Yesterday I completed my second Competitive Trail ride in the 15 mile category. Yes I did camp but I'll talk about that another time. It was a great weekend in the Cuyahoga Valley National Forest with many riders competing and enjoying each other's company. The anticipation of the ride is exciting and learning more about competitive riding has been both frustrating and fun for me.
My Fox Trotter mare was without her barn buddy and we had not done many events with so many horses coming and going so her herd instincts created some anxiety. We started out at 7 AM and I remembered why I came back to this experience. The strategy of pacing the horse and getting a competitive arrival time is fascinating. Knowing when to move out and knowing when to slow down is an imperfect science unless you use a monitor on your horse.
The early morning sun breaking through the Forest canopy, the rush of scaling up difficult trails, cantering along the edge of corn fields with corn cannons booming are all part of the thrill.
My one regret is that we did not practice gating with a lead line for the vet checks which is where we lost points. We still placed, but next time we will be better prepared.
Happy Trails, Kathy, horsedrivensite.net
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