I told Robin that I really needed to get Smooch out on a trail ride, and we'd been trying to take her three girls on a ride, so we decided to do it all on Sunday. I brought Smooch and Sara over. Sara was for Robin's oldest, Claire, to ride. She was looking forward to riding Sara the mule and the two really seemed to bond. The twins, Rose and Grace, rode two of Robin's horses.
It was one of those rides where everything seemed to go right as planned with the exception of two of the girls who really didn't want to be there (Claire was sick). But their mom made them all go anyway because they are going out of town with their dad and will be gone the rest of the month.
The Poker Flats trails are easy. We more or less did a shortened and modified version of the trail we did with my folks when they were here. Smooch and I led the way so Robin could be in the back with the girls (poor thing sucked in dust the whole ride). As far as training, this was a huge confidence builder for Smooch. He led the way with lots of confidence, and I kept hearing one of the girls saying "I can't believe how well Bryan's horse is doing". For the most part, she was right. Most of the ride for me was single handed (I was working on neck reigning) except for when Smooch either wanted to eat grass of take off on his own direction. There was one spot at the end where there was a mud bog after coming off of a bridge. Smooch really wanted nothing to do with that mud bog, I got his rope rein tangled (I was riding with rope halter again sans bit), and it took a few minutes to clear things up and get through (or rather around). I now have plans to build a bridge and a mud bog in my yard to work on this....either that or I'll go back one day this week and work on it at that spot.
Everyone made it back to the trailers safe and sound except for Claire who got her foot stepped on by Smooch before we had even started (sorry Claire).
Here are a few pictures taken by Robin:
Me and Smooch
Claire on Sara
Rose (pink helmet) and Grace (blue helmet)
The dusty trail from Robin's perspective
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