I can still hear the crunching of snow. The moonlight on the snow made it almost like riding in daylight. What fun.

I also remember as a kid in MI waiting till the weather got UP to 0º to ride – outside. No indoor. Now as I’m MUCH older, heck, I don’t like riding if it’s less than about 50º haha. I’ve become a weather weeny.