Sand Trap

This past weekend I traveled to a park outside of Toledo Ohio for a competitive trail ride. Having participated in only a few of these competitions I am getting accustomed to some of the strategies involved. My horse is in good condition, and is getting ridden on trail regularly. What partially tripped us up in this event was sand.

Ohio has wide variations in topography, from rugged hills, to caves to farmland,to what I experienced this weekend, sand. Who knew? When I heard about sandy trails I never envisioned portions that were as deep as any sandy beach. Remember how hard it can be to run in sand? My horse did well, but she was little sore afterward, my friend's horse had pulled a muscle.

Riders from Michigan where sandy trails are supposedly common told us that riding in sand is as tough as the mountains we climb here in the Cuyahoga Valley and that horses trained in sand are very well conditioned by the effort.

All I know is that it was fun and that after a days rest my horse will be fine and I've learned many new things about competitive trail riding.

Happy Trail, Kathy, Horsedrivensite.net