I Finally Got My OWN Horse Time!

I can't believe I am back on my own horse again! After my sand was delivered, my sister and I tacked up our horses and rode through the neighborhood. I usually don't lunge Brandy when she has been ridden consistently, but since she hadn't been ridden in quite some time, I took her over to my "old" arena and lunged her. I couldn't use my arena since it had sand and it hadn't been spread yet. I am glad I lunged her. She wasn't totally crazy, but she sure had some go in her!

This horse is my neighbors, who lives across the street from me. I have posted pictures of her before. Magic is a 3/4 Percheron, if I am remembering correctly. I haven't seen her owner ride her yet and she has had her for a few years. She just had to have her 35 year old Arabian put down about a month ago, and also had to put down her other older Arab and Standardbred last year. Tough times.



She bought Magic for a cart horse, but haven't seen her doing that either. So it looks like Magic is basically a pasture pet. It is so amazing how big they get and she is absolutely beautiful!



We weren't gone too long, we only rode one loop through the neighborhood. But it was a good, calm and relaxing ride. We knew that we were going on a trail ride the next day and I just could not wait!



When we got back to my house, I told my sister I wanted to ride the horses back out to the arena. I wanted them to get a good look at the new sand! Here is a teaser of the sand. I will be doing a sand post as soon as my neighbor gets it all spread out and leveled. Thank goodness for awesome neighbors! Even though the horses had front row seats for the sand delivery, they were still a little cautious about approaching the arena. Brandy was eyeballing it, then it was no big deal and I rode her through it.



Early this morning, my OH and I went and put the arena panels back up so our neighbor would know how far to spread the sand. I then cleaned out my horse trailer, added more shavings, hooked the trailer up to the truck and waited for my sister to arrive. I just wanted to get on the trails!

It was a beautiful day, the sun was out and it was in the upper 70's. Perfect riding weather! We headed out in the direction of the creek first. There are two ways to start out, and for some reason I like to go through the creek first.



I have never followed the creek bed before, not sure why. I actually just thought of it when I downloaded this picture. I might have to do that some day.



After you ride through the creek and head up the trail, my sister missed the trail on the left. But if you keep going, there is another trail that you can take. Well, since I usually take the first trail and haven't been past that trail in a long time, I didn't realize that most of the bank had washed out, which left a very narrow trail and a cliff that dropped straight down on the right. I have a very INTENSE fear of heights. I literally panic. Not a good situation, especially being on a horse that can spook at any given moment. When I saw the drop off, I freaked out. Brandy was eyeballing that drop off and I swear I could feel her body moving in that direction. There is absolutely no room for error here. I told my sister she better hurry and get on that other trail before I had a panic attack. Once we turned up the trail, I still felt the fear. I cannot handle heights at all. Heights is one thing I absolutely do not feel comfortable with, whether I am on a horse or not. I just can't do it. I told my sister that we will not miss that first trail again, EVER!



We rode the short loop, which takes you to the bathrooms, and then headed back to the trailer. It was about a 2 1/2 hour ride. It was wonderful, except for the drop off part! It felt so good being on the back of my OWN horse and just enjoying a beautiful day!