As I briefly mentioned yesterday, Brandy and I were able to dodge rain storms well enough to fit in a trail ride at Granger Lake on Sunday. I’ve been to Granger Lake before for camping and kayaking, but I’ve never ridden on the equestrian trails. It’s mostly open grassy fields, with just a few short detours through trees. It’s actually kind of perfect for conditioning work.
We got there, unloaded, and tacked up quickly. Henry gave me the big eyeball like “What fresh hell is THIS?”. Poor horse, it’s a new adventure every weekend. For such a big brave event horse who never bats an eye on cross country, he sure did start out awfully looky. In Henry’s mind, unknown things are only safe if you’re cantering. Walking is when they eat you. So we snorted past the picnic table, and the gate, and the stick, and the bush, and the trees, and had a small baby cow at the super tiny water crossing (next time I’ll guess I’ll just canter it instead of trying to walk over it, I mean COME ON Henry are you serious).
Then once we started trotting he put his brain back in his head and chilled out, so after a couple trot sets we mostly just meandered around on the buckle. The storms were rolling in all around us the whole time, which made for some neat pictures.
Finally towards the end Henry seemed to actually relax and enjoy himself. He was no longer snorting at everything and walking around poised for a hasty exit at the first sign of trouble. Although he did leave poor tired Auto in the dust with his power walk.
It was a nice fun outing, and only about a 30 minute haul down the road. Hopefully we’ll be able to go back regularly throughout the summer. It’d be an awesome place to do some gallops, with those long grassy stretches. But next time I’m not going first through the wooded areas… taking down all the giant spiderwebs with my face was horrifying.
breedrideevent.com 
Downside to trails in the summer: spider webs and lots of bugs.
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Spiderwebs in the face = THE WORST.
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That looks like some fun trail riding! Glad you guys got to get out before the rain came again. 🙂
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me too. Now it’s pouring. 😦 Stupid tropical storm.
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Looks like a lovely trail 🙂
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Spider webs are the worst. Especially when they get in your eyelashes. Looks like a fun ride though!
https://adventuresofarerider.wordpress.com
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I was more worried about the giant spider than his web
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Good point. That’s always the question when you get a face full of web. Where is the spider??
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Spiderwebs don’t freak me out near as much as rattlesnakes. Apparenlty my horse doesn’t recognize rattlesnakes as a threat as he damn near cantered right over one out there last year – and it was loud so I know he heard it but never missed a beat!. Scared me so much I haven’t been back. I suppose they are everywhere in Texas but that is the only place i’ve encountered them on horseback.
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They’re everywhere!
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Henry obviously doesn’t believe in the ‘leave no man behind’ mantra.
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Henry believes in the “as long as you’re faster than the other guy, you won’t get eaten” mantra
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Henry’s face in the first photo is priceless.
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WHHWWWAAAATTTT???
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take a fly whisk with you and bushwhack all the spiderwebs into oblivion 😀
also, i guess isabel and henry are water opposites – little streams and stuff are nbd to her, but those water complexes are something awful…
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Henry would probably think I was trying to murder him with the fly whisk
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Sounds like a good outing! It’s great that you have a trail so close.
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Now I want to do that water crossing. I’m all about making Courage do hard things for giggles.
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It was so tiny. And so shallow. And Henry was like OMG WTF IS THAT? For real dude… you just did an event with two water crossings, neither of which you’d ever seen before in your life, and you gave 0 shits. The world is different when it’s nature and you’re walking.
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Wow that place is so beautiful!
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“I got spiders in my hair, and I just don’t care.” Or maybe, you might. Maybe the webs will make you sparkle in the sunlight like a Twilight vampire.
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NOT OK
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First person in line always carries the spider web stick.
Ride softly, and carry a big stick. ;D
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My creature is the same. We can belt down a long stretch of unfamiliar territory flat-out and she only spooks and snorts when we pull up to catch our breath.
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