ACTHA Founders Ranch CTC for NMMSAR

 

Whoo boy, that title is quite the mouthful, huh? Basically it just means that this past Saturday’s ride was sanctioned by The American Competitive Trail Horse Association (ACTHA), and the Competitive Trail Challenge was hosted at Founders Ranch, with the funds going to benefit The New Mexico Mounted Search and Rescue (NMMSAR).

The New Mexico Mounted Search and Rescue is a visible presence in our local community, not only providing their services to lost and injured hikers, travelers, and horseback-riders, but also donating their time to educate the public on safety during special events like parades, festivals, fundraisers, trail rides, and many others. I’ve gotten to know quite a few of the members over the past three years and can’t say enough good things about these friendly, generous, kind, talented, hard-working, selfless, big-hearted folks. They are just great people all around.

Which gave me even more motivation to get myself back into the saddle so I could participate in a ride to benefit their organization.

And I wasn’t the only one who felt that way either. This ride was the largest attended ACTHA ride in the State of New Mexico, with over 80 riders registered. And that wasn’t the only big deal either. The Founders of ACTHA, Tom and Carrie Scrima, were planning on riding with us, too! What an honor!

I was also so excited to ride in another ACTHA ride, this one being my fourth, but wasn’t sure my horse or I were up to the task. See, I hadn’t ridden my horse for almost an entire year, due to my injury last summer, and had just gotten back on Apache two weeks earlier, for the first time, during an encouraging group lesson with my new instructor/trainer, Jessica G.

And even though I did have Jessica G. over to my house to work with me and my mare last week, we only did ground work. As you can imagine, most people would think I was a little crazy to make plans to ride in a 7 mile competitive trail ride with over 80 other riders, when I’d only ridden my horse one other time in the past year. It’s ok. I thought so, too.

But I felt confident in Apache and felt that she was eager to get out and have some fun on the trails together. She and I weren’t brand new to competitive trail rides, so my biggest concern was the two of us being out of shape after such a long time off.

It was a valid concern.

 

To be Continued………