Rock Creek

MIL and I have been trail riding together as I want to get more miles under Cat's feet before going out in a group again.  Saturday we headed up to Rock Creek to ride.  It had been 9 years since we rode there last!

The ride we had Friday night was anything but relaxing.  Sis was a ball of nerves.  Lately she has been spooking at silly things like butterflies and a bunnies (damn those can be scary!  They just jump out at you from no where!).  MIL and I have discussed Sis's behavior and hopefully MIL will decide to fix it.  For now, my only concern is the horse I'm riding.

As MIL and I were going down the trail we were talking about different situations we've encountered on the trail and about how our riding styles have changed.  I was telling MIL about the time Chase and I ran into some turkeys up at Brushy.  Can I just say I hate turkeys!  Deer run from you but turkeys hide and then when they fly off they sound like a jet engine coming up out of the grass!

We were trotting down the trail doing ORS when all of the sudden Cat planted her feet, pricked her ears forward and her head went up.  I looked down the trail to see turkeys!  Lots of turkeys running down the trail we had to go down.  I looked at MIL and she looked at me.  I think if I had suggested going back to the trailer and calling it a day she would have been ok with it.  I refuse to become a prisoner to fear so instead of heading back I dismounted and made Cat do gw down the trail until I felt we were past the point of the turkeys.  I mounted back up and felt Cat let out a huge sigh.

The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful.  The trails were either wide and open or a little bit narrow but not horrible.  There were two bridges to cross that I don't recall being there the time before.  Cat kept the lead the majority of the time.  She gets nervous being in the back so I decided to work on one thing at a time.  I practiced whacking leaves with my new dressage whip which didn't go over well at the beginning of the ride but by the end both horses were ignoring my antics.  I'm starting to get some pretty good aim. ;)

MIL and Sis

On the way back Cat was nice and relaxed so I decided to shot a little video.  You might want to turn down the volume as I didn't realize it was that windy.

Not long after I took this video I felt Cat tense up yet again and yet again I saw a turkey running up the trail.  I decided again to dismount as I was pretty sure this one was going to fly up and spook her.  I put her to work doing the C pattern down the trail while Mrs. Turkey shuffled off somewhere never to be seen again.  I remounted and felt Cat let out a huge sigh again and then continued on our way.

At the end of the trail there were some beautiful pines so I decided to get a picture of MIL and Sis.

Since someone *cough John* was complaining last time that I needed to hand the camera over I decided to let MIL try to take a few pictures of Cat and I.  The first few I was headless, then there was a finger over the lens, then she finally manged to get one.  Cat was having nothing to do with putting her ears forward.

I forgot to empty the nuts out of my pocket I had gathered for my dad's squirrels so I promise the "buldge" isn't all fat.