Beautiful horse! You didn’t do a thing wrong. Don’t waste any more time feeling bad about what happened.
Wow! I go on paper chases all the time, and there is a lot of passing. As long as you let the people in front of you know it is fine. Any horse that freaks out when another horse WALKS by should not be on a group trail ride. And as far as informing the management beforehand that you were going to be riding fast, since there was an award for fastest time that wouldn’t be necessary. Of course some people are going to be riding for the speed award!
Wow! Your horse is STUNNING and your turn out is superb!
Maybe she’s just jealous 
I think you went the extra mile in retrieving her horse.
I’m sure if she were here, she’d tell the story differently, (and it would be fun to hear her perspective). But I don’t see how you can be criticized for passing them at a walk.
[QUOTE=Cindyg;8439467]
I think you went the extra mile in retrieving her horse.
I’m sure if she were here, she’d tell the story differently, (and it would be fun to hear her perspective). But I don’t see how you can be criticized for passing them at a walk.[/QUOTE]
I would be interested in hearing her side without her all fired up and screaming, hard to tell what was actually being said or even the order of events with how high pitched her voice was as she screamed at the ride manager. lol
You know I never took a look back at the rides FB page… wonder if she posted anything to it… tempted to go check but maybe not… ha
I think in the end I took it the way I did because it was the first time I went out to try and win something, all by myself I guess it was a bit of a nasty shock for a first ride.
Only reason I was remotely confident in grabbing her horse was because Rain and me sometimes work as pick up riders at some of the small local rodeos ha.
Miss Rain was very excited to hear everyone compliments today, she thanks everyone by snorting snot all over my phone XD
Not only did you not do anything wrong, you get extra credit for not laughing at the lady!
You’re all good, take it as a sign that not everything is your fault. :yes:
Your mare is gorgeous.
You were more than polite. Where I ride, we run into endurance riders all the time and I have never had one call out their presence! It’s just a fact of life and I make sure my horse and I are prepared before we hit those trails.
Agree that you did nothing wrong.
One thing you can do in the future is mute your bells while you’re calling out with your voice. It seems like this person was pretty zoned out (like maybe she wasn’t sure what her horse was reacting to when her horse heard you coming up behind), and that’s not good at all and entirely her own fault, but if you can put the bells somewhere where you can use them for “distance warning” and then mute them when you’re actually talking to people it will be easier for people to hear what you’re saying. If you could go back and re-do knowing that the person is hopeless, probably the best thing would have been to mute the bells and pass while calling out that you’re passing the entire time that you’re going down the line. Sometimes responsible people just have to do more work to protect themselves from people who aren’t paying attention. 
Here’s the thing: Bullies want to make you feel guilty for their crazy behavior. It’s not your fault if some asshat doesn’t control their horse/their actions/their mistakes/their temper. Such behavior deserves the middle finger salute.
You did nothing wrong.
I would contact the management of the ride and suggest that they not allow such large groups on future rides. Many of the rides in our area limit the group size to 4-5 riders. The large groups make it much harder to pass and tend to move slower so are more likely to need to be passed. With large groups it can be hard to get everyone’s attention and get them to acknowledge that you are passing.
I am not sure I would bother with the bells. I can see those being an issue for some horses as that is likely not a sound they have heard before especially coming up behind them.
I agree with the person who said that they were just jealous of the jaw-droppingly gorgeous picture that is you & your beautiful mare!
Isn’t there an etiquette rule that the behind person, who looked at you and smiled, pass the information on to the ones ahead that there is a “Rider coming” - like they do hunting, except the other way when they see a hazzard, i.e. “ware hole”, “ware wire”?
I totally agree with everyone else . You sound like a very responsible rider. Also have to add Your girl is beyond gorgeous !!! She looks and sounds like a dream… The Biatch was probably jealous. LOL
I am the world’s biggest weenie when it comes to riders passing from behind (due to my horse bolting from somebody galloping up on us and falling off and injuring myself).
I wish everybody would pass the way you did!
She was clearly embarrassed and angry and took it out on you. I can’t see where you did anything wrong. I would say she was jealous about you and your beautiful horse.
The fact that you are even worried about whether you did something wrong tells me you are just a nice person 
I’m sorry this happened to you. This is why I hate group rides. The last one I attended, this lady planted her horse’s nose under my mare’s tail. Bloo is pretty tolerant, but ya know enough is enough. I finally asked her to please give me some room (told her I was concerned she would get kicked). Her reply was that her horse had been kicked in the face a couple times and she couldn’t make him turn or stop. WHY IN H??? is she on a group ride??? Chalk it up to “people are crazy”.
Looks like southern Idaho…when looking past your gorgeous mare:cool:.
Agree with all others. You did more than most would have and that lovely group needs a reality check.
Susan
If a horse or rider can’t handle being passed (at a WALK for the love of God) then I don’t think they should have been on the trail at all. You did everything you could. Maybe next time you could offer to train everyone’s horses before riding with them. lol.
I don’t chime in here (ever), because I honestly don’t do much on trails, I have a jumper she is afraid of nature (true story, she tried to make a herd with bicycles last time we went for a hack).
I think the perplexing issue in all of this is the other horse’s behavior. Most horses don’t mosey along and then stop and then lunge at another horse with teeth apart. So it has to be about you, or the owner is going to have to figure out why her horse up and tried to attack another horse. I wouldn’t stress over it, some people can’t bear the reality that these are animals and animals do things we cannot psychoanalyze, you just happened to meet the wrong end of one of those people.
Don’t let her bad day ruin the rest of your year.
I stopped going on organized trail rides due to the idiots on them.
Your horse is beautiful and you did nothing wrong.
