Sofia's Horseback Riding Journal 🐎😁❤️

Trail Ride - Day 1✨

Hay y'all!

So I should have written this entry a while ago, because we did this a while ago lol; but better late than never, I guess? 😅

So, as I said in my announcement a few weeks ago, my trainer has been holding several beginner horse camps for littler kids, that we've been helping out at.

And then we had a more advanced camp just for the three of us (me and my siblings (not the toddler lol)). For our camp, we just went on trail rides for the first two days.

So, Day 1 of trail rides:

Our first trail wasn't too far from our trainer's house; we went over to help her pack the tack and load up the horses; then she drove us there. Her sister came too, but she was just walking with the dog (Tulip (I'll write a a chapter about her eventually she's SO cute))

We'd ridden on this trail before, last year; it is so pretty, and starts out with a bunch of trees and bushes, and then there's a huge open space.

So we groomed, tacked up, and mounted; then my trainer said that Jackpot should go first since he's 1) the meanest (I mean he's not mean, just... more prone to causing trouble with the other horses lol), and 2) probably the fastest and most energetic, so he wouldn't take too kindly to being behind other horses.

My sister went next on Cowgirl, my brother after her on Duece, and my trainer went last on Coyote (cuz Coyote's kinda slow lmbo)

And so; the trail ride began. We (obviously) started off walking; our trainer said we could trot once we passed the gate that marks the beginning of that big open space I mentioned. Jackpot was relatively calm, and so he was actually walking pretty slowly and my siblings asked me to speed him up lol. So I did, and we came to this really pretty part of the path between oak bushes, and since it's summer they were really green and it was just gorgeous.

Then, we had to stop under this big cottonwood, I think it was, because my sister had to tighten her cinch; so after that we kept going.

After coming out of the trees and nearing the gate, we saw a runner who was pretty far ahead of us. But since we were on horses and she was on foot, our trainer told us to wait until we'd passed her to start trotting.

Aaaaand then my brother's stirrup fell off.

It happens pretty much EVERY time we go on a trail ride... it's so funny but so sad 😅😆

So of course, he had to stop, dismount, put it back on, and then mount again. By then, the runner was far enough in front of us that we could start trotting.

So we trotted up until we were several meters away from her, walked past her, and then began trotting again.

After a bit, our instructor said we could lope, so we just started loping down the path and it was awesome.

I mean loping is always amazing; but doing it in an arena is one thing. Loping down a wide open trail, with the wind in your hair, on your favorite horse; is an entirely different experience.

So we alternated between loping, trotting, and walking for a while (it was around like 5 miles long), and I was filming basically the whole thing lol.

Eventually, our trainer told me to let Cowgirl go in front, because she was acting up as we were loping. Jackpot was actually pretty okay with it, and we didn't have any major problems or anything.

At one point, we took a small shortcut through the grass to get back to the trailer faster because my trainer was tired lol.

We didn't see a lot of people on the trail; we saw that runner at the beginning, a biker, and then a hiker, and that was it.

So we got back to the trailer, dismounted, untacked, groomed, and then loaded.

And that's pretty much it! Since it was a little while ago, I don't remember too many details, so sorry this is short.

Day 2 will be the next entry!

Any constructive criticism on these entries would be much appreciated 😁

Love y'all!
-Sofia✨❤️🌸