So... we're hooked, I think.

[quietann]

I’m coming from dressage land, and a small amount of eventing. Have always enjoyed trail riding and for quite a while, I’ve felt far more accomplished when figuring out how to deal with a challenge on the trail than when attempting (and often failing) to master some nuance of dressage.

My horse is a 15 year old Morgan mare I’ve owned for 5 1/2 years. She did a bit of low level eventing before I bought her (and a bit after, but not with me as she turned out to be way too hot over fences for me. Though after all the trail things we’ve done, I might be able to deal better with it now.) She’s one of those “alert” horses – looky, very occasionally spooky, a bit bouncy when she gets excited, but really quite safe and sane if you don’t get too drawn into her drama. She definitely has her own opinions about things, and is wicked smart.

She’s had some soundness issues, which are all manageable (but expensively so.) I’m not looking to do distance riding on her, just things that keep that little Morgan brain busy So arena versatility challenges, judged trail rides, stuff like that. I do have access to an indoor arena if the weather is truly awful, and when the ground is too hard/frozen to do much besides walk. (And I am considering moving barns to have access to a much better trail system than I do right now.)

We did our first judged trail ride yesterday, and I wasn’t doing it for a ribbon, but we ended up 5th out of 19 in the “Scout” division (it was an ACTHA ride. Our trail buddy was 2nd place on her mostly unflappable Icey mare.) My horse did fine with the obstacles, but had some issues with all the little groups of horses/riders all over the place; she was trying to keep track of them all (she is a “herd mare” type horse, grew up in a herd where she was second in command.) So we’d be in a big field, and there were horses over there, and look, over there, and even more over there, and some were cantering, and sometimes horses passed us or we passed them, and she did struggle a bit with that. I also need to spend more time trail riding in groups doing things other than walking, as she gets silly.

So anyway, I’m here. And here we are picking our way through an obstacle at an unjudged event recently.

[cutter99]

Way to go! That is a challenging obstacle! Glad to hear you found something you are both enjoying!

I say all the time that if I could only do one equine discipline for the rest of my life, it would be trail riding! I come home in such a great mood after a day on the trails.

[sophie]

Oh my! I don’t think I could get my current mare through that obstacle…she’d probably try to jump the whole thing!
My little Morgan tho, was a great trail horse. Not the quiet/unflappable kind, but she would go through anything to please me.
I’d do a lot more trail riding if I had a reliable partner. My current partner’s horse has such bad feet, she doesn’t want to take her on long trail rides or uneven terrain. sigh

[lawndart]

Glad to hear it! Morgans do need to be kept busy. Your mare is lovely. Welcome to the relaxing (and sometimes exciting) world of trail riding.

[cloudy18]

That’s a nice-looking mare, and she sounds like a fun ride too. I want to make that obstacle and try it at home. I only trail ride, although I think it would be fun to try some kind of obstacle course/trail challenge.

And your first paragraph made me glad I’m a trail rider. I do take lessons and have thought about taking dressage specific ones, (not sure where the idea came from, and there probably isn’t anywhere to do that close to me anyway), but I think I will be just fine being frustrated during regular lessons, thank you very much. I would never compete, so I’d be better off doing something like what you did. I have a horse who might end up being more of a light riding horse vs trail horse, so I might have to think about giving something like that a try. He’s 1/4 Morgan and sounds similar to your girl.

[katyb]

Your mare is super cute!

I don’t like the step on garbage obstacles. I want my horse to avoid stepping on trash, since you never know if it might harm them. That one isn’t TOO bad, but I’ve seen some that are pits of bottles to walk on. Bad precedent, I think.

[quietann]

[QUOTE=sophie;7246052]
Oh my! I don’t think I could get my current mare through that obstacle…she’d probably try to jump the whole thing!
My little Morgan tho, was a great trail horse. Not the quiet/unflappable kind, but she would go through anything to please me.
I’d do a lot more trail riding if I had a reliable partner. My current partner’s horse has such bad feet, she doesn’t want to take her on long trail rides or uneven terrain. sigh[/QUOTE]

Well… the story of that obstacle was amusing. When we first did it, the poles were in a square, and just inside one pole there were no bottles, so my smart mare walked through it there, avoiding all the bottles! I asked for a redo, and they moved the pole so she’d have no choice. So we walk up to it, and she sticks a hoof in, steps on a bottle and flies backward! But I let her stare at it for a few seconds, and she figured out what to do – be very careful. As I said, she is smart.

I know people have different opinions on riding alone, but I would not get nearly as much trail riding in if I had to have a partner. She was a bit insecure and herdbound when I bought her, so I took it very slow with her, getting her used to the idea of going out alone, and I think now she doesn’t even care. In fact, in some ways she is easier to manage alone – more focused on me, won’t get silly if another horse acts up, etc. I always take my cell phone and wear a helmet, let people at the barn know when to expect me back, etc.

Now we went from “hot Morgan” yesterday to quiet, babysitter Morgan today, going out in the familiar woods with the Icey and another horse who tends to get really difficult when we turn for home. So when we turned around, we stuck Feronia in front to keep a reasonable walking pace, and the Icey and her rider in the middle zig-zagged back and forth, keeping the troubled horse (a 17.2 hand WB mare, about three times the size (weight) of the Icey) at the back. And the WB really calmed down quickly.

[sophie]

All my previous horses were just fine on the trails solo. This mare is the first one who’s giving me so much trouble. I’ve had her more than 10 years, and she’s gotten better, I can take her on our usual 30 min. loop just fine, but but she’s still not ready to go on real long trail rides solo.
I know it’s partly my fault, I just never really had the time / opportunity / will to regularly work on her barn/buddies separation anxieties.

I don’t mind it too much. If no one is there to go out on the trails with me, I’ll just play in the ring, as Mare is also a lot of fun in dressage / jumping.

[candysgirl]

I’m so glad you were able to work through some of the initial stuff with her! She’s such a cute little mare!

I bet she’s sound enough you could do some LDs with her. They’re a lot of fun and not too taxing on them if you ride to complete and not race to win.

[GotMyPony]

Since you like the obstacles you might look for some NATRC rides around you. natrc.org These are usually 18-20 miles a day at moderate pace (not a race) with stops for “natural” obstacles (deadfall, creek crossings, backing off trail between trees, mounting from off side, etc.) rather than arena type obstacles. You might be able to find a NATRC clinic near you that would introduce you to the sport and include a sample ride shorter than a real one. Either way, have fun on the trail!

[TBPONY]

Gorgeous mare! I love the bottle obstacle picture, that looks really cool. I have been recently hooked into long distance trail riding and one of my buddies has become serious about endurance so we ride together often. It’s so much more fun than riding around in an arena!

[evilamc]

Thats awesome! I did my first one last spring and LOVEDDDDDD it and my horse actually did pretty good too! I wanted to do more this fall but because of soundness problems we werent able to The barn i just moved from, the woman I boarded with got me into it because its all she does. In her free time she makes obstacles to put in the ring to practice with haha!

[JohnDeere]

[URL="https://www.facebook.com/#!/media/set/?set=vb.114859231866239&type=2

[JohnDeere]

https://www.facebook.com/#!/media/set/?set=vb.114859231866239&type=2
Click on the 2nd video–some kind of national trail championship maybe one day I can open/close a gait from my horses back?

[quietann]

So… today we tried versatility (indoor trail, timed). It was FUN but boy we have a lot of work to do. I had two rounds, and led her through the first with only a few small wobbles, but on the second I rode, and maresy threatened to lose her brains a couple of times, so we ran up against the time limit and didn’t get to finish (I was especially annoyed because we ran out of time just before the ground tie obstacle, which she’s really good at.)

I’m not looking for critique, but here is video of our ridden round. (You can skip the first minute, which is me failing to close the gate – it has magnetic clasps – because the mare stepped on the pipe at the bottom of the opening coming in, and decided there was no way, no how she was getting anywhere close to the thing!) BTW, hula hoops are really scary and I had to bail on that task. And beach balls are also really scary!

OK, so we got disqualified but seriously, this was FUN. There’s another one in two weeks at the same place and we’ll definitely be there.

(Video of the led round is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s60vmk7o47U