To the Vineyards

I rode TC out to the vineyards and back last week! I wasn't planning on it but I didn't go open all the gates (four gates that you can open if you drive the ATV around) to get up the hill. Regrets, because the vineyards weren't all that fun. 

I used to take Rico out there years ago all the time. You walk out down the road about half way, then down the access road, across the busy road (technically 45mph but people go 55 at least), up the long driveway, behind the vineyard and a golf course, and into the hills where there are some nice wide trails! It's a good hour and a half at least, I never went further than that with Rico but TC is younger and sounder so I thought I might try to go climb more hills and go way out. 

My positive IG post about
the trail before all the shit
went down lol

We did not get that far. TC's traumatizing experience started with walking behind the busy winery, where he was questioning my ideas. I should have turned around there but I did not. I was dedicated. We then got onto the trail between the winery and the golf course and that's when we got stopped. 

Let me tell you, I rode that trail maybe once a week on Rico for a year and a half. No one ever stopped us! But that was like six or seven years ago (yikes). This time we got stopped and the man was SO nice. I think he was surprised to see a horse. He seemed ecstatic to tell me that I wasn't allowed back there. I didn't mind because TC clearly hated it out there! 

TC took this to mean that the world was ending, having to stand still and chat with an enthusiastic man. Right as he sat back to stand up (I turned him), the man was like "he is so pretty!" and I was like yes I'm going to die now, goodbye. 

I don't have many pictures from that ride so please
enjoy my friesian trying to gallop and thinking that
he should just put his neck up instead (because that
is the answer to everything)

TC was pretty excited to be heading home and he power walked all the way down the driveway back to the busy road. We were passed by a lot of cars and trucks down the driveway and even when he's amped, he's such a solid horse with traffic. I am way less solid than he is, tensing whenever a car comes near me (I'm like that on the bike too, I don't like being close to cars and I don't like driving close to people who aren't in cars, cars are dangerous!). He has long decided that he knows better than I do about cars and ignores me. 

What he doesn't like, though, is motorcycles and I don't blame him. We were very careful to cross the busy road when no one was around, but as we got onto the access road, five motorcycles passed us at speed directly behind him. You know when you feel the horse start to bolt and you're not even like "hey don't do that, that's not warranted" because it for sure is warranted and you ALSO want to get far away from the motorcycles? That was me, I was like yeah go ahead, let's get half way up the access road so we can get away from them. 

Poor pony!

By the time we got back to the ranch, he was totally relaxed on a loose rein. I do appreciate that about him, he lets things go way more than I do. 

Overall, I guess I'm glad I went out there but I'm also VERY glad we got stopped so that there's no motivation to go out there again. I love those trails but I think TC would agree that it's better to just haul out if we want to go anywhere but down our normal road or up the hills behind the ranch. 

Loops and Other Lies

Today I decided to take Rico out on the trails! I'd love to be riding TC every day, but I don't want to put too much pressure on his still growing body and I also REALLY don't want him to be too fit. So as it stands, I only ride four times per week- Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Today was Thursday.

But without a full time job, and with an email from my boss saying that the work she gave me should be done in the office on Friday rather than at home, I was sooo bored. 

This horse shares my boredom, but he enjoys being bored!

I've noticed that when I'm bored, I make stupid decisions. I'd like to attribute this to my high need for cognition, that when my brain gets into a bored state, I start to lose my mind. OR possibly a more accurate reason could be that I'm just kind of dumb sometimes. I can't help myself. 

I have been wanting to explore this one trail behind the vineyards for a while. Rico and I normally do a loop where we walk down to the winery, turn right through the golf course to get to the trails, then turn right at the trail entrance to walk down behind the vineyards and loop around a big hill to a cul de sac that connects us back to the busy road we cross, down a slightly less busy road, and back to the ranch. It's a good loop, but it's getting boring.

This is my "yay new trails and cheap shirts" face,
very similar to my "I'm about to make a dumb
decision" face

At the beginning of the trails, we can also turn left on a trail which takes you along the golf course. I've been back that way a few times but always turn around when we get to the first big hill. But it no longer matters whether Rico gets sore from trails, because he can have all the time off in the world. Today I wanted to tackle the big hill. 

I had good reason to believe that this trail connects with the other trail, because the sign says "loop" and starts counting up by quarter mile. On the other side of the little post with the quarter mile sign was a sign that said 2 miles. Great! A two mile loop.

Rico surveying the lands

I imagined that this trail looped around the hill and through a valley to get us back to the cul de sac from the other side that we normally take back home. I got really excited, I love new trails!

Rico hauled ass up the hill. It was QUITE a bit steeper than it looked. Like so steep that I was kind of afraid of falling backward off of him and I jumped up his neck and grabbed on to a lot of mane. But it leveled out and we had an excellent view of the golf course. 

We started coming down the other side, weaving through trees and got to the valley that I thought we'd take back to the cul de sac. 

No luck... we were off up another steep hill. 

No problem! We were only at the three quarter mile marker and it was a two mile ride so obviously it looped around the next hill.

Wandering down into a valley

Back up another steep hill and down the other side to find that... damn we have to climb up another hill. This happened twice more, we were at the one and a quarter mile marker when I got off to lead him down another steep hill. Ah but this was it, guys, because the trail cut hard to the right away from the golf course and disappeared into a valley. 

Finally we were on the right track! Until we were cantering up a short hill and the trail stops in front of a pond. Um. I look around right. Nothing. I look left. Yah the trail did not stop in front of the pond, it cut hard to the left and up yet another steep hill. 

By this point I'm kind of panicking. We've hit the mile and a half marker and we're actively heading away from our destination. Rico is now breathing heavily and sweaty, he's still eager to trot and canter so I didn't feel too bad, but I started dreading having to turn around and go back. It HAS to turn right around this hill, right?

So pretty!

Coming up this hill we swing around right and I see the trail disappear down a steep hill yet again. Phew. We slowly make our way down and I'm hoping with all my might that it loops around to the right. 

Nope. 

That's it, we hit the one and three quarter mile marker with the other side saying one quarter and I can see the trail go straight up another one of these massive hills. We parked in the shade and I pulled out my phone to look up the map. Yep. Nope. We're nowhere near the cul de sac and this fucking "loop" was a "loop" between two parts of the golf course where you can hike if you don't feel like driving around in your little cart. Or you can take your out of shape 19 year old Grand Prix horse, thinking it would be a nice easy loop around ONE hill, not six. THAT IS NOT WHAT LOOP MEANS YOU ASSHOLES.

German horse is skeptical about American flag

So I'm kind of freaking out. Rico is dripping in sweat and starting to think that today wasn't as fun as he had initially thought. It's getting super warm and I really need to pee because I brought my camelback and had taken it upon myself to be well hydrated. 

I figured that if we had to go back the way we came, we'd be out there for another two hours because Rico was so winded that I wasn't about to make him march up those steep hills again without a break. My plan was to go sit on a bench that we had passed and relax for a while, let him recover, then head back with me hiking. 

Ugh. Do not want. 

As we were moseying back, and I was feeling really dumb for not turning around the second that I thought it wasn't going as planned (seriously, why did I not turn back?!), I saw the golf course. 

From way up on the hill, I could see that the road on the golf course (where the carts drive) swung around RIGHT next to the trail as it headed up one of the steepest, slipperiest parts. If only we could go back on the golf course, we'd avoid at least 3-4 really steep parts that could make Rico sore. So I start thinking...

Green = golf course

Wandering through the trees

I have run into some golf course people when I've been riding over there. They mostly seem just really confused by me. I've been stopped a few times and always say the same thing "I've been riding out here for like three years and never been kicked out," which is true, but I also wonder if I just happen to be running into people who don't know anything. I don't walk ON the golf course for any length of time either, it's just a quick few steps across one of their paths to get to the trailhead. 

But this... this was longer.

As I watched, I could see that if I walked along one of their roads for about a quarter mile, I could get pretty close to the flat part of the trail at the beginning. I couldn't quite see where the road met up with the flat part, but it was close enough to make it a viable option. But a quarter mile is a while to walk on a golf course with a horse. And what happened if I made it all the way along that stretch and then was told to go back and climb that damn steep hill?

I decided that my horse mattered more to me than some stupid golf course people yelling at me so we headed along the road. 

I got off to lead because it somehow felt less stupid if I was just wandering the course and *surprise* happened to have a horse following me. Oh my god I was just taking a walk around your golf course with a helmet and boots on and this HORSE started following me. I don't know who he is but he looks like he has the potential to be a Grand Prix horse so I guess I'll take him home with me. Logic, right?

As we trekked through the golf course (not pictured on Rico's side)

Luckily I didn't seem to run into anyone who didn't think it was completely amusing to see a sweaty girl walking her even sweatier horse on a fucking golf course. And did I mention I was wearing sparkly black breeches? They were on sale, I got them because they were silly looking. I wore them today because I'm stupid. 

One pair of people offered me water (how gross do I look, man? Also I'm wearing a camelback and seriously considering offering you to trade my horse for your cart so I can drive it to a bathroom, please don't give me MORE water). One guy was telling me that my horse wanted alfalfa and oats. Yes he does. 

Just as we're closing in on the trail, which is now on our left, the stupid road we're on loops right. So there I am, standing in my sparkle pants leading my sweaty fucking horse as I'm trying to decide between my two options. 

Sparkle pants

Do I follow the golf road back to the entrance of the trail, knowing that I will run into a few more people, some of whom might have the power to kick me out once and for all. ALSO risking the fact that my horse tends to take shits at the most inopportune moments (I was lucky that we made it this far without one!) and I probably can't write that off as "you're welcome for the free fertilizer" at this kind of a location. 

OR do I trailblaze through the deer trails, hoping that my horse doesn't fall in a hole and break his leg?

For sure we're trailblazing. I started leading him through the grass and then thought that it may not be the best idea to wander through deep grass on foot when it's rattlesnake season. At least Rico can book it away from a snake faster than I can. So I hopped on. 

We made our way through the little deer trails and made some of our own trails too. Rico had to put up with me saying "what is this, a trail for ants?" about six times as we wound our way around the randomly placed deer trails and back to our regular trail. 

Trail blazin' (you can see the flat part of the trail on the right
and the ridiculously steep part on the left)

We were still another couple of miles from home but Rico thought this was a most excellent adventure and kept trying to trot and canter on our way home. 

He got a bath, bute, poultice, and a lot of pets when we got back! I also promised him that I wouldn't be so dumb in the future, but I don't think he minded so much. He loves a good stupid decision on my part :)

My periscope! Now that his mane is long, it
stays on one side. Speaking of stupid decisions,
I totally want to embarrass him with a running 
braid one day.