The Battle At The Creek!

Last week my OH and I went out on another trail ride. Can you believe how many rides we are getting in? It was going to get really hot, so we got to the trail head early. On weekdays there usually aren't many people there. But since it was the day before the 4th, we had a feeling a lot of people took that day off, and that there would be more people than usual. Yep, the trail head was nearly packed! There were only a couple parking spots left for long loads, that is what I call a truck and at least a 3-horse trailer, long loads. Long loads need an extra long spot to park, we have a long load. There are only so many spots for long loads at our trail head. We got lucky. A couple long loads came in behind us, and they barely made it in. We tacked up in record time and decided to hit the trail that goes through the stream. We had decided we wanted to explore more new trails, and we were determined to find that lake!

You have to check out the smile on my OH's face! He has the biggest smile! I know in most pictures I take of him riding, he doesn't have much of a happy face on, but he is happy!



I was in the lead once we got to the steep hill that goes down to the stream. I just had a feeling Brandy was going to give me trouble. And boy, did she give me trouble! Once she saw the hill that goes down to the stream, she tried to spin around and head back the other way. Oh no you don't! I got her spun back around, and she tried spinning around and away from the hill again. I got her to turn back towards the downhill, you can see the stream a little bit from the top of the hill. I told my OH to keep Fritzy back, that I was going to have a training lesson and it could take a long time, and that we would be there until we worked it all out. I had Brandy stand there facing downhill, looking towards the stream and I let her calm down. Once I asked her to walk forward, she spun around again. Now when Brandy tries to spin around, I try to keep her from spinning around by pulling the right rein to keep her straight, but she will just throw her head straight up in the air, and I can feel that she is thinking about going up, which I don't want her to do, I do not need her to rear, than fall over backwards. So we spin one circle to the left until she's facing the stream again. Let her rest and calm down. I ask her again to walk forward. She takes a step forward, LOTS of praise. She tries to spin around again. This goes on and on. We are now halfway down the hill. Any forward progress is good. At least we are halfway down! We have this battle until we get to the bottom of the hill where it meets the stream. She is still trying to get away from it. Now remember, Brandy has gone through this stream at least 100 times, if not more. She acts like this over things, and we just have to work them out. We are at the bottom of the hill, I let her stand and rest, with LOTS of praise again. She continues to try to avoid the water. There is no way around the water, even if there was, I'd make her go through it. I ask her to walk forward again, she steps into the stream, FINALLY! She is fine. She takes a deep breath and relaxes. We rest in the water for a few minutes. The battle has been won. I am a firm believer that you need to finish what you start. At the point that she started freaking out, if I would have let my OH and Fritzy go past me and through the stream first, Brandy would have won the battle. I didn't care if it took me an hour to get her through the stream, she was going to go. She is not a green horse when it comes to water. She just acts up about different situations, at different times, and this is one of those times. I have spent 5 years training her, and she is really becoming a good trail horse. But I will probably always encounter situations where she will need training on the trail. She didn't start her trail riding career until she was 9 years old (she is 13 right now), or her actual riding career for that matter. I am very proud of her for facing all her fears over the years, and I can get her to do almost anything, even if it takes some time. I trust her, and she trusts me to get her through any situation, safely. Here is my OH and Fritzy, they were finally able to get down the hill. While letting Brandy relax in the stream, I pulled out my camera. Our battle started way up the hill, you can't even see where it starts. It probably took us 15 minutes to get down.



Once the battle was over, we had a good ride. We tried a new trail on the other side of the stream. We really wanted to find that lake! We take a new trail and as we are riding a little ways, off in the distance, we see a big body of water. Wait a minute! Ya got to be kiddin' me! That looks like a lake right there! We ride by here ALL the time! So we continue on. We come into grass fields and driveways. Ok. Dead end. There are a couple areas that might get us in the direction of what we think is a lake. So we try them. We end up going down a tall, grassy area, that isn't even a trail. I see the lake! It is right there! At a certain point, I tell my OH, we can't ride any further, I don't want to risk the horses getting hurt. Let me get off and I will walk down and get some pictures. Here is my OH doing double duty. Think he can handle it? I am off trekking through the wilderness, I hollar back at him "I hope there aren't any snakes down here! And if there are, at least they aren't poisonous!"



Yes! This is the lake we have been looking for, for years! You can't actually get all the way to it from where I took the picture. But I know the other day when my sis and I took my friend C, she had us on a trail that would take us riding above the lake! But that trail was pretty overgrown and had a lot of dead fall. It wasn't very safe. We might have to take out some cutters or something to get all the way through!



Once I took a couple pictures, I headed back up through the neck high grass, PLEASE LET THERE BE NO SNAKES, to get my horse back. I think my OH handled the horses just fine! They are plenty happy snacking on the extremely tall grass, even though I don't let my horses eat out on the trail!



Since we were so happy that we found the lake, we decided to explore more new trails. We went on some really cool ones. But I couldn't get pictures on a lot of them, due to the terrain. I had to keep both hands free for the reins, should Brandy spook at some "ghost" that isn't really there.



We decide we need to head to the bathrooms, to eat our snacks, drink water, and let the horses rest. It is probably close to 90 degrees out.



Now that we are out on the open trails, I really miss the shaded trails! It is a scorcher!



This is what the grass usually looks like in August, not in July! We have had unseasonably hot weather here, but I am not going to complain! I love it!!



After our break, we decide to hit new trails on the other side of the power lines. There are a lot of trails out here we haven't been on. We found some really cool trails in the woods, which meant lots of shade!



We rode for 4 hours that day. We had a really good time. The horses were ready to go home! They were hot, sweaty and very tired. They got a really good hosing down when we got home. They really enjoyed that!



We are members of the American Paint Horse Association. I joined the APHA Ride America program a couple years ago. I keep track of how many hours we ride Fritzy and go to APHA online to log her hours on the Ride America log. We earn awards for certain hours that we hit. We haven't hit the amount of hours that is required to receive our first award yet. But I am hoping by the end of the summer, we will get there!