OKAP,

Glad you stayed on.(secretly wishing I could see the video of you and Jack!)

I had a THRILL this summer.

Emily and I had been bugging Jill (81), the owner of Tory Hill Farm (on Facebook, lotsa horsey pics) about showing us trails. Jill doesn't want to hack out anymore. I am the only person at the barn who will adventure out, looking for trails.

so we organized a groups of students and cleared some old trails. Mike and sons followed along with the saws. There was a steep hill after the creek. But you know how it is...on foot VS on horse. It didn't look impossible.

OH BTW, it was hot and humid.

Next day, Sunny and I eagerly set off. We walked down the long drive way, and took a left down the country road. within a few minutes, the step hillside to our left came ALIVE with a herd of deer. One minute quiet still summer woods on steep hill. Next minute 30 crazy deer galloping up hill. Suunys whole body froze and lept a foot to the right! And you all know how that felt on my back!

Continue walking, then come to the spot where we connect with the trail. BUT the ground is quite marshy and there's a new tiny creek. Just to be safe Sunny leaps over everything as I inadvertantly lean back and watch my life pass before my eyes. (I thought we agreed there would be NO surprise leaping) Thanks to my balanced and straight horse, we land together.

Lovely trot thru the woods, with a couple of pops over logs until we come to the next creek, followed by the steep hill, that's now looking like a challenge...But after all, Jill said they did it all the time, both ways.

Sunny takes a look at the creek and reconsiders. He backed one step and as luck would have it, a hind leg went into an unseen ground hog hole.! Oh dear, suddenly forward looked much more inviting.

He crossed the creek and when he saw the long, steep hill, his nickers went into an immediate twist. Up in 2 point, grab the mane and he BOUNDED up the hill. Literally not a trot, not a canter. Two fronts, two hinds. My feet were nearing his hips as one leather slipped off the stirrup bar, but we continued up.

At the top, I slid off and apologized profusely as he LITERALLY, hung his head gasping for air. Groan....

We gained our composure and walked down the hill a few feet to get the stirrup. Walked to the top. Luckily I found a big log in the brush. Sunny walked to it and let me hop on because I can not get on anymore.

We were both eager to call it a day. he would have gladly galloped home but I insisted on a walk.

BTW my Wondeful boy did this all in his lovely barefeet.

I gave him a long cool bath, turned him out and he jogged to a loose dirt hole and covered himself with Natures Bug Protection! Then galloped off, screaming to the herd who were grazing, unseen by the ponds, to tell them about our crazy adventure.

Jill asked me about the trail..."Worst Ride Ever!", I responded. As usual, she laughed.

I haven't ridden for years, but having grown up with horses I've come off horses from all angles at one point of another. I had a near miss at a show once that I am still heckled for. I was hurrying to get from the barn to the show ring for an english class, so mounted up and trotted out of the barn. Only I wasn't paying enough attention and didn't see that the doorway was a little lower on top of a horse than on the ground! Ran smack into it (thank god it was english so I at least had my helmet on at the time!) and caught myself before coming off the back of my horse. Since I was fine, of course my family was laughing like crazy watching me bounce off the door like that.

Oh, and there was a time I was riding double bareback with my sister for the first time and we couldn't figure out how to get off. So my sister just turned a bit and pushed me off the back!