The most fun training ride...ever.

Little did Lacey and I know when we pulled out of the barn parking lot yesterday afternoon we'd be embarking on one of the most amazing trail rides we've ever ridden.  I had emailed PJ (my friend from whose house we ride out from) to let him know we'd be coming out on Friday afternoon.  Last time we were out, he'd confused the days and had wanted to ride with us, so I made sure he knew exactly when we were coming so he could join us.  PJ's been living on Moscow Mountain for at least 20 years, and knows the trails like the back of his hand.  He's terrific fun to ride with, and always has amazing stories to tell.

We pulled in just after PJ had arrived home from the store.  He came out to greet us and once again wondered why we were actually riding, as it was very cold and a little windy.  We shrugged our shoulders and said we liked it anyways.  He said he had groceries to put away, but he might think about coming with us.  I told him we'd definitely wait, and that we'd love to have him with us.  He finally agreed and we and headed out the back pasture with three very happy and energetic horses.  Lacey was riding her horse Dreamer (a "stupiloosa"--her words), PJ was riding his 8 year old Anglo arab, Ron-G.  I was on Jasper, of course.  PJ instructed us to hang a right in the pasture and go through a stand of trees.  He said he had a great trail with a really steep uphill to "take the wind out of the horse's sails."  We rode through the trees and came to a gate and started down a very faint and narrow trail scattered with logs and other fun stuff to navigate.  The trail turned upward pretty fast and definitely delivered with it's promise.  All three horses were breathing pretty hard when we reached the top, and so we paused to let them get their breath.  The place we stopped had a "cougar rock", and so we took turns playing king of the hill with our ponies and taught them to scramble up the rocks and back down.  It was great fun!  Once they'd had a nice breather, we headed down the gently rolling trail on our way.  At this point, the trail looked like an old dirt road that had become overgrown, so the footing was excellent and we had a chance to ride side-by-side for a while.  True to his nature, PJ quickly turned us off the easy trail onto another single-track filled with technical logs, boulders and stands of bushes.  Jasper made me very proud, leading the way and not letting anything bother him.  We then trotted up a nice gentle uphill singletrack that weaved through trees and over logs and through little washes from the previous years snow melt.  We sometimes paused during this time to challenge Lacey and Dreamer to jump various fallen logs, and she impressed PJ greatly.  Soon we reached the top of our climb, and almost immediately turned and starting descending down a fairly steep trail with good footing.  I've never done this type of trail with Jasper, and he approached it like the champion he is, barely blinking an eye and navigating it with expertise and carefully-placed feet.  PJ asked how he was with water, as we were going to encounter a few water crossings once we reached the bottom.  I told him he about our past experiences, and he laughed.

We soon reached the water crossings with Lacey in the lead.  She was already having trouble convincing Dreamer to cross, as the bank on the near side was pretty loose and he had slid a little and decided it would be best to stay put.  PJ said that with this crossing, most horses objected to the footing more than the water itself.  Dreamer and Lacey made it through eventually, and PJ ploughed through like an expert with Ron-G.  Jasper and I started the battle, and I could tell it was going to be difficult to convince him (In the meantime, PJ was waving "bye" from the other side and laughing at us).  I was playing the line between convincing him to cross but trying to keep him from jumping it, which he was more than willing to do.  PJ came back and decided to pony him across.  I hopped off, and he set to work with Jasper.  It took a fair bit of convincing, but he eventually got him across and back.  I then mounted and we repeated the exercise with me aboard.  After that, we called it a day with that crossing and moved down the trail.

We soon encountered another smaller water crossing, which Jasper jumped (of course).  I was a little disappointed, but it wasn't an ideal place to spend working with him and so we let it go.  Our trail then ran alongside the creek, and we came to a wonderful place to spend working with Jasper on crossing water.  Good footing and a nice gradual bank on both sides.  I tried again to convince him while mounted, but it just wasn't working.  I hopped off and decided to approach it like trailer loading, with me "sending" him across the creek instead of pulling him across.  I give him only one right "answer" and he gets steady pressure in the form of either rope twirling behind him or tapping the rope on his rump with increasing pressure until he chooses correctly, when he is rewarded with a "good boy" and a minute to think about it.  He quickly caught on, and jumped the creek.  Argh!  We did it again and just as he was preparing to leap, I have a small tug on the lead rope to pull him off-balance a little, and he landed square in the middle of the creek.  He stood there looking surprised for a moment, and then started playing his muzzle in the water and eating the grass growing alongside.  Success!  We did it a few more times on the ground and I mounted to try it from the saddle.  Once again, he had forgotten everything and I had to do a little thinking.  I decided to use my legs on his side like I would the rope, and began by clucking to him and giving a gentle squeeze.  He only had one right answer, which was to take a step towards the creek.  If he ignored that command, I started steadily tapping my legs on his side with increasing force until he chose correctly.  It worked!  He did jump it first, but then was soon stepping calmly in.  I asked him to walk up and down in the creek until it was old news, and we proceeded down the trail with me beaming from ear to ear.

Our trail wove gently rolling hills through dense and dark cedars and evergreens, and the darkening sky warned we may be driving home in the dark.  Our conversations were light and happy, and as we came out of the dark woods, PJ asked if we wanted to take the trail along the road or the one with another water crossing back home.  He had already headed down the water crossing trail, so I guessed he'd made up his mind.  I was hesitant to take this, as we'd ended on such a good note before, I didn't want to have to hold us up spending another 20 minutes or so working Jasper across this one.  However, our lesson stuck and he walked in like a pro!   The trail wound up and through very dense trees, where I closed my eyes, grabbed mane, and tucked in along Jasper's topline and let him nagivate on his own.  He did beautifully, and we emerged on a beautiful golden meadow with the sunset to our right and a rainbow far on the horizon to our left.  I felt so overcome with happiness and joy, I kicked Jasper into a canter and we cantered up and across the meadow with the wind in our hair and whooping with happiness.  It was perfect, and the most wonderful end to a fabulous ride.