tractor supply: Birthday Trail Ride

Both my friend Lynnette and I were celebrating our birthdays last week. Her’s was the 5th and mine was the 4th. So, she invited me to come down and ride with her, at my friend Colleen’s place: 4 Winds Equestrian Center (click on that link to revisit all of my previous 4 Winds/Cedar Hill blog posts).

Those that have been following along for a couple of years may remember 4 Winds Equestrian Center when it was called Cedar Hills. It’s where I attended several confidence classes and trail riding classes, and where I tried out Apache on the trails before making the final decision to bring her home with me, and where we also participated in several ACTHA rides, as well. It’s a place I am very fond of and where and Apache and I both enjoy riding.

So, I was very excited about heading down there to ride for a few days with some good friends that I don’t see often enough.

(Riding buddies: Dita, Lynnette, Me, and Kristi)

I got Apache loaded with all her food and tack and I planned to board her down at 4 Winds for 3 nights to get in a few days of good riding with everyone.

(My riding gal pals: Dita, Linda, Lynnette, and Kristi)

My friend Lynnette and I drove down together from my house, on Tuesday morning and I was pleasantly surprised to see that several of my friends were already at 4 Winds getting their horses ready to ride for the day. After feeding and grooming my mare, and getting her tacked up, we headed out to the trails.

Great riding buddies, Kristi and Linda.

Riding off into the yellow fields with Dita, Linda, Lynnette and Kristi.

My riding buddy, Lynnette and her lovely Arabian mare, Tango.

After about an hour, we ended up losing one of our riding buddies, Linda, when her horse, Bandit, started acting up, not listening, and threatening to buck. We rode back with her to the barn, where she worked her horse in the round pen, while the rest of us headed back out to do some more trail riding.

Lynnette and Dita, smiling, happy faces.

Apache was doing great. She really enjoys trail rides and tends to be in the front or middle when we start out,. But when we head back, unlike most horses, she tends to walk slow and will lag in the back.

Here we were right in the middle with Kristi and her horse, Junior leading our group.

Lynnette and Dita pulling up the rear as we head up onto the ridgeline.

I captured this moment with my camera because it was pivotal for Apache and I. If you look closely, you can see Kristi and her horse way up on the top of this steep, rocky hill. But what you can’t see are Lynnette and Dita, who were still way behind us. So here we were looking up at this steep hill covered in rocks and boulder steps, all by ourselves. And Apache was questioning me to find out if this was something I really wanted to attempt. I asked her to keep moving forward and she stopped and turned her head to look at me, and I actually got a little nervous thinking she might try to do a 360 degree spin and go look for Dita and Lynnette and their horses. But she finally dropped her head and forged ahead So, with lots of praise from me, and a willing, cooperative Apache mare, we made it to the top of the hill together!!

And at the top we met up with Kristi and her horse Junior.

And within a few minutes, Dita and Lynnette came up behind us after climbing the hill, too.

And once we were all ready to continue, Apache decided she wanted to be in the lead. I’m not sure why my mare decided she wanted to lead, but perhaps, she felt very confident after climbing that hill.

Or perhaps she just enjoys exploring the trails?

Or maybe she remembers traveling on these trails, because if you look closely on the right side of this photo below, you will see a pink ribbon left behind from the ACTHA CTR that Apache and participated in this past April.

Whatever the reason, Apache was very forward, eager, confident and happy to be in the lead. Which is something that doesn’t happen all that often for us because I tend to get turned around on unmarked trails or on trails I’m unfamiliar with.

It’s fun to be in the lead sometimes and not always see the tails and butts of horses in front of us. It’s great to turn around and see happy, smiling faces instead.

It makes me happy when I can tell that Apache is enjoying herself, too.

After riding around on top of the ridge for about an hour, we started searching for a different way down than the one we had ridden up, which meant we were all kind of wandering around up there……..and laughing a lot, calling out from time to time when we lost sight of each other.

Apache always stops when we come upon an expansive, beautiful view. I really think she enjoys them as much as I do.

But this time, it wasn’t just the view we were standing there for. We were waiting for Dita and her horse to explore a side trail that led down off the ridge, to see if it was a feasible trail for us to follow. Dita was explaining, that the trail became too narrow as it went downhill.

So, instead, we just rode down the same route we took to reach the top of the ridgeline. And Apache and I were at the back this time, and she was a little nervous about two of the boulder steps we had to hop down. But with my encouragement and her bravery and willingness, she did it! We did it! I love my Apache mare!