This is where the magic happens on a regular basis. So many beautiful trails from wide and sandy, to narrow and winding. Plenty of spaces to trot and canter and five ravines with little creeks at the bottom where the horses can sometimes drink. 95% of my trails happen in this section.
It was a stinking hot day so I came prepared with water bottle.
Double wide trails with trees growing in the median.
Crazy as it seems, Im often alone on these trails rarely seeing another rider, jogger, or dogwalker. Occasionally we see foxes, deer, goshawks, wild turkeys, and owls. Some have also seen coyotes.
Some of the trails are narrow and windy, shaded from the sun.
Some of the trails are great for long canters or fast trots.
These trails are shared in the winter time with cross country skiers and snowshoers. Each sport has their own trail, and so the riders lose about 50% of the trails in section 2 from November to April. I dont mind, as it helps me better appreciate the trails when we get them back in the summer. The winter trails are groomed with machinery and are accessible all the time, even for my barefoot Q. We only stay in during the ice storms.
Our barn is smack in the middle of section 2 with the best trail access in the whole region. We always have tons of options for 20-30-40-90 minute trails that keep us close to home. So many loops, so many choices. The challenge of course is getting motivated to go on the trails that are further from home.
It was a lovely mild day and I headed out with my pals for two hours of walking and trotting bliss in the forest. I caught this short moment trotting in slow motion. To help Q forget his snorting piaffing ways, we did 30 minutes of lunging, 15 minutes of riding trot in the arena ... and then headed out in leading and following positions on the buckle. Ahhh, nice to get my horse back. ;-)
Just arrived in the Hungarian grasslands to roam on horseback for a few days respite from my city wanderings. I was greeted by a big hunk of a mare who was more spry than her size might have you imagine. Lopes to a kiss, jogs to a cluck. Sit back, relax. I’ve never been one to go on riding vacations because Im a one-horse woman (and my horse is a one-woman steed) and Ive never enjoyed riding other peoples horses. But necessity is the mother of invention.... and five weeks away from the smell of leather and horses was too big a burden to bear. So now I am in a lovely ranch in the grasslands of Hungary while my husband toils away in Budapest. The group is quite eclectic, from Sweden, UK, France, Switzerland, and riding habilities vary. Ive been allocated to the fast group. ;-) Four of us took off down the path to the trails of the national park and bird sanctuary and I must say I was surprised that our first canter started on a downhill slope. Anyways. Everything was as safe as can b...
November was rough. I will close that chapter and look to December for the romantic wonder that is the arrival of winter. I will embrace patience and kindness. Rain was in the forecast, but I was going to meet B in the woods for a trail ride. I was still working this morning and left late, but I was able to make good time on the road. The fog was quickly setting in thick and driving was getting dangerous as I got deeper into the countryside. There is always more fog in November and I was grateful to no longer be doing this drive at night time. B will ride in all kinds of weather. But NOT rain. Especially cold winter rain. But I figured we would be back before the rain began. I was wrong. As I approached the barn, the fog was still very thick and I was excited to ride in the fog and maybe take some cool pictures. But none of my pictures did the fog any justice. I went straight to Qs paddock with a bag of carrots, but herd dynamics have changed recently and the beta bully was blocki...
Annual Trail Rides: 20/200 We have been blessed these last few days by some amazing weather and footing. I rode every one of the last four days and hit the big 2 0 milestone today with a beautiful 90 minute ride in great company. I have had two solo rides, and two accompanied rides this week. Some of the rides were short and fast, some were long and slow ... and one of them was long and fast. I was so tired from that ride that I needed epsom salt bath, heating pad, and alleve to deal with my aching lats. I was back out there today and had a blast with three other riders. With the amount of snow hanging off the trees, we had to do lots of ducking and dodging, and we ended up with our saddle seats filled with snow a few times. Here are a few snapshots from my rides these last few days. I continue to be in awe of the winter wonderland. Sometimes the fields are lit up like diamonds, other times we go through tunnels of trees loaded with snow, and sometimes we canter on fast track with the ...
Annual Trail Rides: 117/200 (Bareback 5/12) Some nice weather here these last few days ... a bit cool for June but Ill take it. We finished the month with temps in the teens, which is more like a September day. Q was feeling fit and fine, so we mostly did solo rides at a pretty good clip and Im taking advantage of our ravines to do trot and canter work and build up that booty. We are still gathering clues for our local treasure hunt. But we have one clue that has totally stumped us. We need to track down a volunteer crew in our club's quad on trail, take a picture and identify the volunteer. Well, I can not seem to find the crew at all. Lately Ive been tapping into my partner's extrasensory perceptions (a.k.a. prey animal) so he identifies far away sounds and then we gallop off to chase them down. We've still been unsuccessful in finding the volunteer crew, but there are several dog walkers and joggers that we spooked along the way. Clearly I have not leveraged Q's amaz...
honestly, you make me want to move to Quebec!!!!!
ReplyDeleteLa belle province!
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