Country Pony

We had the opportunity to go trailriding on some new trails.  A drive through the city and we end up at a park that has equestrain trails.  It was so peaceful and was a setting right out of the 1800's....to look across the wooded field my  thoughts wandered to the pioneers that may have settled in this place at one time and those that may have fought and lived or died here during the civil war.  Maybe this place has always looked like this and no-one has ever appreciated the serenity that lies here with the hustle and bustle of progress only moments away.  I forgot my reins so I constructed some Hillbilly reins out of rope I found in the toolbox. One may have done something similar long ago? Hmmm

For the horses this was something we don't get to do often enough, enjoy adventures together,human and horse as one looking upon this land for the first time.  For  most people looking at a place for the first time is usually done out of a windshield.  Looking at something new from the back of a horse (or behind one) is so different. There's no back ground music. The sound is of insects and the chirping of an occasional bird.  The sound is of the wind as it blows through the trees.  I look at the hoofprints, no tire tracks, no human footprints, only hoofprints.

Hoofprints in the Sand

Little Prince was the smallest horse on the trailride at 10.2 hands (not counting the minis).  He didn't know it and kept up with the big guys, climbing up steep hills, walking (and galloping) through the shallow creek. Sliding down the embankment.  I think he ended the ride with a smile and a kind of tiredness he has not known. Like when we exercise and feel exhausted but exhiliarated at the same time. The trails boasted a time from long ago when people rode with a purpose.  To get their mail or supplies. To get frompoint A to point B. 

Now we just ride to capture that feeling for a short time.  Where are those endless trails?