Starting off the ride --- Spirits are high!

The annual Memorial Day Mule Skinners Poker Ride, held at the Flying M Ranch, was a large turnout despite the ominous signs of downpour on the horizon. The turnout wasn’t quite as large as the previous year when sunny, warm weather prevailed for the entire extended weekend, but, it was still a good crowd of dedicated trail riders looking for a fun ride and social gathering to kick-start the summer.

We attended the event on Saturday, the day it started. This year we attempted an early start knowing that the rain-filled week prior to the event would make for some muddy trails and there’s nothing worse than riding a trail that’s already been traversed by dozens of horses on wet ground! Despite our best efforts of getting up at 5am we still arrived at 9am – behind a sizable group of earlier risers and those who had camped at the ranch. However, the crowd of riders in front of us was small enough that the trails hadn’t quite become “soup” yet.

Ralen and Rain are ready to go!

This year the trail seemed longer than the year before and large sections of trail were newly created (or recreated after some time of non-use) so the path was narrow and the underbrush tight.  The mud made for a vigorous workout for the horses and the going a lot harder on the steep ups and downs. This wasn’t a trail for the faint of heart or beginner rider as evidenced by one inexperienced rider getting his kneecap rearranged by a tree in a particularly rough and tight part of the trail. A bit of horse-and-rider log jam ensued while paramedics worked on getting the injured young man off the trail (and other than being a bit embarrassed by all the gawkers riding by and in some discomfort, he looked like he was going to survive). We took the wait as an opportunity to get off our horses, stretch our legs and shake the tension out of our shoulders.

The Friesian picking up the rear...

Our friend came along riding her 4 year old Friesian mare, Tesla, who I’d spent the previous 2 months breaking and training. As was to be expected, she caused quite a stir with her stunning good looks (the horse that is, although my friend probably turned a few heads too). I have to say I felt a small swelling of pride as Tesla did that 4 hour trail ride like a seasoned pro and gave her owner a wonderful first time Poker Ride experience (albeit they’re both probably hoping that not all Poker Rides are this grueling).

The night before our departure, I overheard Charlie commenting to the kids how we were going to have a great trail ride, our first Poker Ride of the season, where once again we would all get to witness Hershey’s annual nervous breakdown. I had to chuckle but of course immediately went into anxiety mode remembering how Hershey always seems to have some yearly meltdown on a trail ride where there are tons of horses in front and in back of him and lots of general equine commotion. Over the years I have come up with various theories as to why this happens so I can work on the “how” to correct this stressful behavior. This year I’ve concluded that Hershey is just “quirky” – a product of his upbringing no doubt which is only a reflection on my somewhat anxious, quirky and “I want everything in order” type of temperament. However, this year I am happy to announce, Hershey was exceptionally good. Perhaps age is creeping up on us both and we’re just a lot mellower!

So we were a little tired...

By the time we finished our ride the sun was bright and the temperature perfectly warm, the perfect picnic weather which suited us just fine as we had our wonderful custom-made picnic fare from… “Perfect Picnics”. After lunch, much to the horses’ dismay, we saddled up again and rode over to the trail obstacle course across from the parking area. The judged competition had ended but the course was open to whoever wanted to use it for practice. Hershey had no problem with most of the course until we came to the log pile-up and the plastic lion. The log pile-up required a horse to carefully navigate through the assortment of different sized logs strewn around hap-hazardly. Perhaps Hershey was overly tired but the trip through the logs didn’t bode well for us, especially since Hershey tried to step onto (rather than over) the first log in the lineup. From there on through our whole timing was off so basically we kind of crashed our way through. Coming out of the dug-in ditch and face to face with the big plastic lion caused Hershey a long moment of pause. When it didn’t move after a minute or two he got curious and wanted to go right up to it. I finally had to pull him away when he started to lick it. The ditch and teeter-totter gave most of the horses the greatest difficulties. Since Hershey’s years of jumping has given him a love of the activity, we went over the ditch half a dozen times (okay – showing off a little) and his years of in-hand work with my daughter in OHSET has given him a particular love of the teeter-totter which made jumping over the ditch especially exciting because the teeter-totter was right in line after the jump which meant Hershey took great joy in cantering right up onto the teeter-totter and sliding off the other side. Slightly nerve-wracking for me but he enjoyed it!

Dino & Charlie - success through the "waterfall"

Rain on the teeter-totter...not quite sure about this thing...

All in all, it was another great year for the Mule Skinner Poker Ride. My only requests for next year are “wider trails” and dryer conditions. The Mule Skinners can probably accommodate my first request but I think only God can control the second – I’ll get my requests in early though.