Trail Ride in Woodside

Since I had the week off from work, I arranged a trail ride with my friend.  Cupid had a minor abscess/foot soreness earlier in the week, but with an epsom soak and few days of rest and packing with Magic Cushion, he seemed good to go.

The day before I fed him off the back of the trailer, and we had no problem loading.  He was a little alert when I got him off the trailer, but stood nicely while I tacked him up.  He seemed a little anxious as we set out.  We were still alone, as we were going to meet our friend up the road.  He didn't like a neon sign shaped as a person and skittered by it.  We also had a little trouble passing by a few chickens!  They were on the other side of the road, but Cupid stopped and stared, and hesitated before passing them.  I'm not sure he's seen chickens before, but the place I got him from did have peacocks running loose!  I knew he must be nervous because he didn't try to stop and eat grass. 

Ready to hit the trail

Once we hooked up with our friend he settled down, and was good the rest of the ride.  We crossed several little bridges, without batting an eye.  We also crossed a dry creek bed with a lot of big stones, and a truck and tractor doing some road maintenance.  We walked through Huddart Park, and came out and back around through the Woodside trail system.  These are along residential roads, and we passed a few other riders, horses in paddocks, people walking dogs, cars, and a lot of bicyclists without incident.  Then we saw a pasture with over a dozen deer, and I silently wished they don't stampede!  The deer were all walking our direction, and Cupid had his ears up, but luckily the deer did not start to run so we were able to walk by quietly.

When we got back to the trailer and I dismounted I noticed my knees hurt, which usually means I was carrying a lot of tension.  Luckily Cupid did not feed off my tension.  He was actually quite good, so I need to relax myself more, to help further relax him.  Though I think both Cupid and I have made a lot of progress this year being braver in new places.  When we started out and Cupid was anxious I made sure I wasn't holding the reins too short, and kept my legs on (lightly).  Hopefully we can get a few more trail rides in before winter really hits.