Arrowhead Ranch: Competitive Trail Ride ~ Day 2

On day 2 of the Competitive Trail Weekend, I was looking forward to a relaxed, easy trail ride. I didn’t have to take photos as my friend Latana had signed up to be the photographer that day, so I was free to just ride, enjoy the 7 mile trail while challenging my horse and I on the 6 obstacles that day.

But those plans changed pretty quickly when Latana decided to ride her mule out to the trail by herself, instead of with a group, and her mule was not happy and gave her some trouble.

Latana got nervous and decided to head back to the starting area and ride out with the last group, the group I was riding in, instead.

I was riding with my friends Gayle and Cindy, and now with Latana, too.

Cindy, me, and Latana, with the Manzano Mountains as our backdrop.

This change in plans still would have worked out fine, except Cindy’s half-Arab mare was pretty fired up, high-headed and excited when we first started out.

Apache could care less about the energy of other horses and it doesn’t bother me either. I just stay out of their way and ride my own ride.

But Latana was already tense and nervous from experiencing her mule acting up from asking her to ride out by themselves, so being around Cindy’s excited mare was pushing her to her limits and she said she kept feeling her mule hunch up and it made her very uneasy.

This photo below was the last photo I took of of her that day.

We all made it to the first obstacle, which was a tarp obstacle. Pretty simple, except that tarp was bright and shiny. Gayle and her gelding crossed it first, followed by Apache and I, and then Cindy and her mare crossed it, too. Latana was supposed to be taking photos, so she didn’t sign up to do the obstacles. But she was still too nervous to even think about her camera.

But we all completed the tarp obstacle, even though Cindy really had to work with her mare to keep her focused. Her mare kept wanting to call out and look for the group that was riding ahead of us on the trail.

One momentous thing happened to Apache and I during this ride, and that is that she spooked.

Yes she did…a real live, honest-to-goodness spook!

Everyone will think I’m crazy when I confess that Apache has never truly spooked in the almost 5 years I’ve called her mine. Yeah, she’s done a tiny, little spook-in-place with her feet still rooted to the ground a few times. But she has never jumped, hopped, teleported or bolted…ever.

Until that day.

And what caused her real spook?

A dog!!! lol!

I know. Pretty funny! Zulu is one of the 4 Winds ranch dogs and Apache has been on trail rides where he has tagged along many times. But this time, 4 Winds had lots of ponds and mini-lakes due to the generous monsoon rains New Mexico had this year. And Zulu is a water dog and spends most of his day swimming in the full ponds.

I shot the photo below, about 10 minutes before Apache’s real spook. We rode past the pond and Apache and I both stood there and watched Zulu while I took some photos. Then after we rode past the pond, Zulu came out of the water and followed us. Apache had her head buried up to her ears in grass while I was talking to Gayle, and all of a sudden behind us I heard a “SWISH!, SWISH!, SWISH”, and next thing I knew, I was shooting forward!

Apache bolted! haha!

She didn’t go far, perhaps less than 20 feet before she stopped and turned her head to see what it was that caused her to spook. And she seemed embarrassed when she realized what she had ran away from. And I was laughing for a number of reasons, 1)My horse spooked and I stayed on! 2)Zulu is a big goofy oaf and looked silly shaking all the water off his hairy body, 3)My horse spooked at a big, goofy, hairy, wet dog, 4)My horse looked embarrassed, 5)Nothing bad happened, 6)And I didn’t fall off.

And I have to say, it was actually kind of amazing to see that my mare is a normal horse and that she will spook sometimes. haha!

And of course, Apache wasn’t the only equines to spook. All of our equines were a bit freaked out by Zulu is some capacity. But between the dog, the spook, and Cindy’s high-energy mare, Latana had had enough and she just wanted to bail and head back to the trailer parking and camping area.

She was so unnerved that she even asked Gayle, Cindy and I to stand at the bottom of the hill, and watch her head back, just in case something happened.

We did, of course. But I was sad to see her go.

So, then it was just me, Cindy and Gayle to continue on. And I pulled out my camera once again.

This pond holds some “fond” memories. Some of y’all might remember that this is the pond that I rode my mare through earlier this year on “Good Friday” and my mare decided to lay down and wallow in the pond like a hippo! haha! I refused to bail because my cell phone, GPS and camera were in my saddle bags! And Apache didn’t just lay down once, but she did it a second time before I could kick her out of that pond. haha!

Here’s the blog post from that day, with photos!

Good Friday Hippo Wallow

So after taking a photo, I kept Apache moving forward, lest she get any crazy ideas!

Soon after we rode past the pond, Cindy had had enough of her mare's high-headed, high-energy focus on searching for the group in front of us. She asked Gayle and I if we would mind if she dismounted and worked her mare by lunging for a few minutes. Gayle and I didn't mind and moved up on a hillside with some green grass to let our horses snack, while Cindy's mare learned that her focus should be on Cindy. And after about 10 minutes, Cindy's mare found her brain again and Cindy remounted and her mare was calm and well-behaved for the rest of the ride.

The second obstacle was a ‘Gait Transition” challenge.

Apache and I went first, so I could take photos of Gayle and Cindy.

Apache did a perfect transition between walk and trot. I was very proud of her.

Gayle and her gelding did a trot/canter transition.

Then we just rode and enjoyed the trail for about a mile. The trail that Colleen and the 4 Winds volunteers marked was wonderfully interesting and fun with varied terrain and not flat and boring at all.

The third obstacle was a “Animal Rescue” challenge, where we had to dismount, walk over to a bucket, take out the injured Rocky Raccoon………

Place Rocky on the saddle, re-mount, and then ride over to a second bucket………….

Where you took Rocky Raccoon off your saddle……..

And then placed him into the second bucket.

Apache and I went first again, and Apache was perfect and we were a pretty good team. It’s too bad we weren’t actually competing. I had just signed up to ‘try out the obstacles’, but we would not be eligible for awards or ribbons. I was told later by 5 of the judges that they had given us 9’s and 10’s. We didn’t complete one of the obstacles…more on that later.

Have I already mentioned how much I enjoyed the trail that day? It was truly a great trail and I enjoyed riding with Cindy and Gayle, too.

We caught up with the group in front of us at Obstacle #4, which was a “Roping Challenge”.

My friends Linda and Dita, waiting to take their turn on the obstacle.

The most challenging aspect of this obstacle, for my friend Karen, seemed to be untangling her lariat rope. Thankfully, her gelding Rio was very patient! And the judge, too! haha!

Some of the equines didn’t even know there was an obstacle there. They seemed to think that someone left a snack out for them.

Gayle and her gelding Max proved that you don’t need to be a Cowboy or dress the part to rope a calf. They totally nailed the obstacle!

Apache and I waited until last to try out the obstacle, but Apache would not let the judge get close enough to us to hand us the lariat. She just didn’t trust the guy walking toward us with the rope in his hand.

But I’m pretty sure that, if the lariat rope had been placed on a post or a tree for us to just walk up to and me take it off, that we would have been able to complete this obstacle with no problems.

My dear friend Colleen, owner of 4 Winds Equestrian Center ! She loves her awesome mare Pepper!

Obstacle #5 was a “Slicker Challenge”

A slicker was placed on a post, on a windy day…and all we had to do was walk up, pick up the slicker, lay it on our saddle……

And then ride around the tree…..

And place the slicker back onto the post……

And remember to smile for the camera. haha!

Cindy took these photos with her camera, unbeknownst to me, as you can see by my surprised face when she told me to smile. hah!

The last obstacle, #6 was a “Campground Chaos” challenge. The wind was whipping the tent around, along with the shiny, silver survival blanket. There were chairs, tables covered with sundry camping and party items, stuffed animals, umbrellas, an ATV, and loud party music blaring from inside the tent.

Colleen asked if she could take some photos of Apache and I as we tried out the obstacle.

And this time I remembered to smile. hah!

Apache, of course, totally aced it!

We also rode past a smiling Keith, husband of my friend Denise. They are both employees at 4 Winds and are just terrific people. (Watch out for that ginormous spider, Keith!)