Trails on a leash

Because of my Nebraska trail ride, I want to ride my own horses more.

Annie is on maternity leave right now; she's so pregnant that I feel sorry for her. Lately, she tends to stand apart from my other two horses, Scout and Nadia. Annie's still leader of the herd but Scout and Nadia act like shadows of each other.

I took Nadia out a few days ago for a two hour trail ride. We rode along the highway for a bit and then down some side roads. Dogs barked, children played and shouted, motorcycles roared, and all other sorts of distractions occurred but Nadia was a trooper. I love riding her out. She keeps her tiny little ears pricked forward, watching with interest wherever we venture. She has a nice, brisk little walk so we can really cover ground, especially when we are heading for home. teehee.

The other day I rode Scout out for about an hour. We rode up a rocky hill and my saddle slipped back a bit. I debated stopping and fixing it but just decided to ride on. It wasn't hurting him or anything but I must remember to put on a breast plate next time. The main problem was that the girth was too loose. I forgot to check and tighten it before mounting.

He's funny to ride out because he is always on alert. He turns his head side to side looking around and tends to walk 'wonky' because of it. Sometimes he gets reluctant to move on although I don't think I'd classify this as balky, just unsure. He doesn't spook much but when he does he usually jumps in place. He doesn't like traffic to come up behind him and dogs make him nervous but, overall, he's well behaved. His biggest problem is herd anxiety. I don't think I could trailer him to trails without him freaking out from being alone.

Last night, I decided to ride Scout and pony Nadia.

I've done it before and it is such a perfect solution for me. I can work two horses at once and Scout has the company he craves. I like riding Scout because I think he is the more "difficult" horse and Nadia ponies so well. They get along great too. Their stride is pretty well matched so even when I trot and canter they stay together.

Nadia is so easy to pony. She never pulls and readily moves out when I speed up Scout. They enjoy each other's company and I feel that the spook factor is reduced by half. Sometimes she walks ahead to where she is nose to nose with Scout, sometimes she falls behind when we need to walk single file, but usually, she is right next to me so I can pet her as we walk along.

We rode for over an hour around the neighboring roads and fields and I managed a few good working trots. Nadia even got to huffing and puffing on one loooong hill. I was riding English and posting so it felt really good to trot out for a change. The horses were so well behaved! I had loose reins on Scout almost the whole time and Nadia's lead rope was always slack. I was so happy with their quick, easy responses to my hands and voice. I could have had broken arms they were responding to me so well. I felt so good inside knowing that it's my training on them that makes them such a joy to ride.

A long time ago, I used to pony my yearling/two year old filly, Sandee, when I rode Alfie. I was so anxious to start riding her that I'd just bring her along with us. She became so bombproof that when I did break her to ride, I immediately hit the trails with her.

I forgot how much I enjoyed ponying until now. In the movie, Appaloosa, Viggo Mortensen always rides and ponies along a pack horse. I thought it was interesting that he was ALWAYS filmed ponying the extra horse, especially for Hollywood. I mean they could have shown it once or twice and then not included the pack horse in other scenes. Anyway, my point is, ponying can be really easy and good because you get twice the companionship of your horses. They feel more confident because of that old horse rule, "safety in numbers" and it's surprisingly not difficult. You can even hold the reins two handed with the lead in one of them, if you wish. Now, I am thinking about an honest to goodness, trailer away from home, trail ride with my two steeds. I can always switch the saddle over to the other horse, if I want.

Am I crazy to want to take both horses on a real trail ride by myself? Comments?

Trails on a leash - song: Sweet Thing, artist: David Bowie, album: Diamond Dogs

Stateside Part 4

By now, I'm sure you're bored with my trip but I still have to go home! Unless you're reading these posts in the most recent order first in which case you'll follow my trip backwards. lol.

After the trail ride and dinner, the three of us said our goodbyes and headed out to the hotel. Only we didn't go back to Lincoln. We were midway to Omaha so onward we went. Remember what I said about going south from Oregon via Canada? heehee. I have traveled through all the states west of the Mississippi except Iowa and Alaska. Well, being so close to the Iowa border, I had to go there, didn't I?

I booked a room for us in Carter Lake, Iowa. It is the only Iowa town west of the Missouri river and it's right in the middle of Omaha! Just try driving through Omaha, Nebraska to the airport and you'll go through Iowa to get there! Crazy, huh?

This hotel had a pool and a hot tub so Sheila and I went for a long soak. It felt great!

In the morning we drove around the town and visited the lake. There was a letterbox at the park there but we never found it. We must have been looking at the wrong trees because I noticed it was found by someone else a day later. It was a pretty park with a nice view of downtown Omaha.

Here's my mom and Buddha ready to head on home.

I always enjoy driving through the small towns. There is so much history and the architecture is pretty cool too.

We were following the Oregon Trail a lot of the way. I just can't imagine taking this trip by covered wagon though.Gothenburg is a pretty neat little town. They have a real time capsule there as well as two original pony express stations. There were lots and lots of beautiful, historic buildings around town.Check out this brick building with all the pony express riders painted on it.We just had to stop and see a real pony express station.Here's the original mochila (saddle bag) that slips on to the saddles.The pony express lasted only from April 3, 1860, to late October 1861. Their goal was to provide the fastest mail delivery between St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California. To draw public attention to the central route in hope of gaining the million dollar government mail contract for the Central Overland California and Pikes Peak Express Company.

Pony Express Riders- "Wanted. Young, skinny, wiry fellows. Not over 18. Must be expert riders. Willing to risk death daily. Orphans preferred." Most riders were around 20. Youngest was 11. Oldest was mid-40s. Not many were orphans. Usually weighed around 120 pounds.

The riders averaged 10 miles per hour and rode 75 to 100 miles, getting a fresh horse every 10-15 miles. The full trail was almost 2,000 miles long.
You can find more pony express info here

This is in Denver. The old church is beautiful but check out the building next door! It rained the morning we were in Denver so we only drove around town for a bit. Here is the capitol building in the rain.

The "unsinkable" Molly Brown, a famous Titanic survivor, wanted a view of the capitol from her parlor so her house is located nearby. Here is her house.
Denver is such a neat town. There are lots of old, historical, frontier buildings right alongside brand new architectural structures.

We drove around a little and then hit the highway. We stopped for a luncheon in the town of Raton, New Mexico at the K-Bob's Steakhouse. Everyone was all dressed up and taking their mothers out for Mother's Day and it reminded us to hurry on home. My sister-in-law had a dinner planned for her mom, my mom, myself, and my three grown children at her new apartment. It was a wonderful multi-course affair. Thanks Lynne!

What a fantastyk trip!!

Stateside: Part 3

I spent the night in Lincoln barely sleeping from anticipation of the trail ride that we would be going on in a few hours. It rained during the night and morning dawned wet and cloudy. Thankfully, in the early morning hours, it stopped raining and the sun came out.

We drove over to the town of Valparaiso to meet up with Tammy and the other riders. We explored the town a bit and waited anxiously as we were early. Soon, we saw horse trailers pulling in to the park, lots of them.Tammy found Sheila and I and showed us our mounts. She introduced us to Ginger, who I would be riding, and Blue, Sheila's horse for the day. We went to work right away grooming and saddling them. I was very impressed with how calm and relaxed all her horses were as they stood tied to the trailer. They looked great too. Ginger is about the same size as my horses and Blue is huge, not tall, but very solid! Tammy would be riding Windy, the prettiest bay mare, who is standing behind Ginger, the prettiest sorrel, in the photo below.Sheila was very nervous at first since she hasn't ridden too much lately but she did very well getting acquainted with Blue. Isn't he pretty? I don't know how he got a rainbow around his neck but I love this picture of the two of them.

Here is Tammy holding Butter while her husband, John, is walking up.

All their horses look to be in good condition and happy. They are such pretty colors too.

I was glad that I was riding an experienced trail horse. I don't know how my horses would have been with such a large group of horses. Both Ginger and Blue were feeling fresh but very managable as we headed off along with the other riders around 10:00AM. I believe the official count was 128 riders!

We rode through the woods, up and down embankments, over dry creek beds, alongside fields, and over bridges. I carried my camera in my hand the whole time since Ginger reined so well with only one hand. I took tons of photos but I will try to limit them so I don't bore you to death. The trail was easy to follow because a 4 foot path had just been mowed for this ride. It was very pretty with the fields and trees greening up and all the birds singing. Here is Tammy on Windy and Sheila on Blue.We trotted a little but mostly we walked along until we reached the little town of Loma about 7-1/2 miles later. This town was used as a set in the movie, To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar, starring Wesley Snipes, Patrick Swayze, Stockard Channing, and John Leguizamo. In the movie, the town was called Snydersville and one old building still has that written on a side wall. My mother was able to follow John's truck and trailer to Loma with our car. She waited there for the riders to arrive. Meanwhile, John set up water troughs for the horses to drink from. Then he saddled up Butter and rode back to join the trail riders.

Here's my dog Buddha checking out all the horses as they arrive. I felt so spoiled when John offered to hold our horses while we had our lunches. What a great guy! We bought sack lunches which were catered in. Lunch for us was a ham sandwich on a roll, chips, soda, and cookies. Yummy!
I think the horses were happy to just rest for a while. Here are Tammy and John's four horses. Don't they all look comfortable together? They're all super horses!Look at all those horses! Sheila fell in love with Blue! Aren't they cute together?Here I am with Ginger. She was a sweetie!
Here's one of the residents of Loma out for a stroll, curious to see what's happening around town. There were horses and riders everywhere!

After lunch we rode back to Valpraiso. We made great time, a little over 2 hours riding time each way. We covered about 15 miles on the full ride. When we started the ride we were towards the front. As you can see here, on the way back we were towards the back. Look at all those riders ahead of us!

The nice thing about a trail ride like this is that the horses do spread out. Some move faster and some slower. There were a couple of Tennessee Walkers I saw gaiting out at one point. There were all breeds and colors of horses on this ride. I even saw a couple of mules! After we arrived back at Valpraiso, we unsaddled, watered, and groomed the horses. Then we all sat around and visited for a while until the caterers brought our dinner of Barbeque beef, Irish potatoes, beans, and salads. It tasted great even though a few pieces of hay blew into our plates from the horse's feedbags.

I didn't hear of any really bad things happening to anyone so I would say the ride was a great success! I guess the worst thing was sunburns. My daughter and I burned our shoulders pretty bad from going sleeveless and I saw other ladies with even worse sunburns.

Most of the trail maintenance was done by Tammy and her husband over the last several years since the annual trail ride began 9 years ago. What a great job they've done organizing such a wonderful event! Thanks to everyone who made this happen! And a special thanks to Tammy and John for loaning your horses and making us feel so welcome!

Stateside: part 2

After leaving Dodge City, Kansas, we drove northeast towards Lincoln. You can't see them very well but this whole county used stone posts for their fences. Very cool!We stopped for lunch at Whiskey Creek in Hays, Kansas and I got some quarter horse riding practice.

Sheila showed good form as she raced to the finish line with her eye on the prize. teehee.

After lunch, we visited a really cool playground. They even had a zipline! I've never done it before and when I hit the end I gave myself whiplash. OUCH! Why didn't they have such cool playgrounds when I was a kid? Look at this loooong slide! Boy, was it ever a hot seat!!
The dogs were bored and hot too
but I took Buddha for a ride down this slide anyway.
Somewhere along the highways of Kansas, in and out of the small towns, Sheila was driving and got pulled over for speeding. Unlike me, she got off with a warning. Good for her!

Along the way we saw this Longhorn bull. Did you notice that he was on the wrong side of the fence? There was a county truck pulled over wondering what to do about him when I snapped this photo. No, I didn't get out of my car and yes, I used zoom. ;)

This was a pretty neat display at one of the ranches.

We arrived in Lincoln on Thursday night but, alas, too late to visit with Tammy. I did call her and tell her that I had finally arrived in town with my Mom and my daughter. She said we could meet up at the trail head in Valpraiso in the morning. They would bring along an extra horse if my daughter wished to ride too. Awesome!

We decided to go see the capitol city of Nebraska. Isn't this pretty?

We drove around down town until dark and settled on gyros sandwiches for supper from a little joint called the Gourmet Grill. We took them back to our hotel room and enjoyed them immensely.

to be continued...