A Second Opinion

The Trail Trial Obstacle Course turned out to be a mixed bag--it was fun and everyone was friendly and appreciative. Many of the riders said, "Thank you," and enjoyed their experience. Being on the ground and walking them through our events was fun and we got to see a lot of pretty horses. The interactions between the llama and the horses was the fun to watch and the lost hiker with the map, large backpack and tall antennae was fun, too. One of the first horses to come through totally shied away from the hiker and her map, as she said, "Hi! I'm a lost hiker!" The woman on the horse said, "And this horse isn't going to help you!" It was funny. He did settle down after a couple minutes.

All the riders said exactly what we would've said, "I trail ride all the time. We see stuff like this every day, but he acts like he's never been outside!" It was funny. Lynn kept reminding them, "You're in an arena. It's not the same. It's an arena; there are horses in stalls whinnying, people in bleachers above them, and roof over the top of them. It's weird lighting (kind of dark) and there's a lot of horses in here." They agreed, but even though they were having fun, you could tell it was a little frustrating sometimes. Lots of people got off their horses and walked them through the "scary" part and then got back on.

I didn't ever hear Lynn say it, but "monkey see, monkey do," was probably part of it, too. There were probably plenty of horse brains saying, "That horse is scared of something over there--I better be ready to whirl and run!" There were horses whirling in circles. There were others lifting off their front feet in the air and turning away from obstacles, and others backing up quickly and swinging around. At some point in the day, most riders were going sideways. Now--not all. There were also some very calm, "git 'er done," horses--both males and females--who did the course with one eye peeled, but with little visible effort or trepidation.

Because the llama guy was chatty and horses were a little freaked, I spent some time talking with people waiting to for their turn to pass by him (the first time--they had to do it twice). Several said, "I can feel his heart beating!" The llama was cute. He would put his nose up to the horse's nose if he could; of course not all horses were up for that, but a lot went nose to nose--especially the babies. They were like, "Hey, who are you?" They weren't overly afraid of anything.

Next to the llama was a mule. He brayed all day and dug to China. He had big white pack boxes on and some people said, "My horse does not like the white things." :) Horses balked at the crisscrossed down logs and they didn't like turning around at the downed tree; I guess a lot horses bypassed the bear and mountain lion event completely; although, one lady said she finally got her horse by the bear and it shied a little at the mountain lion, but after she reached up and rang the bell, her horse reached up and rang it, too! Another woman said that she got her horse to back down the "narrow canyon," but then the rooster crowed and it was all over from there. :) So, it was fun. We didn't get to see the horses go through the events at the far end, but our end was pretty entertaining.

Unfortunately, the event planners were way off in their expectations. I wish they had not said anything Saturday night about the numbers. We had already walked the outside area looking for where we would park and had it planned out. In addition, we got there before 8am Sunday, and could have easily got our horses set up to hang out. It was a beautiful sunny day, as well. Because only a little over 40 people registered and paid their fees, we got them all through before lunch. After lunch, they all got to go through again--some of them went three times. Then the committee started going for their horses and they were riding the course. It was at the point that I told Lynn, "Okay, let's go; I'm done." At lunch, Lynn said she had considered calling Lee and telling him to load up our boys and bring them over. Had we brought them, they (and us) could have easily handled the day. Oh well. We have a new plan for next time: help set up the night before, bring our horses and pay the fee, ride the course, offer to give people breaks, ride the course a second time after lunch, and go home. :)

However, I really enjoyed doing my event and I think Lynn did, too. That's rub about doing things like this--there has to be people who will help. We were those people this weekend and I didn't see anyone else hanging around offering to do it. There were 13 people manning the individual events; 2 people starting the horses from the entrance; 2+ cooking hamburgers and hotdogs; 2+ selling/taking money for the concessions; 2-3 working the membership table and selling t-shirts, 50-50 tickets, and admission bracelets; one guy teaching knots; one guy who gave breaks to people threatening to use the trees as cover to go potty behind; and one woman who said, "I'm here to help clean up." So that's approximately 25 people just to run the event. I don't know how many people there are in the Redwood Unit of BCHA, but I am willing to bet there are a quite a few who are like us: pay our dues and read the newsletter, but never participate with the group. In the end, I feel good about volunteering and I know Lynn does, too. Sometimes, it's okay to sacrifice your own fun for the fun of others. It was just another kind of fun. And honestly, I would do it again.

One and Done

The Back Country Horseman  (Humboldt County branch) advertised that were putting on a Trail Trial Obstacle Challenge. We tentatively began talking about whether we wanted to go. Then they sent out emails that asked for volunteers to work the event with the hook that they would get to do the course at the end of the day for free. That sounded like fun. So, thinking we would be good members and get involved more, we gave up our Saturday ride and headed to Ferndale.

Well, it worth a few chuckles. It wasn't as organized as either of us expected and there was quite a bit of disagreeing (bickering) among the three women "in charge." We spent three hours setting up and walking through the course. It has potential to be fun. They are bringing in turkeys, chickens, llamas (!), a fan to blow and rattle a tent, bear pee (?), and there are doves and pigeons flying to their nests in the rafters all the time. It should be interesting.

But then we heard that 200+ people were coming. They said that last year, they had 30 and it took all day. Everyone started mumbling that maybe they would rethink bringing their horses.

We had already been out scoping where to park and how to handle our boys. We didn't want them standing on pavement all day. We weren't sure about being in the trailer from 5:30 am to 4:00 pm either. They weren't going to be where we could see them. We weren't sure if we were even going to get bathroom breaks, let alone check on the horses breaks. Although we really wanted to do the obstacle course, we decided to leave the boys home.

According to Facebook (where I think they are getting their numbers), there are over 200 people "interested" in the Trail Trials Challenge. There are 50ish who are "going." We are going to be super disappointed if there aren't that many and we could've done the course without a lot of stress of having the our horses there. We are going to be very tired if there are tons of people and we spend the day standing at our posts. Most of all--it is going to be beautiful day and we are going to miss out on a second day of riding. AND hang out with people who are only marginally friendly.

Next time, we will do this differently.