Fun day with the BMR

Today the Blue Mountain Riders, ladies riding group that I am a member of, organized a Trail Challenge ride at Neal's place. I had never been there before. Her husband writes books about Walla Walla under the pen name of Sam McCleod. Here is a link to their website.

Detour Farm is really an amazing place. 160 acres with the homestead set far back from the road. A large iron sign over the driveway greeted us as Ruth and I pulled in for the adventure. We were a little bit late so a woman came down the drive and encouraged us to just unload the horses, tie them up and then come down to the 'registration desk' for a meeting. Fair enough.

At the meeting everyone was given an index card with three colored dots. These dots were in the order we were to ride the three trail challenges. Ruth and I were given cards by Linda, with the yellow dot first. She felt that would be the easiest one to join late since we still had to tack up. We all had to sign a release form too. Unfortunately our host Neal was in the hospital for pain in her abdomen! The rules were explained to us - each group is given 40 minutes for each trail challenge. Walking and trotting only, for insurance reasons. Dee Dee, Linda and Jennifer were the leaders, one for each group.

Linda led us down and talked us through the Arena challenge since there were a lot of obstacles there and some people had questions. It looked like fun and I couldn't wait to get started.

Time to tack up! Kittee and a boarder pulled up and parked next to us, but the boarder was not yet a member so therefore could not participate today. They decided to go ride Bennington Lake together instead.

Ruth and I were last heading into the Trail Maze Challenge. It worked like this: someone had mowed a trail/path in their HUMUNGOUS front yard and it was kind of like a corn maze, except being on horseback and in tall grass, you could see where you were however there were spirals and dead ends and all kinds of little trails to take. There were hidden objects out on the trails so you had to take your index card and a mechanical pencil and write down these objects as you see them. I found 9 objects with Ruth's assistance - a flip flop, a purse or makeup bag, a dog bone, a red bucket, a white Strongid bucket (empty), a block of wood (2x6), a doll with one arm and no hair, a rubber ducky, and one other thing but I don't remember what. It was really fun and the 40 min went by too fast.

Next we went to the Arena Trail Challenge. This started with a gate, which was opened for us so we took advantage of that and went on through. There were huge tires on their sides with only a horse width distance between them. There were corn stalks and other misc. stuff in the one tire to make it more of a challenge. I encouraged Sinwaan in-between and after a good look at the tires he walked through. Next was a big dirt mount to climb over. He did that with no problem. Next were two more huge tires on their sides and full of dirt in the center. The object was to see if you could get your horse to climb up on the tire. After much encouragement Sinwaan did step up onto the tire but quickly leapt down sideways. The dirt wasn't packed real tight so I think it gave a little under him and scared him. I lost one stirrup on that one but came out proud of him for trying.

That was the first section. The arena was not a typical riding arena with dirt footing, this was a large area fenced in with grass/weed footing which helped to keep the dust down.

IN the center was an old bathtub full of water and apples for the horse to bob for. How fun! Sinwaan got a drink and tried for an apple but couldn't seem to grab onto one. Ruth decided to go on her own so we went the opposite direction. You could do the obstacles in any order you wanted. The first one we tried was two bars to step over. Probably about 2' high. Sinwaan did fine. Then in the corner there were poles on the ground for a perimeter, two barrels on either side of the entry, a barrel in the center with a bucket on top full of people candy. The object was to walk in between the barrrels, get your horse in next to the candy bucket and reach down to take a piece. We went around the bucket a couple times before he was finally close enough for me to lean down and reach a candy. I took a Root Beer Barrel. Yum! I think Sinwaan may have stuck his head in that bucket once or twice too.

Then there was a piece of plywood on the ground with railroad ties stacked three high on either side to simulate a bridge sound as the horse crossed it. No problem for Sinwaan. Then we went over some cavelettis and the last one was twice as long so we could practice side-passing. Sinwaan doesn't do great at this but with a little work we got this one going both directions too! Yay!

They had more knee-high poles up to step over, this time with a tarp over one and ribbons on another, which danced lightly in the breeze. Sinwaan walked up to it, put his neck down over the other side and started nibbling. What?? Step over silly horse! That completed that side of the arena.

Then there was an L on the ground with poles, the object was to back your horse all the way through it. Sinwaan did awesome, never stepping out of bounds once. Wow!

Looking ahead I saw people taking turns at carrying a flag. I was eager to try this one, knowing it could be trouble. I waited with Sinwaan and he watched as two horses took turns with the flag, carrying it around two cones before putting it back against the fence. Sinwaan walked up to the flag but would not sidepass into it so I had to turn him around and take another try. This time we got lined up right and I grabbed the flag and raised it. I then realized I could not rest the flag on my shoe because of my endurance cages. Whoops. So I just held it, a little lower than most people. Sinwaan did not know about this flag. He started sidepassing like crazy right over to the cone. He had his eye on the flag the whole time. He does not neck rein so I had my hands full for sure! Getting around the cone he did ok and finally I got him to stop for a minute before heading back to the fence. The flag was rolled up so it was not flapping, but he was really watching the base of the flagpole and I was trying to keep it away from his leg. We got back over to the fence with more sidepassing and I could hear a couple people cheering for us. They had joked earlier that anyone who could carry the flag would have to join the Parade Group. We got back to the set down point and I put the base on the ground and was just about to lean it against the fence when Sinwaan started backing up. Back back back and my hand was going farther up the flag as it quickly leaned in towards us. I didn't want to drop it when it could hit him so once we got to the end I finally let go and he spun around and trotted off so fast that I lost both my stirrups. I turned him around and made him walk a couple steps towards it before I dismounted to lead him over. I had to pick it up off the ground for the next person. He was not crazy about that flag! He did follow me fairly willingly as we put it back but he was also glad to get away from it once I was mounted back up.

Our next obstacle was a simple one. Another walk into a keyhole and take a horse treat from the bucket. Sinwaan went right in and stuck his head in the bucket. Well all the horse treats were in plastic bags so he still had to sidle up closer so I could reach one for him. We took a break after that obstacle while I opened the bag and fed him the treats from horseback.

After that was a large tall arch with strips of shower curtains hanging down to walk through. I told Sinwaan to think about the time we rode through the agriculture crop sprinklers, only this time we wouldn't get wet. He walked up and sniffed them, took a step or two back and then finally went on through with no leaping. Good boy!

We then went through the bending/gaming poles at a trot. It felt good to be moving out again. We had trotted a little during the first maze but just a walk since then. The first time through he did awesome, bending close to the poles. Coming back he got a little sloppy and took wider turns around them. Oh well, its all fun.

Last was a ditch that looked hand-dug with a tarp in the bottom and some water in it. It was only a couple inches deep but there were poles around the edges and earlier horses had tried and slid dirt into it so to the horses I am sure it looked like the worst horse-eating hole they had ever seen. Only one horse all day went through it - and I heard he kind of leapt across one of the corners (it was square). I was really wanting Sinwaan to do it. He would get close and then back up or sidepass and was very uncooperative. I finally got off and tried to lead him through but he would have none of that either. Oh well, our time in the arena was up.

The last Trail Challenge was an actual trail right around the back of the property. We followed the blue ribbons through grass and up and down gullies and into a mini forest which led to a low riverbed at the very back. It was just like a mini-endurance ride in slow motion. :) Sinwaan went right into the river and started guzzling it down. He was thirsty! We then rode in the river back downstream until we got back to the arena. I had a little snake swim across right in front of us and then as we were about to exit the river up a steep bank I saw a little frog hop into the water. Awesome!

When the ride was all over we tied the horses to the trailer, untacked and went back to the house for the potluck. Great food and fun company, what an enjoyable day! We even saw a deer in the field from the large breezy open porch. It was obvious that many people along the way put a lot of work into making this day run smoothly. It was so well planned, organized and executed - THANK YOU SO MUCH for everyone involved!

After the potluck we signed a special thank you for Neal and also went in and signed a column in her house that is used as a guestbook - it was pretty cool! We also all lined up for a group photo. A couple people there had cameras, if I see any links to them I will post it here.