Always Expect The Unexpected....

I had my second trail challenge with Chance a week and a half ago. And when it took me 45 minutes to get Chance loaded in the horse trailer, I just knew it was going to be one of those days! Ever since we brought Flirt home, Chance has been a pill. She went into heat and has just been awful. She has never been like this when she is in heat. So when she absolutely refused to go in the trailer...... I said "You are absolutely going in the trailer!" I finally got her loaded and went to pick up my friend. (Chance will be going back to trailer loading school.... she has NEVER been a problem to load.)

We arrive at our destination about half an hour before the start time of the trail challenge. The woman who put on the trail challenge told us to head out for a trail ride first and when we got back the course would be ready for us. The trail head was packed, there were way more people there this time, but also the weather was quite a bit nicer then the time before! The sun was peeking through the clouds and it looked like it was going to be a gorgeous day out. So we saddled up our ponies and headed out to the trails. I had never ridden the trails out there before, but they had marked the trails with ribbons, so as long as we followed the marked ribbons, we would not get lost. Hopefully.

Lovin' on my girl, Chance.

The trail ride was a 2 hour ride and I have to say, it was the most challenging trail I have ridden Chance on. Not only was there a lot of mud, but the trails in the woods were long, narrow, steep hills and there was a lot of dead fall. Chance does not have a problem walking over logs, but there were so many. And she gets nervous on the woodsy trails. Plus we ran into more horses out there then we typically do and Chance gets really nervous about that. I would have thought she would be over that by now, but she can't get over having another horse come up behind her on the trail. She was jigging and being awful. So we had to have a few training sessions while on the trail. Chance and I even led part of the way. My friend is great because she is so patient with Chance and I. She waits while I work out a training issue. 

We arrive back at the trail head and got ready to do the trail challenge. We watched a few riders go through the course. My friend and her horse were going to be my buddy rider again. By watching the other horses, I felt that Chance should be able to do every obstacle. My OH did not come this time, so I do not have pictures, but the trail course consisted of walking through branches, trotting a figure eight around 2 trees and then to whoa and back up. Then we were to pick up a canvas bag off a barrel and carry it through a "mud" bridge and drop it on another barrel, where we then had to open and close a rope gate. I had been practicing picking things up and I can open and close my arena gate while on Chance, just had never done a rope gate, but thought it should be doable. While in line waiting for our turn (there were probably 35 horses there that day) I was talking to some other mustang people. They just loved Chance. I told everyone she was really green, but I was trying to get her out and experience a lot of different things while she was young. 

When it was my turn to go, my friend rode onto the course first. We followed behind. She stopped by the barrel to give us room to trot the figure eight, which Chance did quite well at. I have trotted figure eights at home, but on a much larger scale then we had to on the trail course. Chance had the most awesome whoa and back, ever. I was pretty happy so far. Then we walked up to the barrel. She didn't really like the barrel, I don't have any barrels to practice with at home, but she doesn't usually give me a problem going up to something new. I got her up as close as I could to the barrel and reached down to pick up the canvas bag. Chance eyeballed the bag for a couple seconds and as I was bringing the bag in to me, Chance blew up. Literally. Full on bucking bronco. I had just found myself in the middle of a rodeo, riding a saddle bronc. I dropped the bag immediately and every time I am in this kind of situation.... I just CAN'T think straight. Like, why the heck didn't I try and pull her head around? What the heck? Instead I just try to ride out the darn bucks. After a few seconds, I thought I was coming off, but then I felt myself gain control back and thought I had it. Well, then the bucks were getting bigger and bigger. Her nose was to the ground. And stupid me, did nothing. I just can't think in these kind of situations. I knew I was coming off at that point. I started sliding, I pulled my feet out of the stirrups and down I go. I looked up and it looked like Chance was going to come down on top of me and I rolled off to the side... as she ran off and continued bucking. I jumped up pretty quickly. I had heard everyone yelling my name, asking if I was okay. I just nodded and went to get my horse. My friend had jumped off of her horse and we tried introducing the canvas bag to Chance again.... from the ground. Well, what the trail course people had neglected to tell me, was that there were noisemakers IN the bag. I had not practiced that yet with Chance. If I had known there were noisemakers IN the bag, I would have skipped that challenge. (The same trail course was used for green horses, as well as experienced horses.)

So I got back on and finished the trail course. I did not open the rope gate, since I had not practiced with ropes, only a real gate and considering how Chance reacted to noisemakers in a canvas bag.... I had my friend open the rope and I rode through. So we sure finished the trail challenge in style. We rode around the parking lot afterwards, it was the only place to ride. If I had an arena, I would have worked her butt pretty good. But I didn't have that option. 

Immediately after I hit the dirt and got back up, I knew my legs were pretty messed up. They hurt so bad. While she was bucking, I kept coming down on the pommel of my saddle. I knew I was going to have some nasty bruises on my thighs. My right shoulder was a tad sore, but other then my legs taking most of the beating, I felt fine. We hung out for about another hour and a half. Everyone kept coming up to me and giving me a hug, making sure I was okay. Chance has never reacted by bucking, NEVER. She is spooky, but she usually just tries to turn the other way or jumps to the side. She has never bucked. Never. Not even the first time she was saddled and I got ON her the first time she was saddled. She has been so good about everything. I know I have been pushing her pretty hard. She has ONLY been under saddle a total of maybe 45 days, and approximately 22 of those days are from last summer, she had the winter off and then the rest of the rides are from this spring. So she is super green. I probably shouldn't be doing these trail challenges with her yet. But I want to get her out and to experience all there is to experience. I don't want her to be 9 years old and only been ridden 9 times with a couple trail rides (that is how old Brandy was when I got her and how many times she had been ridden, she was so green and it took years to get her to where she is today... and she is now 18.) 

So I have a lot more desensitizing to do with Chance. I do not have any more trail challenges coming up this year. I will get her more broke in the arena and take her out on some less challenging trail rides to get that experience. She just needs miles, lots and lots of miles. 

And guess what? We took 2nd place in the green horse division and 3rd place in the mustang division. How about that? I swear they must have thrown in a few extra points for the most stylish, unscheduled dismount!!

Oh and the next day? I was extremely sore. I couldn't move my neck, my shoulder hurt bad and my legs were badly bruised. But after a couple days, my neck and shoulder were better. It's been a week and a half and I still have bad bruises on my thighs. This was the first time in 7 years that I have been dumped. And I sure hope it's the last!