I have been running around like a chicken with its head cut off for the last several weeks. Between the slew of new clients, the search for a barn to train out of (I have a long waiting list of people who want to send me horses, but I have nowhere to stick them; yikes!), and the fact that I've actually been having something of a social life, I've been too busy to breathe, let alone blog. Luckily (??) my car finally had to go to the shop*, so I'm stuck at home with almost nothing (ha) to do. If I was a little more motivated, I'd walk the dogs to the barn and trail ride my horse, but I don't think even I have the energy to walk six miles across the mountain, ride for a couple hours, and walk six miles back (to be fair, I could probably bum a ride home from my BO). Instead, I'll blog!
*On a related note, I'd be curious to know the statistics on our current car situation. We have three vehicles from three very different years (1991, 2000, 2010) and the mufflers on all three of them came loose in one week. What are the chances of that happening?
Their first trail ride.
After most of the winter off due to his injury, Arrow has been making amazing progress under saddle. We've been on an every-other-week schedule for quite some time. Kristin is diligent about doing her 'homework' between sessions, and I've mostly been guiding them along as their bond grows by leaps and bounds (not literal for a change).
Last month, after Kristin and her husband, Tom, brought home their new trailer, she was ready to hit the trails for real. To be fair, I suspect that Arrow has a good bit of trail riding history in his past. However, his last owners had kids who would 'race ya' all the way home. You can imagine the bad habits Arrow developed as a result.
The first time we took Arrow off the property, his first trip off the property in over a year, I rode him first. To my utter delight, he was a very good sport about it. We walked and jogged down the trail while Mike and Kristin followed on foot. After a few water crossings and 'scary' sights, I let Kristin hop on board. They had a relatively successful first outing, but Arrow did start to jig terribly as soon as they turned for home. We worked through it and ended on a good note, but we had our work cut out for us.
By that point, Kristin was eyeballing the Amwell Valley Spring Hunter Pace. The start is on the same street that I keep my horses on, and I told her I'd ride with her on one of my guys if she came to pick me up. We scheduled another trail lesson at a different park and everything went perfectly. Kristin even took Arrow out solo one time before the main event.
I warned Kristin that the hunter pace might overwhelm Arrow, and we planned to meet early to give ourselves plenty of time before the start, so Arrow would have the chance to settle. After all, he hadn't laid eyes on another horse in a year and a half, and the starting area would be packed with other equines.
The morning of the hunter pace, Mike and I woke up at 4am to a strange sound outside. Bump-bump, bump-bump, bump-bump. What was that? Bump-bump, bump-bump, bump-bump. Closer, further, closer, further. Bump-bump, bump-bump, bump-bump. How strange...
"I know what it is," Mike declared at last. "The horses are running around."
Satisfied with that answer, I settled back on my pillow.
Bump-bump, bump-bump, bump-bump. 
No. Something wasn't right. That was the sound of one horse running around. Where was the other horse? There's a mountain lion in the woods behind our house. What if something had happened to the other horse?
Mike went out on the deck in his boxers to investigate.
"Well, shit. The stallion's out."
"What do you mean 'out'?"
"He's loose on the lawn under the deck."
Of course this was the night that our landlord wasn't home. In a mad scramble, I threw on pants and fished for my contacts. I'm blind as a bat without them. Then I hurried downstairs, grabbing the only thing I could think of... one of the dogs' leashes... and flipping the headlamp to green light instead of white. Outside, I looked for the loose horse, but didn't see any sign of him.
"Tookie! Tookie where are you??" I called uncertainly into the dark.
With a clip clopping of hooves and a look that said, "I need an adult! I need an adult!" Tookie appeared in front of me.
Talking softly to the five year old AngloArab stud, I slipped the leash around his neck. The horses don't wear halters in turn out. I now essentially had a stallion on a string.
My next dilemma was how to get the alarmed horse back in his field. After all, it's not my barn and I don't know where anything is. Plus, at 4am, I'm not exactly sharp as a tack mentally. The only way I knew was through the people door in the side of the barn. So here I was, in the middle of the night, leading a young stallion with a dog leash... through the people door, around the generator, under this over hang, over that obstacle, and around this tight turn. And the horse totally did it! No questions asked. What a good boy.
Oreo, the older paint gelding, gazed at me with a look of utter disgust. "Gee thanks. I spent a week trying to push that stupid thing through the fence, and you brought him back. Wonderful."
A quick look at the fences revealed nothing amiss. I noted that it was the 13th, and that maybe this was our bad luck for the day. Mike and I collapsed back into bed for a touch more sleep.
Before long, we were up and at 'em. Mike filled the tank in my car while I caught JR, groomed him, and got his socks nice and sparkly white. We had told Kristin to meet us at the barn at 9am, and she was right on time.
Ozzy was mortified that I would take JR somewhere and not bring him too. He whinnied pitifully when the trailer pulled up and I loaded JR and left my faithful standardbred behind. I had opted to bring the Fat!Pony because I didn't want Ozzy to do something silly and cause a scene.
Ha.
Hahaha.
Ha.
-_-
We made the five minute haul to the country club with Mike following in my car. We parked next to Jen's niece and her friend, who would go on to win the Junior division. And who should pull in behind us other than Marissa and her boyfriend, Ethan, who I had heard good things about, but hadn't actually met. It had been way too long since I'd seen Marissa and Tucker and I was thrilled to see them. I also got to meet Ethan's Paso Fino, Gitano, who I'd seen on Facebook a few times.
After introductions, I half-jokingly told Mike and Tom to keep an eye on the horses while Kristin and I went to sign in.
On our way back from sign in, I heard an ominous squeal from the other side of the trailer, and I just knew it was my horse and that he was about to be a problem.
From what I understand, the two of them were playing nice when Arrow suddenly turned around and kicked JR. JR flew back, broke his halter, and left the scene. At first, he stuck around camp doing the obnoxious pony thing... standing just out of reach and stuffing his face with grass.
I shouted, "He'll come right to grain. Somebody grab me a bucket of grain! Nobody chase him."
Instead, everyone started stalking and creeping and trying to corner the pony. *sigh* That got JR all amped up and he started to play keep away. A few minutes later, he went between a dense tree line and a parked rig. Someone got in front of the truck. Someone else got in behind the trailer. For a moment, it looked like we had him.
And then my p**y jumped the hitch and got away. Seriously. And it was one of the tall ones with a crank handle topping it off. Talk about a skinny vertical! I never want to hear complaints from him about trotting cross rails again...
By this point, JR got his proverbial middle finger out and took off. I was still in denial, thinking, "He won't leave the herd," as he veered out of the starting line and opened it up across the neighboring polo field. With his tail straight in the air, a la rude gesture, he made a beeline for the trail head in the woods on the other side. I've never seen him move so fast in the two years I've had him. This is the pony you essentially have to beat into any gait faster than a walk. I was in shock.
Had this been an endurance ride, I'm pretty sure there would have been a search party, people driving off to block any major road crossings, and at least two people on horseback taking off in pursuit. As Mike, Marissa, and I followed my Bad!Pony into the wilderness, ride management was busy telling my client, "We need that girl's contact information. If that pony goes on the golf course, she's going to get sued." Ummm... how about not holding an equine event at a country club if it's such a big problem? Ugh! Thankfully, JR chose the polo field, not the green to go gallivanting across, so I appear to be in the clear. All the same, I was a little miffed by the attitude.
As we trekked down a steep hill and ventured further into the woods, tracking my pony's hoofprints through the earth like some kind of Boy Scout troop, I started to worry. What if he ran into a road and got hit by a car? What if he blew a tendon? What if I just plain couldn't find him? Eventually, the search got a bit ridiculous and I told Marissa to head back to camp. After all, she hadn't even had a chance to tell Ethan where she went before we disappeared.
After what felt like an eternity, we finally spotted JR in the woods alongside the pipeline. It turns out he hit the Neshanic River and turned around, right before the road. Thank god! He must have run out of steam, and now the panic of being alone in the strange forest was setting in. Mike whistled to him, and JR came galloping out of the woods into his open arms, like some scene out of a deranged Disney movie. He thrust his head into Mike's chest as if to say, "I'm ready to be domesticated now."
From there, I hopped on my sweaty pony and rode him back to the parking area bridle-less. When I returned, people looked at me like I had three heads. Whispers of, "Isn't that the horse that just broke loose?" I swear he's my dead quiet lesson pony who I teach toddlers on safely. He's really not crazy.
But that wasn't it for our adventure. On the way home, I spotted a large black and white mass laying motionless in the underbrush by the river. With a sinking feeling, I asked Mike, "Is that a cow?"
"It looks like it."
"Can you please go see if it's dead? If it's bogged down and needs rescuing, I'll never forgive myself if we don't help."
It turns out there were multiple dead cows in the woods. It was the start of a mystery/investigation that is worthy of an entry all its own. Seriously, JR, you couldn't pick ANY other trail in the woods to go on your escapade??
Story of my life.
Eventually, JR, Mike, Tom, and I made our way back to the trailer. JR was pretty sweaty, but seemed no worse for the wear. I gave him half an hour to catch his breath and unwind before bridling him and heading to the starting line.
JR and Tucker look like old friends.
After all that, we wound up having a perfectly lovely ride. The trails were still a bit of a sloppy mess and we had to go slowly, but it was great just to be out. Marissa and Ethan wound up riding with us for the duration, and it was great to catch up with them. Arrow was on his very best behavior, and didn't so much as balk at any of the hairy water crossings. Kristin even got to canter him on several occasions, her first time outside the ring!
After watching the helmet cam footage, I realized that I never, ever shut up. Not for a minute. Nobody's even pretending to listen, and here I am still blathering away about who knows what. I apologize to everyone who knows me in real life. I'm sorry I don't come with a mute button. Thank you all for humoring me. I'm not likely to change.
The hunter pace was on the short side, at only eight miles, but I think that was the perfect distance for all of us. At the end of it, JR still had plenty of energy left for a nice hand gallop. Apparently he's way fitter than we give him credit for, and he's been playing us with his fat old man act. Good to know. I will say that he was a little sore the next day, but he recovered enough to go for a quiet six mile trail ride with Tor a few days later.
I'm still without a computer right now, so I can't edit helmet cam footage, but I did painstakingly grab some screen caps from the videos, and even uploaded a few of the shorter clips for you to enjoy.
Tucker and Gitano going all out across one of the big fields.
Arrow shows how far he's come with a lovely canter in the open.
JR not thrilled that I won't let him keep up with the other horses.
Posing on the cranberry bog trail
Water crossings are no big deal.
Big yawns, as always.
This would have been perfect if he didn't shake!
A few photos I stole from Facebook:
My pony has a large butt.
Helmet cam snaps:
The cutest couple ever. Seriously.
Pretty mucky.
Here comes a Paso!
By Mike:
Tired pony having a good roll in the sand.
Looks like he has a dorsal stripe!