Team Bay All the Way

Last week I mentioned going on a hunter pace with Sara and her Trainer J. I didn’t get a chance to blog about the actual ride but basically we all had a great time and made plans to ride in the Hunter Pace this past weekend. Unfortunately bc of a lot of rain Monday, Tues, and again on Thurs, the hunter pace was sadly cancelled :(

Team Bay all the Way!!!

But the sad news did not deter the three of us from riding! Instead we rerouted to Croft State Park where Sara was very familiar with the trails. Plans were made to meet there at 11 on Sunday and have a lovely stroll through the woods.

Or at least Sara claimed to know the trails... hahahahaha!!!

Sunday rolled around and I left my house just a few minutes late but still close to being on time to get to Croft. Hahahahaha. Joke was on me bc what I thought was a 40 minute drive really took a solid hour so I was running reeeeeeeaally late… I felt pretty bad about that but Chimi already had his saddle on so it was pretty easy to just putting his bridle on and get going. 

Once I finally got on (Chimi was questioning a rock by the picnic table I used as a mounting block) we headed down the road to the backside of the park where Sara said the trails were sandy and not as many people would be there. We just had to go down the road for a bit but it wasn’t that bad. Chimi somehow ended up in the front and we attempted to lead the way.

One of the lakes we passed

I can’t help but laugh at Chimi bc he is a really lazy horse. On the way down the road he kept trying to turn around and go back to the trailer but I kept kicking him forward. He does this at home too when we first head out on the trails. HE'll protest and complain and do his best to turn around and go home, but once he gets out and we start working he enjoys himself and is happy to trot and canter around. But I totally feel it… getting motivated to work out is really hard!

We got to the part where the trail peels off from the road and meanders through the woods. The footing was hit or miss at first and it'd be dry for a bit but then we'd hit a low spot and you could tell that it had rained a lot the past week. No worries though, the horses tromped through the muck well enough (though sometimes they protested) and we had such a nice start to the ride. The 3 horses seem to be a really good match and if one protested another felt brave enough to lead the way.

On the trail we did run across various hikers with their dogs and other horses. Chimi was a bit wary about them but carried on and didn't think to much about them after we passed. We were having such a lovely time trotting along the trails and talking about nonsense and ponies. Then the Devil Train appeared.

via GIPHY

GIVE ME YOUR UNICORN HORN!!!!

We were about 4ish miles into our lovely ride when we ran into a train of mules heading towards us on the trail. Chimi was in the lead and when he saw those creatures he lost his shit. And when i say he lost his shit, i really do mean he LOST his shit! Chimi was in the lead so he was the first to see the mules and slammed on the brakes. He then started backing up and saying HELL NO. DO YOU SEE THEM DEVIL EARS????? Thankfully Gem and Elliot could care less about the mules so the snuck past us on the trail to hopefully lead the way. Except that Chimi was so freaked out he didn't care that his friends were ahead of him. Thankfully the trail was much wider here than the single track we had been on because I really don't think I could of gotten him past the mules if we had met anywhere else on the trail. At one point I tried to stuff Chimi in the woods and let them walk by but he was having none of that and tried to take off through the trees where there wasn't a trail. Finally when about half the mule train had passed us I was able to steer Chimi in the direction of Gem and Elliot and he took off towards his friends and we left the Devil Train behind us.


After our encounter with the mules Chimi was not the same. Every time we saw a group of horses Chimi just KNEW they were the mules in disguise and were going to torture him and probably eat his ears because that's how they get those giant ears right? Thankfully we didn't run into that many horses on the trail so for the most part we were able to have a nice ride back to the barn. We did get lost a couple of times but one of those times was on a really nice straight, wide path so we were able to have a really nice trot and canter until we realized no one had been down that trail, umm possibly ever. After consulting with the map we realized we were headed out of the park and turned around to find the actual trail back. Whoops :)

You can see where we got lost. The extra line up top was from us having to backtrack  :)

All in all we had such a nice ride! The weather was perfect and it was so fun to follow behind Gem. She is a beast on the trails and would fly down the trails while Chimi and Elliot would stumble and bumble behind her. The boys might be over 17h but little 15+h Gem left us in her dust. The past 2 rides with Sara have been so eye opening because she talked about endurance riding and the do's and don'ts and conditioning plans, and theory, and honestly I am amazed at how much thought goes into endurance riding. I honestly could listen to her talk about endurance all day because I found it so fascinating!!!!

The milage isn't correct b/c the GPS tracking wasn't working when we first got started

After we got back to the trailers, we hosed off our ponies, had a last laugh and called it a day. Even though it wasn't quite the ride we had originally planned, it ended up being just perfect!!! (except for the mules. They were not perfect. They were DEVILS in disguise if you ask Chimi!)