Trail Horse Adventures: First Group Ride

Wednesday, August 27, 2025

First Group Ride

Other than one ride on the hill where Ellen rode Dante with Trifecta and me, she has been accompanying us on foot. He has been doing so well, that we decided it was time for Mission Chestnut. We were going to take the chestnuts on a real trail ride together for the first time.

We chose a weekday morning when the park would be the quietest. Well, we always are riding on weekday mornings, but this time, Cole would have to wait until later for his ride. We led the horses to the mounting block at the trail head and saw an old friend, Chris, on her horse, Gus, coming towards us. She said there were vehicle tracks on the hill and voices at the bottom, so she didn't feel comfortable riding by herself and was going back to her barn. I invited her to join us. If they were doing trail maintenance, it would be a short ride, but if not--it was too pretty of a morning to not go on a trail ride.

We mounted and headed on down the hill. Trifecta was transfixed with Gus, and he kept trying to get close to him. I, in turn, kept asking him with my leg to move away from Gus. We got to practice this move many times over the ride, and he got more and more sensitive to my leg--what a wonderful lesson. He learned to not crowd other horses and to respond to lighter leg pressure. I am sure it will transfer to other situations.

We didn't get far down the hill at all when we saw the park's Cushman tooling up the trail. We told Chris to not worry--they would stop as soon as they saw us--and they did. The park maintenance people are always very considerate to horseback riders. I can't say enough about them. They completely stopped their vehicle, and the horses, including little Trifecta, marched right by. Now we knew that the trail ride was on because they were just driving through to inspect the trails.

When we got down to the river, Gus stepped in to take a drink. Trifecta did the same, but he decided he wasn't thirsty and got tired of waiting for Gus, so he crossed. That is great because lately he has been oddly sticky at the river. He wants to wander upstream and downstream instead of going across. The other horses followed, and away we went.

I warned Chris that she just might end up in a blog--hoping that it would be a good one. Gus took the lead. Though he is a gaited horse, he walks at a normal speed. Trifecta followed, and Dante took up the rear. Trifecta wanted to be with Gus, but then he would change his mind and refuse to go forward because he wanted to follow Dante. I just couldn't get him to go--so I brought him behind Dante--then he wanted to be with Gus again. This happened a few times--the worst time was at the Willow Bend spot where we have struggled with for quite a few rides. He refused to go down the rocky slope until he saw Dante head down--then he marched right after him--then past him--then past Gus. He was going to be the leader.

The Cushman showed up again--since they were inspecting this trail, too. Of course, they stopped the vehicle to let us go by. Trifecta barely even glanced at them. Ellen stopped and told them about a different river crossing where the weeds were very tall and encroaching the trail--making it very narrow. They said they would take a look at it. There are a lot of disadvantages to riding in a very suburban park that is close to traffic and filled with a lot of park users--but there are advantages, too. The trails are maintained and the park staff is very responsive to clearing trees that are blocking the trails and such.

Trifecta marched in the lead until we got to the next river crossing. He wanted to go play in the water--which we have been doing the last few rides, though we haven't crossed, yet. We had a little fight to get him to turn around. At that point, Gus took the lead again, and we headed home. By this time, Trifecta was happy to follow Gus at an acceptable distance, and we didn't have any trouble until we got back to the river. Gus and Dante got across and up the bank before Trifecta even got in the water because he was fussing around at the bank. He crossed the river faster than he has been because the other horses were no longer in sight. The next thing he did--which Ellen and I both expected--was try to run up the bank to find the other horses--typical baby horse. I held him back, and he didn't go any faster than a trot--and was walking by the time he got to the top. There he found the other horses and settled right down.