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Annual Trail Rides: 184/200 (Bareback 25/40) The leaves haven't quite turned to their beautiful fall foliage, but we have had some very cold mornings in the last week. One day in particular, I had just a 30 minute window for a quick bareback in the very early morning. And it was sooo cold that I was thinking I should start wearing gloves. Once I got on, I quickly realized my Q was LIT. He abrubtly grabbed his peppermint out of my hand, and proceeded to upright prance to the trail head ... ready to spook at a leaf, or a ray of sunshine. For the first 3 minutes I questioned my sanity of riding this dragon bareback. I had not seen him in sooo long, I thought maybe he had gone away. I stopped twice in the first ten yards to see if I should jump off and go lunge him first. And then my Q somehow told me it was ok, and that he would take care of me. And he sure did. He did a few sidesteps, snorts and half stops at things like illuminated tree stumps, and rays of sunshine ... but we essent

Annual Trail Rides: 180/200 (Bareback: 24/40) Rode three times today including one drill team practice in the arena which was a surprise and novelty as I have not ridden inside in 6+ months. I started out with a quiet bareback hack around the woods, following our fearless leader as she begins rehab on her pretty boy. The barn crew was supposed to head out to a local show next month and this morning was going to be a practice flat class. My intention was to join them as a whirling dervish and do the silly things that silly riders do in competition (pass too close, cut you off, ride too slow) so that the newbies could be better prepared for the silliness of a hack class. But it seems that the show might be canceled so they converted practice to a drill team practice and it was tons of fun. My Q was pretty darn good and precise and malleable for a horse with very little ring time. We ended with a cool down trail ride and thats a wrap for the 18th milestone of this series.

Annual Trail Rides: 176/200 (Bareback 23/40) The weather is gorgeous and the forecast plans for much of the same for the next five days: blue skies, warm but cool, just barely sweater weather. Despite my reluctance to cross the busy highway when riding solo, I gave myself an extra boost of courage and giddy upped. I have only gone to sector 5 twice this year, in part because nobody wants to cross the highway ... but it was just too gorgeous a day to ride my regular routes. The second issue is the possibility of falling ( Ouch ) and being solo, that my horse abandons me to high tail it home, crossing the highway at a gallop and ... tragedy ensues. But my steady Q has been hoof perfect these days, so I squashed those fears and carried on. I got some lovely gallops in and then got to the long track where I had my big fall in 2019. With some trepidation, but armed with all of our amazing galloping of the last two years, I asked and Q was OFF like a QH racehorse. I pulled him back a bit bec

Annual Trail Rides: 170/200 (Bareback 21/40) Our on-the-buckle trail lope is increasingly solid, which is a surprise to me because I never expected my pretty andalusian to be such a steady eddy when he grew up. My intention back when I started my search in 2015 was to just have a cool and spunky trail horse and I ended up with something completely different but also incredibly fun, and cool and spunky but in a different kind of way than what we horsepeople generally mean.  Our tremendous mileage of 2021 has really highlighted the good, the great, and the incredibly annoying that is my wonderQ. This beautiful, friendly, generous and willing partner turns into a cantankerous pony when given the opportunity to eat (hello branch!) or stop on the trail to poop. He can be so obnoxious when given the chance. And then, when Im just thoroughly annoyed at his yanking me all over the trail, he gives me the most amazing lopes on the buckle with an easy glide from walk to canter and a steady pace.

Annual Trail Rides: 164/200 (Bareback: 19/40) A nice relaxing set of trail rides, as the weather cools and a few harsh thunderstorms joined the party. The forest instantly turned lush, just like I like it, and we quickly started playing obstacle course with puddles and fallen branches. Qs eyesight is better than mine, so I let him avoid the debris. We have been practicing our “invader warning” alert system, as Q loves to signal to me that something funny is coming our way. We don’t usually change pace, unless he feels he needs to and Im happy enough to oblige if necessary. However, I must always acknowledge the signal with a slight movement (usually a leaning of my calf on the side of the warning) or Q will escalate and possibly take things into his own hands/hooves. So we were walking along one of the big wide trails and Q signalled left with only mild concern. I looked, and saw a horse and rider charging up a side hill through a blind turn where they could not see us. I wasn’t concer