Horse Trekking in Scotland (4/17/26)

(Cross-posted from Just another perfect day)

Jay and I made a deal back when we first started traveling together that I get to choose a horseback riding adventure wherever we travel. I don't always choose to ride (typically on our birthiversary trips is when I bow out, because we travel with others on those trips). We've ridden in Italy, Costa Rica, and now, Scotland.

It was "crappy weather" when we got there, according to our guide. And, for a Scot to call the weather crappy, you know it's not good weather. Nonetheless, we drove almost an hour to get to the stable, and there were no refunds for cancellations, so we were going.

We sat in the car, psyching ourselves up for a miserable ride.

The rain was coming down in sheets while we were signing our liability waivers and waiting for our horses to be brought around. But then, just as we headed out to mount up, someone dialed back the faucet and the downpour turned into a slight drizzle.

Just a slight drizzle.

Jay's horse, Lucy, took really good care of him
for the whole ride.

Ollie the Pokiest Pony took good care of me

Within twenty minutes of heading out, even the drizzle stopped and we had perfect riding weather for the remainder of the trek. We spent what felt like forever walking on the road, and just as I was getting ready to mentally check-out, our guide asked us if we wanted to go off trail. She must have been as bored as I was, lol.

There must be something about me that
brings out the derp ears on every horse I ride.

We spent a good bit of time riding on boggy hills, crossing little streams here and there. Our guide told us that Achnalarig Stables provided the horses for the Outlander series, which was really cool, and inspired us to start watching it when we got home.

These hills were gorgeous, and off in the distance, you can see Oban.

What I thought would be an absolute drag of a ride in the cold, driving rain turned out to be super fun and relaxing. Jay is always a bit nervous when he rides, because there's so much to think about, he never finds it relaxing. However, on Lucy, he was able to relax and enjoy the scenery and the ride, which is a big win!

L.E. and Miss Pearl

Yesterday, when I pulled into the driveway, I saw L.E. and Pearl out riding in the backyard and it took my breath away, it was so beautiful. She had just passed by the no-watermelon arch as I pulled in, and they were perfectly framed.

Instead of continuing on to my parking space, I threw my car in park, jumped out, and got all bossy, telling her to do it again! I was hoping I'd be able to take a couple of pictures. I am by no means a photographer, but I needed to take these pictures.

Almost...almost...

... got it ...

... just to be safe, I took another one.

L.E.'s safe space is across the street in the arena; riding outside of the arena causes her some anxiety, so she's been working hard on getting comfortable riding in the backyard. Riding at home isn't new to her, we've done it together for a few years, but it's not comfortable for her. It's funny, because anywhere outside of the arena is where Skeeter and I feel best, and we feel confined within the fence of the arena. L.E. and I are opposite in that way, but because we're opposite, I know what a big deal it is for her to ride solo in the yard.

Eventually, we'll be riding the farm roads. L.E. might never want to ride the mountain trails with us, but it'll be fun to hack out on the farm roads.

And, just because I love the pictures, here are a couple more.

I cropped it a bit closer, to remove the buildings and focus on L.E.

Then L.E. cropped it even more,
and the finished product is incredible.

I'm Not Sure I Deserve Skeeter

It's been two weeks since I've had a chance to climb back up on Skeeter. (As I typed that, it sounded like I was going to confession - ha!)

Maybe I needed the almost two years without riding to appreciate what a gem of a mare I have. I mean, she's still pushy on the ground, and opinionated, but she really is a special horse and I'm glad she chose me all those years ago.

She eagerly met me at the gate when I called her, and remembered her manners as we were leaving the pen. Last time, she got in big trouble for trying to push past me instead of waiting until she was asked to follow. We did have a bit of a discussion about approaching the hitch rail. She prefers to be tied to Pearl's hitch rail, because then she cleans up everything Pearl has dropped out of her bowl. When we walk by Pearl's rail and head to our own, she gets sad and stubborn. It didn't take too much to remind her that she needed to walk up nicely to her own hitch rail, but it's definitely something we'll have to work through.

She stood like a rock star while getting groomed and saddled. Which, she should, being an old broke horse, but we're out of practice.

She still doesn't like the mounting block, and prefers me to mount from the ground, but until she loses some weight and I gain some flexibility, that's not going to happen. I'm super thankful for all of my Estes training, though, since Skeets likes to walk off as I mount from the block. She doesn't when I mount from the ground. Do I know that I should dismount and keep at it until she stands still? Yes. Am I willing to invest the time in that right now? No. That's something that we'll work on when it's just the two of us, not when L.E. and Pearl are waiting on us. Yes, I know that makes me a "bad" owner/rider, but frankly, at this point, I'm picking my battles.

We only rode for about 15 minutes around the backyard, working on serpentines, figure eights around a tree and the mounting block, a few laps each direction. When she wanted to pick up a trot, I let her and kept her going a few more steps when she wanted to come back down to a walk. My body is remembering what it's like to be astride and I was much more relaxed this time. Still had to remind myself to breathe while posting, but that'll come back as well.

L.E. and Pearl

It's not a ride if I don't get a picture of her derp ears.

Our backyard has changed a lot in the past couple of years,
the horses don't seem to mind the changes.

The pallets that make up the walls of the greenhouse used
to be our bridge obstacles for the horses.

The ride was short and sweet, and I asked Skeeter to drop me off at the mounting block. I don't recall the last time I dismounted onto the mounting block, actually, I'm not sure I ever have. After a moment of confusion she stepped right up and allowed me to dismount without moving a muscle. It felt very weird (for both of us, I'm sure).

After our ride, I wanted to take her through the archway in front of the greenhouse. It's something I want to work on, because I want to take our Christmas pictures there and it didn't go so well last year. I had laid cardboard down to kill the weeds, and none of the horses liked walking on the slippery cardboard. This summer, I was able to get the flagstone put down and some creeping thyme planted, so it's more like real ground instead of cardboard ground.

L.E. was kind enough to take pictures for us, and I'm so thrilled with how well Skeets did walking through the arch.

You can see how thrilled she is. Willing,
but unimpressed.

Even less impressed with forced cuddles ...

"Ugh, Mom! A kiss?!"

"Are we done yet?"

Funny how she never balks when we're done riding, and we're headed back to her hitch rail to get undressed after a ride, isn't it?

Someone looks pretty proud
of herself, doesn't she?

"Don't forget my 'good girl' treat, Mom."

She's so out of shape that even the short time we rode, she lathered up between her legs and couldn't wait to throw herself on the ground for a good roll. We'll keep with the short rides for a bit, and gradually increase our time as her fitness improves. Now that we're both middle aged, it takes longer than it did when we were young 'uns.

Almost a Week of Rides!

 Well, maybe not a full week, but four out of five days is pretty good.

LE rides way more frequently than I do, as she takes lessons across the way at Inspiration Riding Academy a few days a week. I, however, am 100% a fair weather rider. I did my time riding when the weather was shitty and choose not to any more. 

When I got back from Arizona a week ago, I had to go into quarantine because Jay was sick. That meant I had to work from home. While I generally *despise* working from home, it does have its perks. Namely, the ability to ride in the afternoon if the weather is nice.

January 29

We had a short little ride in the back yard. It had been a couple of weeks since I'd been up on Skeets, so we kept it easy. I'm never really afraid that she'll buck or do something stupid when we've had time off, but sometimes it takes a ride or two to get back in the groove after we've not ridden for a while. It was a nice ride, nothing terribly spectacular about it, but good for getting her moving.

January 31

Since our beginning ride went so well, and Skeeter was being pretty much a rock star, we decided to take our show on the road. The farm road, that is, and ride in the big field to the east of us. Skeeter was feeling pretty good and *trotted* up the road. More than once. Now, as a general rule, she's lazy and won't expend any more effort than necessary, but she was feeling good.

We did have an "oh shit" moment when leaving the property. She veered to the left of the road, right where the irrigation ditch crosses. That wouldn't be a problem, except that there's an old metal grate that sticks up and I was afraid she was going to step down into the ditch and impale us both on that damn grate. I managed to get her stopped and moved over, but I wasn't too pleased. Then she trotted out nicely behind Miss Pearl and I forgave her. We spent a good bit of time in the big field, just walking around. 

Skeets has a big problem with wanting to rush back home, so we spent some time working on slowing down and turning away from home. We did some slow, long zig-zags away from home. In a word, she was amazing. And I don't say that about my mare often.

February 1

No pictures from this ride. I had my hands full with a naughty mare. I should have known things were going too well. She didn't want to be caught, which is rare, then she didn't want to stand tied, which is not rare. Over the last couple of years, she's turned into quite a pull-back. I'd been working around it, but I know she needs to be able to stand hard-tied anywhere, for any length of time, so I came up with a game plan.

She does not pull-back because she's afraid, as most people assume. She pulls back because she doesn't want to stand tied. Now, for the most part, I can just loosely wrap the rope around the hitch rail and fake tie her, and she stays where she's supposed to. Except when she doesn't. She's pulled back when hard tied and gotten away only a couple of times, but that was enough for her to think if she pulls back, she's going to get away. In the vein of making the right thing easy and the wrong thing hard, I came up with a game plan. Every time she starts to pull back, she gets put to work: backing, quick circles, yielding her hind end. This requires me to only tie her loosely (for now), so I can get to the lead rope before she pulls it too tight to release. Even using a quick-release knot, the girl can throw her head up and pull back fast enough to make a quick release a no-release knot.

(I know people will tell me to let her stand hard tied and fight until she realizes she'll not get loose. Except that doesn't work with her. I watched her pull back and fight for almost an hour when tied to a trailer once. Another time, she managed to get herself bound up tighter and bloody her nose. She's got a stubborn streak a mile wide. If I hard tie her and allow her to fight it out, she's one who will end up hurting herself.)

Anyway, I had this grand plan to make the right thing easy and the wrong thing hard. The hitch rail is her resting spot. Man, that worked so well! I only had to correct her twice, then she stood like a mannequin while getting groomed and saddled. I mentally patted myself on the back.

Once we were both on the same page, we had a lovely ride. A bit shorter than we'd hoped because we had to do more on the ground than usual, but it was still a win.

February 2

Ride four. Man, I could get used to this riding frequently thing. Except, between weather and work, it's not always easy.

I thought we'd had a break-through with tying the day before, but in true Skeeter fashion, she had to push it to see what she could get away with. She did lots and lots of work before standing nicely at the rail to be groomed and saddled. If nothing else, she's going to build some really nice butt muscles from all of the quick backing she's having to do.

Again, we had an issue with her gravitating toward the death grate by the irrigation ditch, but we got past it without impalement. The mares took turns being good and less-good. If Miss Pearl was acting up, Skeets was being an angel. If Skeeter was acting up, Miss Pearl was being an angel. Those two definitely keep us on our toes.

I wouldn't call Skeeter barn sour, but she does like to find second gear on the way home. In the past, it had turned into a fight, where I felt like I was ripping her bottom jaw off. (Figuratively speaking, not literally.) LE suggested that I slow her down and then release the reins rather than getting into a fight with her. Perfect freaking solution, wish I'd've thought of that! Turns out, we get along much better if I just remind her to walk and not fight.

Because I don't want her thinking that the ride is over when we get back home, I continued to ride around the back yard. Little missy took exception to that and decided to have a little temper tantrum. We were trotting in what was supposed to be a circle (it was round-ish) and I felt her think 'I'll show Mom!' just before she attempted to break into a lope. Problem is, she's not athletic. Not even a little bit. While she thought she'd break into a lope as part of her temper tantrum, she forgot to tell her feet what to do. The mind was willing, but the body said, 'huh?'. What should have been an awkward at best trot-to-canter transition ended up being, hell, I don't know, stumbling and trying to stay upright. I blew my right stirrup, but managed to stay on and get her pulled to a stop. I couldn't stop laughing at the ridiculousness of it. Her derp ears went straight out to the sides and she had the good grace to look embarrassed while LE and I laughed our butts off. I'm so sad we didn't get it on video, because I know how silly it felt. I can only imagine how it looked.

I made her walk a couple of more laps around the backyard before calling it a day.

Sadly, we haven't had a chance to ride since then, but I'm looking forward to more riding time. In fact, I have big plans for us this year.

First Ride of 2021 (Jan 3, 2021)

 Well, it seems I say this on the rare ocassions that I post, but dang, it's been a while!

I didn't even get our Christmas pictures up. Ugh. Sorry about that.

LE and I have had plans for a while now to ride in the snow. The problem is, when there's snow on the ground it's also cold and I don't like to ride in the cold any more. Last week, I was stranded in Arizona while they had a freak snow storm. It was still warmish, but 20" of beautiful fluffy snow on the ground. Now that's the kind of snow I want to ride in.

But I digress, LE and I finally got to sort-of ride in the snow in January this year. AND... Mom and Beel came down to play as well. When you see the pictures, you'll see that it was only snow riding in the most technical sense. There was (some) snow on the ground and we were riding.

Yes, Skeets, I know. I feel the same way.

Beel slipped at fell at his side hustle a couple of months ago and jacked up his shoulder, so he's on injured reserve. But he came down and hung out with Alloy, and who got to play wrangler horse while Beel adjusted Mom's stirrups.

Alloy's a good supervisor.

Stupid blogger won't let me move this picture. Pretend it's at the end of the post.

We rode around in the back yard for a little bit, before going up the farm road a tiny bit to ride in the "big" field to the east of us.

Alloy bringing up the rear.

LE and Miss Pearl in the 'snow'.

Sorry, all of the pictures are out of order and I can't fix them. Guess that's what I get for not posting in 13 months - I've forgotten a ton.

It was a short ride - only about 20 minutes, but it was still a good way to start the year. Since then, LE and I have been riding when we can. The weather is supposed to be good on Sunday, so I think Mom and Beel are going to come down and ride. I'm supposed to be in class on Sunday, but am awaiting my covid test results. I'm fine, but was exposed and don't want to inadvertently take it to class. If I get my results and they're negative, I'll be in class while everyone else is riding. If I don't get my results, I'll be keeping my distance from everyone, but still going for a ride.

PS, I'm way better about keeping up to date on our FB page. If you'd like to follow us there, click here.

First Ride of 2020

When I last posted, Mom and Bill had brought Skeeter home off the mountain so we could have her looked at by a chiropractor. We didn't do any riding while waiting on our appointment, but I did start taking her for walks like I did with Copper.

She's a pain in the ass on the ground. There were two things I swore my horse would never do: 1) be pushy on the ground, and 2) be food motivated. Guess what I got with Skeeter? Yep, both of them. I think it's going to be a life-long battle with her. Anyway, that's got nothing to do with this post.

Because I thought her shoulder was jacked up, I didn't want to do any riding until she was adjusted. I am a bad horse mom, because I don't have the date she was finally adjusted, but it had to be in the last part of October after I started my new job. So, she went for walks with me (and we had fights every time), but didn't get ridden. L.E. was kind enough to do the chiropractor appointment with me since I had just started my new job, and it turns out it wasn't Skeeter's right shoulder that was the problem, it was her neck. C7 was way, way out.

I don't know how long her neck had been out, but it had to have been months (possibly longer than a year) considering we'd been having issues with her right shoulder for the entire season. After her adjustment she was a different horse - her eyes got much softer and she just in general was less mare-y. I was struck by exactly how amazing Skeeter is - she'd been in pain for God knows how long and was never mean about it. She tried telling us she was hurt, but I was way too slow in picking up on it. I felt horrible for all of the frustration I'd felt over the summer, because she was just giving and giving and I was too blind to see it. She did everything I asked of her unless she couldn't do it, and even then she tried. When she couldn't do it, she didn't get nasty about it, either, she just refused. What an amazing heart my mare has.

Despite getting her adjusted in October, I didn't get to ride her until yesterday (1/5/20). Weather, jobs, etc. all got in the way, but yesterday everything lined up perfectly and we were able to do an easy ride at the neighbor's.

I think she was happy to get to do something. Because I hadn't had an actual ride on her since August 18, I did a tiny bit of circle work with her in the arena, just to see where her head was. It was completely unnecessary - she was ready to be ridden after four and a half months off.

I didn't have any plans in mind, other than just to get on and poke around. Last year, L.E. and I rode a lot over Christmas break and I really missed it, so when L.E. invited me I jumped at the chance.

It was a nice, low-key stroll around the arena. We have a few things to work through. For example, for an entire season, if Skeets stopped, I eventually got down because I didn't want to hold anyone up, or hurt her. So she tried stopping and parking herself several times yesterday. The joke was on her, I was in no hurry and I know she's not in pain, so I just waited her out.

In the past, I always had a case of the nerves getting up on her. Pearl did a job on my confidence as I've mentioned before. However, taking a tumble off of Skeeter last summer did wonders for my confidence. I have zero nerves about climbing up on her anymore, no matter how long it's been. Who would have thought that falling off a horse would help my confidence?

Now it's back to working for a living, but I hope to get to climb up on my incredible mare on a more regular basis.

8-6-16: A Monumental Day (Lots of pictures)

Last week, Jay and I went on a guided trail ride up in Estes as a "confidence building" ride. Jay hadn't been on a horse since Pearl bucked him off in May. It was his idea to go ride a dead-broke horse, and it was an excellent idea. The horse he was assigned was perfect for him - easy-going, calm, and willing. My assigned horse, on the other hand, was head-strong and bitchy. She had a bad habit of cocking an ear back at Jay's horse, then spinning 1/4 turn to challenge his horse. What I learned from my confidence-building ride is that my Skeeter has never behaved that way and is much easier to ride than that mare was.

For a while now, we've been saying, "we have to get up and ride". The stars aligned on Saturday and the three of us (Jay, L.E., and I) were all in the same place at the same time, and our neighbor's arena was open.

With the trail ride under our belts, and some solid rides on all the horses by Annie, we were ready! Off we went to the neighbor's arena.

It was truly a monumental day - I know how hard it was for me to climb up on Skeeter after being bucked off of Pearl, and I have years of riding under my belt. Watching Jay make two big achievements in one moment seriously choked me up.

Achievement #1: first time on Copper since riding in Jessica's round pen in February/March. No support person on the ground, no trainer talking him through, and in a much larger space than the round pen.

Achievement #2: first time up since getting bucked off. For an experienced horse person, stepping back into the saddle the first time is hard - for a green rider, it's a make-it-or-break-it moment.

L.E. rode Pearl beautifully (I took pictures, but they were all back-lit and didn't turn out) - she can really make Pearl glide. All that classical riding training from her past is very apparent. While the two of them were prancing around the arena looking all fancy, Jay and I were happy to work at a walk. Jay's goal had been to just get up and sit on Copper, but took it a bit further and rode him for fifteen minutes or so. Skeeter and I worked on walking over things; walking into a "box" and turning around in the confines of said box; backing through and over things; figure-eights around jump standards; just "stuff" to keep us both interested.

It was amazing to get to ride with my hubby and L.E. and I look forward to doing more of it. In fact, I'm so thrilled with how Pearl is going with L.E., that I think she's ready for Autobot to ride. Pearl's not quite "kid" ready, but I think Autobot can handle her in the arena.

Proud Mommy moment - Skeeter stood where I parked her.

Jay and Copper getting ready

Skeeter offering her emotional support to Jay. (Or she might have been sleeping.)

Checking out Copper's reaction to Jay's saddle

This, right here, is everything. First time up on Copper since March.

Seriously, such an important step for both of them.

And off they go!

Look! My hubby is riding *his* horse!

Copper took such good care of Jay.

Just because I think she's pretty.

We had to re-create this picture because I missed the first, but it's still heartfelt

The three of us in the same place, at the same time, on the 3 Mustangeers :)