Dave's trip to America: part 2 - horse riding
2025 America trip: report 2
August 3rd
On Sunday I went horse riding. I was really looking forward to doing this and my experience did not disappoint at all. This was not your “run-of-the-mill one-hour on a flat trail” ride. My old high school friend Randy and I went for a 4-hour ride that included steep elevation changes and numerous stream traverses.
Randy has a wonderful horse stable and pasture only about 20 minutes from my parents’ house. I told him I was interested in doing some riding and he enthusiastically offered to take me. His partner’s daughter Kate very generously allowed me to borrow her Tennessee walking horse named Chance and all her tack needed to ride. Randy rode his Kentucky mountain saddle horse named Honey. Both horses are beautiful animals and were very friendly as well.
I got out to their stable, named Timberail, at about 8 am and Randy took me through the whole process of getting the horses ready to ride.
Step one was feeding them some fruit to make friends. I brought some pears and apples for them. Randy gave them some horse feed and we washed and filled the water buckets. I learned that it’s better to ride horses if they have something in their stomachs.
Next we brushed the horses to get the dirt and dust off of them. This also gave me a bit of bonding time with Chance, who is a very gentle fellow.
We put halters (kind of a head wrap that doesn’t have a bit in the horse’s mouth) and led them outside to spray them down with anti-fly anti-tick spray and to rub some strong anti-fly cream around their faces. Having horses buck around after a horsefly bites them can be dangerous. Unfortunately, we didn’t have anti-bee spray (this is foreshadowing).
We then saddled up the horses which involves putting on a saddle pad and then the saddle. The saddle is held on by a big strap called a cinch and a few other straps called the buck strap (back cinch) and the breast collar straps.
Then we put on the bridle with the bit in the horse’s mouth and attach the brake chain underneath that. The reins are attached to all of that.
We walked the horses out of the stables and mounted up. It had been a few years since I had been on a horse but it felt pretty comfortable from the start and Chance was very responsive to me.
Around the Fishing Creek area there is an extensive network of riding trails. We set off and rode on many different types of terrain. The horses handled it all from jumping over downed logs to taking off-trail detours.
At one point we rode past an underground bee hive and Chance was getting harassed by the bees and started to buck around off the trail. He came under control quickly and we moved on, but somewhere along the way, my prescription sunglasses flew out of my shirt pocket. We went back and looked for them, but they were forever lost. It’s my own fault for not putting straps on them though.
Other than that mishap of my own creation, the ride was truly glorious. We got up on some ridgelines and had some fantastic views of the surrounding countryside. The horses also handled some steep inclines and declines like champions.
As we headed back after over 4 hours on the trails, the horses naturally picked up the pace as they were excited to get back home. They would change gait from a trot to a canter on their own.
A trot is probably the bumpiest ride on a hard western saddle. I’m not sure if we actually crossed from a canter to a full-on gallop, but the faster Chance went, the smoother the ride felt. We got up to a good speed on a nice stretch of meadow near the end of the ride.
Upon our return to the stable, we took off all of the tack, sprayed and squeegeed the horses down, and feed them with some more fruit and feed.
It was really pleasant weather on Sunday, and it was especially cool under the forest canopy where we spent most of our ride. Chance and Honey seemed in good condition even after the long ride.
After taking care of the horses, Randy and I went out for a late lunch and spent a nice time catching up with each other.
