Woodside Trails and Lunch at Roberts

Last week I took a young rider from our barn, and met up with my usual trail riding buddy to kick off summer with a trail ride with lunch stop!  I rode with a halter under the bridle and his lead rope tied around his neck.  We rode through Huddart Park and got on the Woodside trail system.  We went during the week so it was pretty quiet, but one of the (many) great things about riding in Woodside is that people are used to seeing, and very accommodating of, horses.  Even though we rode along the road, there are horse paths that run along side it so you're not actually on the road - though we did have to cross a few times.  Cupid has shoes in the front only, the other gelding with us has them all around and had a few very minor skids but nothing critical.  Cupid I think was very happy to have horses in front and behind him. 

Trail (and trailer) buddies :) 

The ride itself was lovely, and uneventful.  We did encounter a doe with a very young, and very cute, fawn, right on the trail in front of us in the park.  We stopped to let them pass, and first they continued along the trail, then disappeared for a moment before crashing through the brush and heading back up the hill towards us.  Luckily the horses weren't spooked by them.  Once we got outside the park we admired the beautiful properties we passed.  I noticed a lot of people seemed to have one horse and one pony - I'm assuming the horse to ride and then a pony companion because smaller mouth to feed.  We saw several very cute ponies.

We rode for about an hour before reaching Robert's, where we took bridles off and loosened our girths and tied up at the convenient hitching rail (as I said, Woodside is awesome, and super horse friendly!) and got deli sandwiches.  I also got an apple for Cupid.  After lunch we took a more direct route back to the trailer, so it was only about half an hour.

It was a very fun day, and reminded me of how I spent much of my childhood - except with a saddle and a lot less galloping!