Ride 'em cowgirl

Saturday was a new adventure for us--we joined up with BCHA for their monthly membership ride. We met up with them in the parking lot at HSU, where there was an abundance of parking and nothing like Lynn's nightmare from the night before. They were friendier than ever before and a few came out of their way to speak to us and be welcoming.

We walked up the street to the trailhead where we mounted up and headed up the hill. They called back to us that it was steep--but it wasn't. We weren't in the very back, but near it. Unfortunately we ended up behind two very slow walking horses, so we were a bit away from the majority of the pack. There were four horses behind us and probably 18 all in all.

When we arrived at a fork, one of the men said we should probably split up. One trail was "uphill and steep" and the other wasn't. We chose to go with the uphill crew. We still were behind the slow ones and now we were in the back. We stopped on the trail to wait for a man who had gotten off to go to the bathroom. We were back a few feet when one of the horses kicked at Star. I said, "Hey, that horse just kicked at Star." No one paid any attention. Shirley pulled Star back a little more. A few minutes later, one of the horses we'd been following backed up and kicked at Star. This one grazes Shirley's foot and stirrup. This time I raised my voice and sort of yelled (and cussed) and then asked Shirley if she was fine. No one said or did anything.

The man who had been behind caught up and we started on our way. Suddenly, Star put on a show--and I mean a show. Although she was screeching for Lynn, Shirley rode everything Star gave her. He crow-hopped; he twirled; he backed off the trail into the brush and almost down a hill. Shirley did awesome. Once Lynn was able to get away from the older man behind us and me and Jupes, Star settled down. They undid his halter and Lynn ponied him for most of the day.

Jupes did not want to be outdone, I mean after all, he's the spoiled one who pitches fits. So with Lynn ponying Star, us right behind, and then the man right behind us, Jupes crow-hopped a few times. I yelled at him and told the man to go on ahead and he settled down. ??

We saw bicyclists (some flying up right behind us!), walkers, joggers, some with dogs, a pot smoking girl, and endurance riders. Through it all, Jupes did fine and so did everyone else. His only real shy was at some frisbee golf players--he may have seen a flying disk out of the corner of his eye.

It was fun and now we have some new trails to try out. There were a bunch (they called them single track--ha ha) I saw along the way that we did not take.  Probably they dead-ended. We made a big loop and I did not realize we were back until everyone started dismounting to walk down the hill.

It was stressful at times, but I am glad we went.