Trail Ride

We had company from Australia for almost a week and a half and while they were here, they generously provided a trail ride for our family along with themselves. We have been wanting to do this but have not found the excuse to spend the time or money on it yet so this was the perfect opportunity!

Now mind you--I am absolutely TERRIFIED of horses. They are big and scary and they can sense when you are afraid of them which makes me even more afraid of them! The only time I remember being around a horse was at a friend of ours ranch and while looking at the horses, one sneezed all over me! It was really disgusting I have to say. I had horse snot all over me.

The couple of days before the Trail Ride I purposely didn't think too much about it. See, my oldest son worked with a friend all summer with her horses. Instead of paying him money, she is letting him pick a horse to raise and he was gaining experience to boot. We (the term "we" is used very loosely here) have been working very hard getting our pens ready for our new animal and I figure if we are going to have one around here, I might as well get used to them...right?

Well, I have to admit I almost couldn't get on the horse. It took everything I had to get up on that beast. This was the one I rode and his name was...Concussion. I kid not!!! He was a mustang about 9 years ago and we found out after that he has kicked 2 people off during a trail ride. Yes, I did tell this man it was my first ride and that I was deathly afraid of horses.

So here we are getting to know the horses and introducing ourselves to them before our hour long ride.

My Ryan was so excited! He told me afterwards that this was his new favorite thing! His horse's name was Wrangler.

Here is my stud on a stud! Hahaaa! Sorry--I couldn't resist. His horse was named Medusa.
I guess Medusa is a girls name which in turn totally nullifies the whole stud comment....sorry.

Here's me and Trey on Concussion...I mean Cocoa. They changed his name. I guess not many people wanted to ride a horse named Concussion!!! We rode double back because the last horse was MIA. He couldn't find him so I volunteered to ride with Trey. I figured it would help me be a bit braver!

Brandon sat atop Misty. She was a pretty good horse but on the trail he dropped the reins and she accidentally stepped on it and broke it! Oops!! She was so good. She just stopped and decided she would take the opportunity to take a little snack.

As you can see: no reins. He did so good. "Uh, excuse me!! Trail Master sir! I dropped my reins!" All was good. He tied them up for a quick fix and all was well with the world again!

This is me feeling comfortable enough at the time to free a hand and take a picture. I love Cocoa's ears...hehe. This was just before coming back down a hill where half way through, Cocoa, or Concussion rather, decides it would be much more fun to RUN down the hill and show his riders a good time!!! So here I go bouncing up and down, starting to slip to the side, and poor Trey is bouncing up against a saddle on the butt of the equine. Trail Master yells, "Use your legs!!! Use your legs!!!" and before I go tumbling to the side I right myself and while Trey is bouncing around like no soon-to-be 13 year old boy should be bouncing around, I slow the horse down and we come to the bottom safely upright with me chanting, "I'm okay, I'm okay" mostly to convince myself than anybody else. Poor Trey tells me "Mom, I don't think you'll be getting grandchildren from me" and with nervous laughter we move along down the trail! Did I mention my horse's name was CONCUSSION????? I could have died!!!!

And Ryan rides easy breezy with no problems whatsoever!

We all finished safe and sound and besides the soreness. OH MY GOSH the soreness!!!! We had a great time and it provided the incentive to clear out the horse pens back at home. Pictures to come shortly!!