Hill Repairs, At Last

The MetroParks is finally fixing the trail that goes down the hill to the river and the river banks. 

In the last few years, the river banks are gathering large amounts of mud.  It is nothing for the horses to sink in a half a foot or more.  That causes two problems.  The first is the potential injury, and the second is the horses' unwillingness to go through the mud.  Oh, and if you have a loose shoe, you could kiss that goodbye!

Cole really hates going through the mud--even if we are on the way home.  I will ask him to walk down the bank, and he will either go reluctantly or spin away from it.  I encourage him when he does it, of course.  When he spins, I just keep him spinning until he is facing the bank, again.  Sometimes, I can stop the spin, too.

We have been shoveling the mud to make a path, but that is very, very hard work-and the next big storm washes all new mud up onto the banks.  The park is going to try to do something more permanent.  (I hope.)

The hill, itself, has 2 very bad spots.  The first is in the center section.  A couple years ago, they tried to improve it by adding a bunch of clay.  In doing that, they filled in the drainage ditch alongside the trail.  Now, the water drains directly onto the trail.  The clay that they added just turns into horrific mud.  They are putting the ditch back where it belongs.

Further down the trail there is terrible erosion that is eating away at it.  We can get around it, but at the rate it is going, it won't be long before this will be a real problem spot. 

We are hoping that they will resurface the trail, too.  It has eroded so much over the years, that we are down to the base stone in many places--and the other spots are covered with hoof bruising gravel.  Where we used to ride up and down the hill when we couldn't cross the river, now, I often just stay at the barn.

We'll see how it all turns out.