Into the Hills

So, my parents decided to put in some trails above their property a while back, I can't for the life of me find the posts where I talked about that. Oh well. 

One of the views from the top (well, middle)

The trails are steep and there's not a lot of flat parts, so while I've taken Rico up there once, I never really felt comfortable actually riding him up there for real. Riot and Sunny have gone up there with me too, but they're also not super fit so I felt bad for how much they were breathing after the climb! For the most part, I've enjoyed them by driving the ATV up there or hiking up there when we've come down to hang out at the ranch for family get-togethers. 

Well, now I'm there five days a week and I've got a super fit, super perfect trail horse to ride on them!

Wandering along the bridle trail

On Monday, I realized it'd been a while since we'd climbed a hill and started to get worried about TC's stifle. It's tough to get out to the trail facility since it takes a good 3 hours to haul out there, ride the 4ish mile trail, and haul back. Even longer if you take into account my commute to the barn and back. But it's necessary, so we did it once a week until the EHV-1 outbreak (my vet says we're good to go by the way!) and then we've been home for almost a month. 

I considered hauling to trail ride this week but I looked at my schedule and realized that I literally have no days this week to be able to take that 3 hour break from teaching and my full time office job. 

Standing at TC's stall, getting him out for a dressage ride, I looked out the back of the barn and thought "I mean, there's a hill we could climb." 

You can kind of see a bike jump my brother made

So we did! I took him all the way down the road first, then we came back and started our makeshift trail ride. 

We came in through the main gate and headed out to what my parents call the "dog park" where the dog hunts for squirrels and where we hung a zipline that I got them for Christmas one year. At the edge of the dog park is a bridle trail that goes between the pastures and the property next door. We opened that gate and walked along the backside of the property up the hill, opening another gate into Riot's pasture (he was locked in) and heading up to the gate that leads further into the hills. 

Then it's two steep switchbacks and you're half way up the total climb. We stayed in this middle area, there's a very short loop with a middle trail so you can kind of do this figure 8 pattern. I saw that my brother has been making some jumps for his mountain bike, which made me laugh because my parents are getting the full "oh yeah, we have two kids" experience again. My brother comes down three times a week for baby sitting and mountain biking in the hills and I'm there five days a week to ride my horse, we are lucky that they still like us. 

After doing the loop a couple of times, we headed back down to the barn and I had him hosed off and put away just as my after lunch meeting started. 

This is probably my favorite part of the trail, so
shady and nice!

TC really enjoyed the trail ride. When we were on the road, we were passed by a delivery driver who honked at us to say hi (pro tip, don't do that lol) and I startled but TC didn't. Then we saw that the neighbors have some kind of new weird animal (kind of looked like a small buffalo?? or maybe an oddly-shaped goat, it was far away) and TC wanted to go see it but I was unsure of how he'd handle that. We then had to open a bunch of gates, which TC helped me with. And then climbing these steep hills walking away from his bff Riot and the other horses. 

Once into the hills, he was a powerhouse, climbing up and down the hills like they were nothing. He saw the other neighbor's construction and their animals (horses, dogs, cows) and didn't think much. He even started to walk out toward the upper part of the property, which I decided not to do until next time because the trails are rather dangerous (steep with a steep drop off). 

Heading back down to the barn

It was SO FUN! And wow, being able to trail ride on a weekday without it taking longer than a ride, I was on him for only 50 minutes and he was breathing hard/broke quite a sweat. 

The trails at the ranch can't beat the trails at the dedicated trail facility, but when I can't get out there, it's now no big deal. I think I'm adding "trail access" as a necessity for my boarding barn search. 

Next time, we'll try going all the way up to the top, there's no loop up there, but two spots that you can stop and see some amazing views. Never thought I'd see those views from behind my favorite gray ears, but here we are!