First Ever Trail Ride

Rhoda brought Jace over early Friday morning. We had a full morning planned and left pretty quickly after they arrived. Jace really didn't want to leave. We told him he was going to church and he thought it would be more fun to stay here and draw.

Our first job was to head to Sam's to buy food for church lunch and from there to church to set tables. Jace actually enjoyed helping us.  We got a good start on setting up but did not have enough time to finish as Rhoda was due to meet Karin at 1:30 for a trail ride. Below Rhoda is tacking up Evan and Karin is tacking up Oksana.

 Jace was busy playing with Ruby in the arena. 

 Below Karin and Oksana are leading the way down to the trails.

 Evan started out excellent, quiet and obedient, that was until they started walking down the driveway by Valiant.  

 That was a terrible mistake, Evan reared straight up, Rhoda bailed, Evan got away and ran over to attack Valiant who was just waiting to fight, the electric fence gate was broken and the red gate swung open. We are all screaming at the boys, running at them to separate. Rhoda got the gate shut, as I chased Evan down the lane with the golf cart, then Valiant galloped out of his paddock into the field and slammed into the wire fence for another go at Evan. They are both rearing with their teeth bared. By this time Rhoda came running with a whip and between the 2 of us we were able to separate them. Let me tell you we were all shook up. We just cannot let our guard down when dealing with stallions. Rhoda and Karin went off on the trails while Jace and I fixed the electric fence. Once the fences were secure we took the golf cart over to the trails to see if we could see the horses. Below Jace is looking out for bear. He is a good looker and if he thought he would see one we would take off lickity split.

 We found Rhoda and Karin over by the lake as they were coming back. 

 Evan was taken into the round pen, made to work a bit then finished up trick training. Rhoda was still mad at him for reacting so bad with Valiant. 

 To see the rest of the pictures of that trail ride click HERE. Rosalie's filly was over playing with Eliza's tail. I wandered over to take some pictures of the amazing amount of feather she sports. 

This is just a 6 week old filly. Her feather is coming in thick and curly. 

 While Rhoda was working with Evan, Karin was working with Oksana. Below she is asking her to bow and then lay down. 

 What a sweet mare! Oksana is Eliza's first foal, she is just 4 years old and Rhoda, Emily and Karin have done all the training on her. Karin feels she is now beginner safe. We are pretty thrilled we kept her. 

 Next out was Rosalie. Now Rosalie had been in training with Rhoda in Bloomington for a couple months but had never been ridden outside the round pen until Thursday and then she was first ridden in the round pen and then taken to the outdoor arena for the first time. She did so well that yesterday Rhoda felt she could go on the trails. 

This meant her filly would have to go to even though they were going to be crossing creeks and heading up some pretty steep hills. This filly is amazing, check out the neck on her. She even led on the trail ride for some of the time.

 Check out that face, isn't she adorable..and for sale for only $5000.00 but once weaned her price goes back up to $5500.00. 

 This trail ride had 2 people, 3 horses and 4 dogs. The dogs just love going on the trail rides. Ruby, Studley, Cocoa and Ebby that is, Darcy and Emma would never make it there and back. 

 Below is the first creek crossing. Both mares crossed it like they had been doing it all their lives. Which is actually true, both of these mares grew up at Middle Grove. 

 Rosalie's filly on the other hand has never seen a creek crossing, she has spent her entire life here at the farm in Hanna City. She was funny stepping into the water gingerly with deliberate steps. 

 It didn't take her long to join the others walking through the creeks. What a smart filly!

Even the dogs enjoy the creeks.

Now in case you thought poor Jace had been left home, nope Jace and I went on the trails on our trusty golf cart. 

 To see the rest of the pictures of this trail ride click here. When we arrived back, Rosalie was asked to bow before the horses were put away. 

Other than that terrible fight between the stallions, Friday was a great day. The weather was perfect and a perfect time to have Rosalie and her filly out on the trails. Rosalie had no spook, easily handled the hills and creeks and we all felt confident that this mare will be taken to the March show.