Conditioning Hugo, Horse Heaven Loop

Joe drove me and Hugo up to Horse Heaven so I could do some trail ride conditioning.  The loop is 8 1/2 miles with a 1100 foot elevation change.  

Hugo is still barefoot.  He has never had shoes even before we bought him.  I am finding however, that he prefers to not trot on gravel. He has no problem walking on any surface but when I ask for a trot, he gets over on the edge as far as he can.  The ride that I am aiming for is all sand, no rocks or gravel.  So that’s good. 

I also think he is a bit lazy.  I had to do a lot of encouraging to keep up any kind of pace.

It was a beautiful day, low 70’s, light breeze, and he didn’t even sweat that much.  

 We finished in just under 2 hours.  That pace doesn’t leave much room for error when we only have 6 hours to do 25 miles.  But at least his pulse was within finishing limits as soon as I got him tied up and was able to check it.  

Iron Mountain Ride

 Today after church, Joe and I headed to Iron Mountain (across from Horse Heaven) for a quick trail ride.

The weather has been unseasonably cool and wet.  But today we had some sunshine so we thought it might be safe to head out.  Joe was on Hugo.

And I picked Otoelene to ride.  (She is not that short, I am just up hill a bit)

Everything went well, no drama and we managed to not get rained on.  A group the rode the Horse Heaven loop at the same time got soaked.

I saw several different kinds of wild flowers.  These are Indian pipes,

Galax,

And a bit blurry but this one is cancer root.

Otoelene has been staying in the fat lot since early spring.  I think this is the most in shape she has looked since she was three.

First Trail Ride Of The Season

The weather turned off nice today after 40 mph winds yesterday.   Today we had sunshine and temperatures in the 60s perfect for a trail ride.

Joe decided to saddle up Hugo at the house and haul him with the saddle on.  I am not a fan of that so Draper got saddled once we got there.  We also went in the cattle trailer since it was already hooked up.  No problems loading or unloading.
 

With the leaves off the trees we were able to enjoy some of the views.

Hugo was out front about half the time.  Draper out walked him the second half of the ride.

There had been a lot of down trees that someone had done a lot of work cutting up and getting out of the way.

After a little excitement as two horses went up the road while we were ready to get on, things settled down and both horses did great.  A nice ride to start off the season.

Yet Another Trail Ride

It was already 1:00 by the time we were ready to catch the horses for a trail ride.  So we decided to just head up the road to Horse Heaven, 10 minutes away.  This time we did the Iron Mountain loop counter clockwise.  

Hugo’s little feet are going to get worn to nubbins with all this barefoot trail riding.  It doesn’t seem to be an issue yet, so we are just continuing to go with it.

We started out without lunging either horse.  Draper took the lead again but she didn’t motor along quite as fast as she did on Tuesday.

We did let Joe and Hugo in front for a little bit, but that didn’t last too long.  Hugo just didn’t walk fast enough to suit Draper.

There was some pretty scenery still.  These serviceberries were still bright red.

And if you peak between the trees, you can see a bit of a view.

Then there was this unexpected display in the middle of the trail, a hymnal, Bible, guitar and jacket, then a   baseball bat leaning up against a tree.  I hope whose ever it is, is ok.

Hugo did great as usual for his fifth trail ride with us.

And Draper was great too.

Once we made it to the gravel road, Draper really turned on her walk.  We would have to stop periodically to let Hugo catch up.

As long as she wasn’t offering to break to a trot, I just let her walk as fast as she wanted.  The good thing is that she has a very comfortable walk so as long as she is relaxed I can relax.

A 3 1/2 Hour Trail Ride

I made a rookie mistake.  I charged my camera battery but forgot to put the memory card back in.  I didn’t realize this until we were getting ready to start the ride.  You will just have to take my word for it. 

I did have my iPad and took a few pictures once we made it back.  We rode out of the same horse camp that we went to a week and a half ago, but rode on different trails. And I was on a different horse, Draper.

She is a walking machine.  She stayed in front 90% of the ride.  There was one rock she didn’t like so Hugo went in front.  Then I almost took a wrong turn and Joe passed me again. But every time, it was hard for me to keep Draper slow enough to stay in back comfortably so we would pass again.  When we were almost back, Draper balked and Hugo went past. This time I think he knew where we were, and he barreled on down the trail ready to be done.

I am not sure how far we went, but at the pace we kept, it had to be close to 12 miles.  The biggest problem came at the end.  For some reason Draper didn’t want to get on the trailer.  I have never had a problem with her loading before.  I makes me wonder what she is thinking.  She will get the next two days off.  Then we have to decide where we will go next.

And Another Trail Ride

The weather was beautiful today, no wind, temperatures in the upper 60’s and plenty of sunshine.  And what better to do on a perfect fall day than go for a trail ride.  I was going to take Jessica, but I didn’t plan ahead and give her any bute.  So, of course, as soon as you want to do something, she was lame.  Since Otoelene is still going good, I took her instead.

We went to a trail head about 20 minutes from the house.  This is Otoelene’s warm up vs Hugo’s.
 

We started out on the easy section, an old railroad bed.

Hugo sailed through the two river crossings.

The ambush pass didn’t faze him.

Heading up the mountain there was a bit of erosion.  My father was a member of the soil conservation society and when we were growing up, it wasn’t unusual for him to stop the car and take a picture of some area of erosion.  This reminded me of that.

Otoelene enjoyed the views ongoing through  the range lands.

Back in the woods, there was no shortage of down trees to step over.

We met a few other groups.  These were the only time Hugo was anything other than perfect.  He would get a little excited and whinny.

We made it back to camp in in one piece and on schedule.  

And rested back at the trailer for a few minutes after a 3 1/2 hour ride.

Joe said he wanted to take my picture to prove I was there.   I said it wasn’t Otoelene taking all of those pictures of him, but I posed anyway.

Twice In One Week

 Joe is loving riding Hugo.  He is so calm and steady out on the trail.  So today, we headed to the trails again this time doing the 8 1/2 mile Iron Mountain loop.  The temperature was in the upper 50’s and a little breezy, but very comfortable.

Hugo was a dream again.  He may have lifted up his head a little bit when a bicycle meet us but that was about it. We also met a hiker with a couple of dogs, no reaction there either. 

He does great out in front, walking on without any encouragement.

Did I mention he is barefoot?  Our other horses can barely walk around in the field without shoes, and here is Hugo on gravel roads and rocky trails no problem.  (When I turned around to snap this picture, Joe asked if I wanted him to take my picture from back there.  He said he could caption it “two big hips”.  I did not give him the camera.)

The horse trailer doesn’t have an updated inspection so we have been using the cattle trailer.  Hugo loads in it fine.  But Otoelene isn’t liking the noise her shoes make on the aluminum floor.  It is quite loud. If we keep up all this trail riding, we are going to have to get the horse trailer going again.