Glorious

We finally got a horse trailer for many purposes. It was starting to feel like a handicap having large animals and not having a way to transport them. I found a trailer at our local used tack store and went for it. The older gentleman who owned it had given it a new paint job to stop any further rust damage. The funny thing is that we got it home and parked it on the RV pad beside our garage and giggled as we noticed that the paint job matches that on our house, garage, chicken coop, and shed. Everything is white with blue trim so the new trailer fits right in.
This new trailer will allow us to transport either the horses or the alpacas. We will now be able to bring the alpacas to shows, take animals to the vet if we need to...and it allows us to take the horses out on trail rides. Since the two older boys just finished a week long horse riding camp, I decided today would be a good time to try out the new trailer. We had plans to leave as early as possible in order to beat some of the heat. I woke up early and started getting things ready.
The plan was that we would go to a local natural area called Bobcat Ridge and Dylan and I would ride the horses on the horse trail while the other's hiked with Ben on the pedestrian trail. We got everything loaded up in the truck and Ben asked me if I knew how to load the horses in the trailer. "Ummm...some horses just walk in when you ask them to..." (smile) So he ran across the street to our neighbor who has a lot of experience with horses. I felt a little relieved and presumed he would come over and help. I guess he was busy, so Ben came back relaying the message, "Didn't you guys practice trailering first?" We looked at each other and almost in stereo said' "This is our practice!"
Well the first attempts didn't work. Neither of the horses would go into that trailer, so Ben thought to grab some grain to lure them in. That worked like a charm and finally, at 10:00 am, we were off....all 8 of us on this unknown adventure. I will admit now that I was a little scared of the unknown. When it came to getting the horses out, my little gelding Tuff was scared and kind of fell out. I was shaking so much we had to walk a little bit together to calm each other down. Horses are extremely sensitive to their handlers feelings. If we are scared...they are scared, but Tuff and I are connected...so connected that when I asked Ben to hold onto him so that I could go to the restroom before riding he followed me. Ben finally handed me the lead rope and I tied him to the bike rack outside.
At last it was time to head out on our first trail ride alone with our own horses. We tacked them up...which means that we put on their bridal and saddle and we lead them out onto the trail. Ben strapped baby Gavyn into the Ergo baby carrier and headed out on his trail with River and Rohan.  We were alone with our horses and I had to act like I knew what the heck I was doing....while Dylan, fresh with horse camp information lovingly corrected me.
I have to say, once I got on that horse whom I love so much out in that glorious nature area I was in heaven.  I kept asking Dylan, "Isn't this amazing?!" I'm completely hooked on trail riding. It was so much fun getting to know Tuff's personality even deeper than I did before. He is so cute...on every hill he walks slowly down and then trots up the hill. Dylan's horse, Angel would do the opposite. She is a gaited horse so she does her walking gait down the hill and then walks up the hill. It was an absolutely glorious ride! There was nothing but gratitude flowing through my heart. I told Dylan what a blessing it is to be having this experience at any age.
The only glitch was near the end of the ride as we were heading back to where we began, we joined up with a group of teenage volunteers who had been working on another one of the trails with shovels and rakes in their hands and at the same time it started to rain. I think I decided to get Tuff to pick up the pace just enough to pass the people and somehow that backfired. Before I knew it both horses were galloping down the trail and completely ignoring our commands to stop. I saw that Dylan was still holding onto a small water bottle so I yelled to him to forget about it and hold on. When the horses decided they were out of danger they slowed down and stopped. Dylan told me he had dropped the water bottle and I told him to forget about it. I was not going to have him head back to whatever had caused the horses to get scared. He said, "I can't, it's Rohan's water bottle." What a sweet big brother! I turned around and called out to the volunteers that were passing the spot where it dropped and they brought it to us.
We made it back to the trailer in one piece and despite the fact that my legs were shaking after the galloping episode, we did a great job on our first ever trail ride. I was so impressed with how calm and level headed Dylan remained and how amazing he is with his horse at 7 years old.
Ben returned a few minutes after us and had not had as glorious a time as I had....he felt a lot more like he had given a horse ride to the two younger boys and was a little worn out.
I am eternally grateful for the glorious things that we are able to experience in our lives and to those who help make it possible. Thanks!!!