I promised I would tell the trail ride story so here goes. As usual I didn’t get to bed early. I think it was midnight. I heard Vanessa’s alarm at 5:15AM! UGH!! I had planned to get up around 5:50AM but I couldn’t go back to sleep so got up at 5:45AM. It didn’t take me long to get ready. Vanessa on the other hand took a shower and washed her hair. For a trail ride??!! What’s the point??!! Well, I guess when you’re young like her you have people you want to impress. I on the other hand could care less!! We leave the house at 6:15AM and arrive at the horses at 6:30AM. The trail ride started at 8AM and where we start is 20 minutes from Mineral Wells. Since the grass has been growing it has been increasing difficult to catch the horses. Wednesday morning was no exception. We were going to pen them overnight but storms were forecasted and I didn’t want to risk it getting bad and them having no shelter.
Now my horses have been feed twice a day for 10 years as we never had them at a place that was more than 10 acres. So when my horses see a bucket they generally come. The problem is that horses are herd animals and if just one of them decides to take off running they all go together! Leslie’s horse doesn’t care if you have a bucket or not. He was our problem Wednesday morning.
As Vanessa and I arrived and began hooking up the trailer we saw Leslie making her way in the pasture to catch someone! One thing I’ve learned is when catching a horse you don’t want more than one person going as they definitely know something is up then!! Just as I got the trailer hooked up Leslie comes up from the pasture with my horse who is whinnying for his buddy (Valentine). I go to meet Leslie. Bear in mind it’s now about 6:45AM and I’m not very awake yet. I should have grabbed another halter so when I got to her I could take Blue and she could go after someone else. So we both walk back to the trailer but she leaves the bucket where we met. Blue in the meantime is still whinnying for his buddy and Valentine is whinnying back. He finally heads our way but promptly stops at the bucket that has feed in it. Vanessa grabs Valentine. Now we have two out of three. Leslie heads back down in the pasture while Vanessa and I tack up. I notice Zebe coming up about halfway out of the pasture two different times but just about the time you think he’ll come the rest of the way he heads back down in the pasture. I feel for Leslie….been there done that many times. I decided to ride Blue after Zebe. My first instinct was to chase him because we were all in a hurry and frustrated by now. Then I thought better of it and knew that would only aggravate and already volatile situation. I just ride up to Zebe and he lets me get close enough on horseback I can nearly touch him. I get off Blue and he takes off (of course). Now picture this. I have on tight blue jeans and it’s a stretch for me to get my foot in the stirrup with jeans that are skin tight! Blue is 15.1 hands which calculates to 61 inches or 5ft one inch tall! A front came through making it a brisk and the excitement of what we were doing and my excitable horse and I’m thinking now that you may have gotten the picture of me trying to get my leg up high enough to get my foot in the stirrup and then raise my fat butt up that high into the saddle! Okay you can quit laughing now!! I do this a couple of times and every time Zebe turns away from me. I start praying. Cause I really need to catch this horse. I’m realizing we are running out of time to get to the trail ride on time. I choose to remain calm and ask God to help me. I decide to see if Zebe will just follow me and Blue to the trailer. Well, he does until we get nearly there and all of a sudden he decides he’s more interested in grass than following me. In the meantime, Vanessa comes charging in the pasture….thankfully not towards us but toward Leslie and picks her up to take her back to the trailer but Zebe is watching Vanessa. They get out of sight and once again I’m able to get close enough to Zebe I can rub his head and he lets me. I decided to try one more time getting off Blue to see if I can get a rein around his neck. Thankfully, my reins are attached to the bridle with snaps so they are easily removed. I remove one and put it around Zebe’s neck and walk both horses back to the trailer. It’s 7:30AM now. And we are still 15 minutes from Mineral Wells were we have to pick up Doyle to take us to the ride. I tell Leslie to just load Zebe in the trailer. She can tack up once we are there and while Doyle is checking us in.
We pickup Doyle and head to Weatherford. There is no way we are going to be able to get there by start time. Because we know the trail route we find a spot down the road where we can meet up with the rest of the group. We get unloaded, Leslie tacks up and Doyle heads to the starting point to show our horse papers and register us.
I'll continue this story tomorrow. Hope ya’ll stay tuned.
Here’s a few pics for you.
This is pretty far off but this is a view of the trail ride as me, Vanessa and Leslie ride to meet them. We are riding in the median between the divided highway 180 West looking toward the East (Weatherford).
We are stopped waiting for all the riders to gather up so we don't have any straglers while crossing the highway as the state troopers stop all traffic until every rider is across.
Enough for tonight. I'll share more tomorrow!!
Have a good one!
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