Horseback Riding Fun

My friend and I went riding for two and a half hours last Sunday and we had so much fun!! We went to a friend's house to ride out in their cow pasture because they have tons of land with lots of different, fun terrain. The cute little donkey jack above followed us everywhere!


He was so cute, although a bit of a brat. He kept walking up behind the horses, sniffing/braying loudly and biting their haunches. We had to keep swinging our arms at him to get him away from us. Eventually they all got used to each other. :)

He eventually went back to his herd and we continued our ride.

The creek was almost totally dry. You can sort of see how high the banks are in this picture and the water is normally that high. It's been a dry summer. Check out the cool tree roots!

We stopped at one of the tiny little water puddles for a drink.

A view looking off a hill at their land. Very nice barn and house. Wish I could live there. :)

The barn has a full apartment in the top with plumbing and electric!!

Their awesome house!

I was riding my friend's horse Tony.

I like this picture. Considering I'm in a Western saddle, haven't had dressage lessons in six years and have only ridden five or six times in the last four years I think my position is pretty good. I just need to turn my toe more forward to put my inner thigh in against the saddles so I can reach down through my leg and heels, plus I need to support my core more to raise my ribcage and straighten my shoulders. :) This was also about one and a half hours into the ride too so I was a little tired. Please don't gripe at me about the lack of a helmet and heels. I didn't have any of my gear with me and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to ride. Sorry!

The exciting news is that this Saturday my friend and I are going to our first competitive trail ride!! We're just going for fun, not competing, because her horses aren't trained in it and this is our first time. We're just going to see what it's like, what we need to work on and to have fun. Competitive Trail Riding is what I hope to someday do with Chrome. We're so excited!

P.S. I'm not talking about arena trail classes. This is a competitive trail ride, such as with ACTHA (although I'm not sure which one this one is affiliated with).