Small Adventures

Part of my goals for this past year was to work on getting more comfortable pulling my truck and trailer.

It's been small steps at a time, but I have been surrounded by good friends that despite crippling personal anxiety, have helped me out with my baby steps.

A friend of mine agreed to come trail riding at a local park that has equestrian trails.  I've been there a couple times before and it's just a few miles from my house, so perfect in being able to toss the horses in the trailer and go.

A couple other folks I knew also met me at the park.  Apparently I must know 71047024704 horse people as I was expecting four people and had a lot more.  It was great exposure for ADD Chili who couldn't figure out which horse she wanted to check out. 

She then decided they all walked to slow and it was all quite irritating. 

But, there was so much mud, so it was great for getting Chili over her dislike of mud.  She had no choice but to pick between mud, mud, or more mud.

So much mud.  Poor Chili.

This park also has an area where horses can walk into the lake for a drink.  The first time Chili flatly refused to go in and was actually ponied (read: drug) in by a mule. 

The second time took a lot of convincing, but she did go in, but didn't look incredibly thrilled.

Apparently third time was the charm.  She fussed a little bit about the mud, but then went in.  She drank (hurray!) and then proceeded to splash, paw, and had a little too much fun.  As long as she doesn't learn to roll, I'm good.

I had a GoPro attached, so the wide eyed photos are courtesy of the GoPro.  I haven't used it for much, but it seemed to be a perfect day to try it out.  The only downside was that photos of myself were a little silly with my chest harness strapped on, but what do you expect?  Basically 99.9% of all photos of me are silly.  ;)

Donni was an absolute trooper.  She's had a good amount of time off and for just being pulled out of the pasture, cleaned, and saddled, she took it all in stride.  She doesn't have a lot of life experience with hauling out and trail riding in general, but she was quite relaxed and good about the whole ordeal.

Apparently twenty one is the legal drinking age and the age at which Arabian mares grow up.  Tongue in cheek, of course.  Love my Arabians.




Our partners included multiple Friesians, a mule, a pony, two Arabians, a half Arabian, a Paint, and a Quarter Horse.  I think I remembered them all.  :)  Quite the fun trail riding crew.

This was the perfect type of small adventure that I needed.  Horses were good, I managed to overcome my natural anxiety and just get it done.  Hooked the trailer up on the first pass, managed to get it parked in a semi straight fashion, horses, and humans survived.

A win/win in my books.