Mona
Well-Known Member
...I am so HAPPY to be able to announce that we finally have our "dream horses"!! After 8 gaited horses and a year and a half of searching, viewing photos, videos, asking questions, paying sellers, paying haulers, paying vets, paying fees and paying taxes, reselling, because they were not as described or not suitable for our needs, I can safely say that we finally have our two dependable, sensible trail horses, and have a third for others that come wanting to share a ride with us, hoping that after some riding, she'll prove to be as nice as the others! :thumb
They may not be gaited the best, but they are comfortable for us.
They may not be beautiful in others eyes, but as they say, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder".
They may not be totally spook-proof, no horse is, but they are sensible and accepting.
They are sure footed, confident and willing on the trails, and we are looking forward to enjoying them for many years to come!
CHEYENNE...
Cheyenne was one of our original 2 to arrive in May 2010. She was purchased to be my husband's horse, but I claimed her as "mine" when the other of the original two didn't work out. She and I spent many hours out riding together alone last year. She has challenged me and made me question myself with these crazy horse dreams I seemed to want fullfilled, but I have managed to gain much confidence and trust through riding her, going through both the good and the bad, than I ever had before. She is a truely wonderful mare and is my "heart horse". If anyone is interested, you can see more of each horse on thier personal webpage by clicking on their name at the beginning of their paragraph.
WHITEY...
Whitey just arrived here in August and has also proven to be a calm, level headed riding horse. Both my husband and I have ridden him and he has not given us any problems. He seems to love being ridden, and my husband (Chris) is also gaining more confidence knowing that even though we can move out a little faster, that he is not going to run away on him, and can be very easily brought back down without any fuss whatsoever. We missed a fair bit of riding this summer trying to find just the right horse for him, but it has all paid off and they are enjoying their rides together too!
COCONUT...
Coconut (aka "Coco") is the newest member of our small group of horses, turning "Two's Company" into "Three's a Crowd". She just arrived here this past Thursday night, so is just settling in. She hasn't been ridden much over the last 2 years, so needs some refreshing on her riding skills. Well, last night we took her out for her first ride since her arrival here and she did fairly well for us. She is a nice calm, quiet mare that with some riding time and miles, should make a wonderful 3rd horse for company wanting to join us out on a nice pleasure ride.
Also want to share a recent trail ride opportunity we thoroghly enjoyed.
This past Saturday, we trailered up to Atikokan (about 3-3.5 hours drive) on Saturday for a Poker Derby Trail Ride. It was held at the Charleson Recreation Area in Atikokan, Ontario. They did a wonderful job of hosting the ride, and was a PERFECT DAY! You can read more about the ride and facilities here... http://www.charlesonrecreationarea.com/events/eventDetails.php?eID=...
Participants collect 5 ribbons at various checkpoints throughout the ride, then when you get back, you go and draw 5 cards and whoever gets the best poker hand of the day, wins. To save time and typing, I am going to copy/paste from an email I sent out telling my friends about it.
Oh man, it (the ride) was EXCELLENT!!! OMG!! It was so nice, so fun, so exciting, and our horses behaved like the champs they are!!
The trails were AWESOME! For the most part, they were wide enough to ride 2 wide, some a little narrower, and covering all kinds of terrain and beautiful scenery, and with a few "extreme" type (at least to me!) spots where you had to go up and down VERY steep hills, where you were literally nearly laying right backwards or right forwardin the saddle. I LOVED it! You just basically hold your breath and let the horse go, hoping like heck they will know what they are doing to get us both safely to the top or bottom! I would say they should definitely have shoes all the way around. Whitey was shod all the way around, and Cheyenne had only shoes on the front and after some time, she was tripping up and stumbling as her back feet became a little ouchy from all the rock. Did I mention...it was AWESOME???!! We will definitely be going back in the future, weather permitting! LOVED IT!! I plan to make a habit of it!
The lady (Joy) that bought Buck, the palomino from me went too, and rode him. Not with us, as I never saw her, but she rode with some guy from Thunder Bay that rode her Arab, and he has not ridden before, and after that ride, he was literally smiling ear to ear with this perma-grin! He loved it so much and was so excited, and sounds like he's hooked on horses now too. He too said he never in his life expected it to be so extreme! LOL! Anyway, she was very happy with Buck's ride and performance and just loves him!! What a day!
She did say he needs some work on his "whoa", as she likes them to "stop on a dime" when asked, and with him, when he was going faster, and she asked him to whoa, he wanted to keep going, so she said she'll work with him on that. She "won" $500 in the poker derby for the best hand...3 queens, (out of 3 hands all I ot was a pair of 7s!) But then after awhile, the committee lady came and gathered the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners up. Some how, they messed up, as someone had a full house, so they should have gotten first, then Joy 2nd, so I guess they all agreed and gave their money back and let them do it how it should have been done to start with. Too bad though, as the 3rd place ended up bumped right out of the money, but at least for Joy, she ended up still, with $300. I told her now that she bought a gold horse (Buck) that everything she touches will turn to gold! LOL! She said to me..."There was another palomino on the trails too, but not as pretty as mine." LOL!! She was wearing a hoodie that said "one horse short of being that crazy horse lady". I told her now that she has Buck, she IS that crazy horse lady...no longer one horse away! LOL!There were 86 registered riders in all and was a 25 km loop (about 15 and a half miles). We did it in 3 hours, the lady on Buck did it in I think she said 4 hourse, 40 minutes. It is not a race, and we did a little fast walking but not lots...they just move out at a nice clip, and Whitey loves to move at that speed, so we are happy to go along with that! LOL! There was a man that came about 200 miles north of Winnipeg...he said it was a thousand kilometer trip here, and he brought his mule to ride!! Boy, that mule sure could clip along, and he was barefoot!! Beautiful animal. We rode with him a good while and he said he was surprised our horses weren't scared of it, because many are. I told him these horses have probably seen a fair share of them on the trails in their past, coming from KY as they are more popular down there...many ride the gaited mules I guess. Chris and I and the man on the mule kept taking turns with leading too, and following, so all horses are great about that.
Oh, and in the "A Man and His Horse" photo...Chris stopped for a pee on the trail. I sat on Cheyenne, watching to make sure no other riders came along. He handed me Whitey's rein to hold him, and I told him no way, if something happens and he takes off, what am I going to do, so I told him he had to hold his own horse AND himself! LOL! I turned to look at them and was sooooo funny, as I saw that while Chris was standing there having a pee, Whitey had also squatted and was having one too! LOL! I could not resist, and had to take a couple pics of the two of them "bonding" like that! LOL! Chris said it was so funny too, because while Whitey was peeing, he was also moaning and groaning very loudly, like what a relief it was. Chris said he was surprised I never heard him from where I was sitting because he was doing it so loudly.
Anyway, these are the pics...none of the "extreme" up and downs as I was crapping my pants hanging on for dear life, hoping Cheyenne would make it to the top without going over backwards before we got there, or summersaulting on the way down. Thank God there were only 2 real steep ones like that...just the one up and one down. OY!! LOL!
I hope you enjoy the photos...it's not a video really, just a collaboration of pics from our ride that day. Thanks for letting me share our great day!
