Role Reversal

My little cousin wanted to take a horse on a trail ride over the top of the hill. She is eleven and has really wanted to do this her entire life. The only problem is that she is not quite brave enough (and none of my horses are quite well behaved enough) for her to go on her own with another rider.

I volunteered to lead the pony she rides and my other cousin also went, for the ponies there is always safety in numbers and it is more fun for the girls to go in pairs.

I heard the weather forcast before the girls and I decided which day to go. But the weatherman have been wrong a lot lately so I did not think we would get enough snow to bother our trail ride. The weathermen were wrong again. We got more snow than they said.

Off we went, through about six inches of snow. The girls rode my usual pine tree loop, it takes about forty five minutes. You ride up to the top of the hill through the corn fields, get a great view of all the fields at the pine tree and then loop back home through the hay fields.

The problem with snow on a trail ride is that it hides the footing. You have no idea where the rocks, ditches or tire ruts are anymore. Oops, hole there. Ow, rock! At this point I should probably admit that I was the one doing all of the tripping, not the ponies.

By the time we returned to the barn, my jeans were caked with an inch of snow (I took the barn broom and swept them off) and my legs were a bit tired. I definitely give the horses a lot more credit for carrying us so well on the many different trails we ask them to take, including the snow. But we all had fun and we are headed back out next Saturday!