Sometimes things have to get pretty ugly to show you where things need to change, and this past weekend that happened to me!

First off, since the last posting, some of the good:
– we’ve been riding! Amelia Springs was fun and we hope to do more than just one day next time! We also met up one weekend with Mary H and another Jr rider hoping to get to an endurance ride this year that is Skyler’s age; we hope to do more with riding with them over the summer.
– both kids soccer teams are doing great.
– both horse’s BP Shoes were able to be reset.
– school is winding down and the kids are doing well. Asher has even learned to play the trumpet (out of necessity, see below!)
– I had a nice relatively quiet Mother’s Day and got cool stuff 🙂
– I got to ride in the mountains again, and for multiple days… just over 20miles total; the longest I’ve done in about 2 years sadly.

And some of the bad:
– we did not get to the CTR at the end of April due to the weather forecast. At the ride looked to be an OK albeit wet morning, but the storms rolling in afterwards did not make hauling home look to be a good idea.
– Asher broke his wrist at school after catching himself ‘wrong.’ Not only did he break both bones, but the main break required surgery to have it pinned to heal correctly. His soccer season ended early, and no tournament play for him. Trombone was hard for him right after, so he picked up the trumpet, but appears he has recovered enough to play his last concert in middle school on trombone. Of course, it is his right one too so that has made some things like writing and such tougher too.

And now the ugly… There are things I would have/should have done differently, but sometimes you have to be thrown to the fire to test things and find the holes, and I’m not afraid to admit/share my trials and tribulations of this journey.

This past weekend was an “event” at Graves Mountain, which is under new management — it is only 45 minutes from here, nice camping set up, and is good place to learn about mountains and rocks for horses (to set them up for OD type rides). Since Skyler is not a fan of mountain riding, I opted to head out on the endeavor alone and camp, vs day ride. As Breeze has proven to be a bit buddy sour/herd bound, I thought it would also be a good break away from his constant companion and riding buddy to see how he did “alone”.
I knew a couple of people that were going to be there at the same time (Amy and the gang), but doing a much more difficult ride on Saturday so I opted to join the group ride headed out [Mistake #1, this was 19 horses and riders of different levels and fitness]. He started out a bit amped, like several others, but settled in to being right up front with the guides. He was fit enough to keep up with them on the climbs and chill out waiting for others to catch up. The first spot we ran into a little trouble was heading down the fire road. He was less than thrilled I was letting horses pass us, but was not unratable, just annoyed. When we headed back up, I did let him go a bit to see his fitness for the climb. That was not an issue, but the fact he was trying to stay on the cliff edge to avoid the wall of trees to our left was highly nerve wracking. We got to the top and had a good long rest before the descent back to camp (about 2000′ elevation gain on this ride). We ended up in a slightly different spot in the line up, and he was less than thrilled. At the last rest stop from one of the steeper descents the guides split up for the faster and slower moving horses… [Mistake #2, here is where I should have picked the latter group to be with]
We stayed with the faster group and all seemed to be going well. We hit another rest stop with a nice overlook and grass and then they really decided to speed up heading back. We were at the tail end of the group at that point with the guide now behind us. [Mistake #3, I should have stopped him or found a way to put him behind the guide instead of continuing down the trail]. Once we emerged from the woods, I had that feeling things were not going to go well, that others were going to take off … it was a large grass area, a hill, heading down to the road for camp. Unfortunately I didn’t process my thought quick enough to get off at that point. [Mistake #4] He started to race down passing horses, and I was working to get him to a one rein stop, but could also see the danger due to how fast he was going given the terrain. He was running all out with his head cranked sideways which was having no effect other than to make him stumble. He caught up with one of the gaited riders and I was yelling ahead to ask him to hold up a moment so I could hop off. Another rider came blazing up behind me, then our two horses turned their butts on each other while trying to race on. She urged them on telling me to “just keep moving” and would not stop so we ended passing them as well… Breeze took it to another gear again and I don’t know if he was bucking along or just had such big movement I was trying to sit that it felt that way, but I was doing my best to stay ON and WITH him while simultaneously yelling out for help. Finally got him spun toward another rider, and almost in tears asking for them to stop and help me so I could get off. Finally they stopped, and I got off; Breeze was still trying to run off to catch the others and we had a few strong words about it (and use of physical ways to get him to mind me and not run me over), and then walked ourselves back to camp without incident.
To say I was a bit shaken up is probably mild… I’m surprised I was walking. I have never been on a horse I couldn’t stop like that before. Even Sully for all his race brain that first year never did that to me. Very scary 5min of my life while I kept considering all my options and seeing how they could go wrong – him and I falling, me bailing and him running off, getting tossed off and him running off… The only thing I could do was ride it out as long as possible. Thankfully it ended with neither one of us “hurt.” My body was sore, tense… My wrist still hurts from I don’t even know what and have a bruise on the middle knuckle from something too.
I washed him down and put him up, and sat and chilled for a bit while waiting on Amy and gang to get back from their picnic. We had a small rain storm, and I got to see a rainbow… I’m taking the “sign” that this rainbow is a promise of better things ahead for Breeze and I.

That ride was … well, a sh*t show…but I’ll be damned if it stops me. lol I took him out with just Amy on Sunday (well, was supposed to be a group of 5 of us, but the rest dropped their 2nd day for various reasons). Minus one big spook at the end, he was pretty good and kept chugging along. We had a long stretch of trotting (with the occasional pace thrown in too) before climbing Dark Hollow with her mare and came down completely controlled. We led down the road back towards camp, and he stayed ratable, and mostly not too spooky. I myself wasn’t a rack of nerves because I knew I was with someone I could trust and help us out if needed. I needed to end the weekend on a good note with him. Many thanks to Amy for going out with me while everyone else went out for breakfast!

Do we have things to work on… OBVIOUSLY! I am definitely considering a riding vest… something to save up for now…
Back to my first thoughts on WHY I chose to go to begin with:
– Terrain: Breeze handled the rocks and elevation well.
– Alone: Breeze camped well, but without Scooby hooked on to other horses, in an “unhealthy” way. Something that seemed to get worse as the day went on. So yes, while we will still ride together, I’m going to have to do things without them too and stick to groups we know are “sane” to work on our issues.
– He’s pretty fit… so I know we can do more than we have been.
– Saddle set up is still a work in progress. 1st day’s saddle set up wasn’t perfect, my balance pads shifted off center, but the 2nd day was much better and they stayed in place even with a looser girth. Now I just need to keep duplicating it.

Don’t count us out yet… It may be slow going, but we will figure this out.