Trail Ride

I cannot emphasize how much I LOVED my trail ride on Mr P yesterday. It makes me wish even more that I had a camera.

It was a beautiful day, not too hot. Actually I had to wear a coat and to make a mental note to make sure that I grab my gloves. With it being so nice out I decided that I would groom Mr P outside with his buds and since the wind was blowing I was hoping that it might help reduce the amount of horse hair in my mouth, well it didn't work that well haha but I think Mr P enjoyed being outside, so if he was happy I was happy.

After he was groomed I did have to bring him inside to tack him up, but unlike his normal hollar for his friends contstantly while he is inside, he did a half assed hollar (which was ADORABLE) and then settled down. Saddie arrived just as I was finishing tacking up and we were off. She walked besides Mr P while I rode. We did some warm up in the outdoor arena to make sure both Mr P and I were relaxed. I felt so opposite as most people would feel when riding outside, I felt more relaxed being outside and loved the breeze, and Mr P didn't even flick a worried ear.

Saddie planned that we would walk around the fields (the university won't let us ride in the fields but there are good sized roads inbetween all the fields) and we talked about riding outside. What made it different from riding indoors, dangers/obstacles you might run into, how to ride up and down hills. I asked Saddie one of the questions I has always burned in the back of my mind: "What happens if you fall off?" I have watched enough eventing videos to know that the horse usually runs off, but at an even there are plenty of people around to catch your horse, and there is no traffic around. Saddie said that most horses will either run home, or even stop and be like "Hey why are you on the ground?". This made me feel a little comfortable, not that I was afraid of falling off.

Unlike riding indoors, my heels stayed down much better, and I was super relaxed. When we got to a field Saddie had me do some trot work and just told me to go down as far as I wanted to and eventually come back. There was only so far I could go because there was a road, but I went almost all the way to the road. I really wanted to keep going on forever but obviously I couldn't. I turned around and went back. Mr P decided that going back towards Saddie was the time to rush his trot, but I stayed relxed and did some half halts and got him to slow down.

Trail riding is one reason why I can't wait to start eventing. Being outdoors and riding feels so much better than riding indoors. Sure riding indoors gives you security and allows you to do new things without the changing variables of the outdoors, but riding outdoors..just gives you a feeling of freedom.

Thanks for reading!!!