Luckily the rain forecast for today had dumped all its sullen load the day before, so we were a go for the trail ride.
Cousin P- was supposed to pick me up at 7:30 Friday morning, given that Cousin F- lived an hour and 45 minutes away. She'd moved up in the mountains for respiratory relief for her and her youngest daughter, L-, who was the one going on the trail ride with me.
This was because I was going to be riding Cousin F-'s horse, a fat, complacent, mild-mannered ex-broodmare named Punzie. (Rapunzel).
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| Rapunzel, after the ride. Her mane, which gave her the name, is on the other side, unfortunately. |
Cousin F- had broken her back years ago in a bad car wreck, and Punzie is the only horse with gaits smooth enough she can ride (I think). And they only let strangers ride Punzie (none of the other horses), therefore no horse was available for Cousin P-.
Given the way Cousin P- backed off with hands up saying no thank you when asked if she'd like to ride around the ring on Punzie, I don't think she would have wanted to go for the trail ride even if there was another horse available.
L- had me in the ring with Punzie to see if I still remembered enough about horses to be okay on a trail ride. Punzie direct-reins, instead of neck-reining, which is what I'd learned. So I also had to learn a new skill quite quickly. But L-'s a good teacher, and I did remember quite a bit about horses and riding them. It took a few times around the ring before it all came back, though.
I found it odd how the muscle memory triggered the actual memories so I wasn't just riding on instinct (not a good way to ride) and, after learning the direct reining, I managed quite well, I thought.
The horses were barefoot--no horse shoes--and they hadn't been ridden enough to build up their feet yet. Kind of like how we get callouses on our feet when we walk barefoot a lot. So they had boots! When I rode horses nearly two decades ago, horses had two choices, barefoot or nailed-on horseshoes.
Now they have boots!
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| Horse boot next to human in human boots |
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| Boot on horse. The pinky purple stuff is a healing agent of some kind that Punzie had on because the boots had rubbed her wrong the last time she wore them. This also led to her being very crabby about having the boots put on this time. Cousin F- had to do them. |
L- mounted up on her horse, Miss Jet (so named because her mane is black, not the rest of her, which is a fairly typical bay color) and led the way off into the woods surrounding their house.
The woods weren't trail-ridden a lot, the way all the other trail rides I've been on have been, and this meant quite a lot of leaf-in-face incidents. Horses, who naturally look up due to the whole predators in the wild jumping on them from above (the pumas and other big cats), have a nasty tendency to side step just enough to get you into the worst of the tree/weed branches. Horses also like to try to scrape you off against tree trunks if you don't watch out.
Punzie and I had some discussions about who was in charge during the first part of the trail ride, but after I made her stop and only go when I said so after Miss Jet had stopped, figured out where the next part of the trail was, and started again, Punzie finally admitted I might actually know what I was doing. (She'd stopped when I'd said stop when Miss Jet ahead of us stop, but when Miss Jet started forward again, so did Punzie. Before I told her to. So thus the additional stop and start.)
After that there were fewer tree branches in my face and tree trunks against my legs as Punzie focused her attention on trying to get some illicit food instead. At one point she leaned down to itch the side of her foot. The flies were so bad the horses were both wearing fly masks (another new thing to me) and I've had horses bit before; it's polite to let them at least rub at the spot for a moment. Then while she was down there she tried to eat the one bit of greenery near her and I told her that no, once the itching was over, you had to put your head back up and keep going.
Unbeknownst to me, she'd also undone one of the velcro straps on one of her boots while she was down there. This led to her being very uncomfortable with coming back down the slope through the grass to her house. L- said that's probably why she'd been acting like that (which basically consisted of really not wanting to walk but wanting to go faster, and for Punzie that's unusual, and a few tries at meandering from side to side).
I didn't feel too sorry for Punzie. It was her own stupid fault and next time, maybe she'll learn and not try to take her boots off in mid-ride.
We got back after about forty-five minutes or so, and then L- begged off while Cousins P- and F- and I went for a hike in the nearby state park (which you didn't have to pay to get into ... I thought that was odd). (We had grilled-by-Cousin F-'s hamburgers first. They were yummy.)
The hike was all in hickory forest, and this was nice since the sun was getting kind of hot even though the air was cool. A hike right after the trail ride might seem like overkill, but trust me, I would have been more sore without the hike!
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| The easy trail |
We did a lovely "along the side of the lake" trail, and when that ended, instead of turning around and going back the way we came, we headed up another trail that was more strenuous. Cousin P- could read the map with the elevation lines and didn't figure it would be too awful, as we weren't going the full distance of it, just the bit that wandered back to the parking area from the end of our current "easy" trail.
What the map did not tell us was that the elevation changes, which wouldn't have been that severe had we been going at an angle to them, were quite dramatic since the trail went straight up the side of the mountain.
There were stops to rest.
There were a lot of stops to rest.
And it wasn't always Cousin F-'s idea! She had to use her inhaler a lot and the rest of us worried, but as she is a grown woman, it's rude to tell her that she doesn't know her own strength. I figured she'd say something when she had to. (Or, you know, wave frantically in the air if the whole exercise-induced asthma kept her from talking).
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| We saw a turtle |
Later she said she'd had fun, even though she'd had to rest extra for two days after, and that's it's good to do things like that.
Then we drove back to her place, and picked up something ... I forget what, that F- had forgotten, and then we tried to go shopping, only I'd forgotten that F-'s "little town near here" was going to be the requisite 30 minutes away, so the stores were closing when we got there. There weren't many, as "little" was quite accurate, and the one stayed open for us. It was a more antique/random stuff place than a gift shop, and although I found a lovely necklace as a gift for someone (I don't wear jewelry anymore), I was also glad I'd been shopping with Aunt K- the day before.
Then Cousin P- and I had to drive the almost two hours home, and stop to get gas on the way, so when I got home, supper was as late as it usually is at my house, and I still got to bed late.
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