A Very Interesting Ride in the Snow

It's 3pm yesterday afternoon and Derek calls asking what the plan was for the day (after work he is referring to). Well I have to leave for swimming at 7:30, I asked if he was wanting to go for a ride and if so around the neighborhood or Lords Hill or ?? Long story short, I left work at 3:10 (thanks to Greg for covering for me!) and headed home so we could load up and get in a quick ride at Lords Hill.

We get there, all saddled up and on our horses by 4:20. which would give us 2 hours to ride. Well for those that have not been to Lords Hill, the entrance/beginning of the trail is a downhill little section. Okay, back up... Let me say that as I saddled my horse, he seemed fine. After he was saddled and untied I moved infront of him from his left side to his right side and touched his neck.. I dont know what the heck, but he started freaking out, backing up and rearing. Nothing out of control, but it was very weird. He was acting like he wanted to "blow up". I checked his saddle tightness, if I tighten him too quickly, he does this, but the saddle wasnt too tight, I dont know maybe he thought it was too tight and when he moved it panicked him. I have to be a little sensitive with my horse. I have a 3 step process of tightening his saddle to ease him into it or else he gets upset and being that we think he might have sight issues in one of his eyes, I work a little slower around him.

So anways, after that little mess I get on and he still feels like he is uncomfortable under me.. he seems extra sensitive to my legs, so as we are walking through the parking lot, I put both legs into him and de-sensitize him a little to get his spooks out I guess. As we get to the trail entrance, we see that the hill still is full of snow, nothing deep, but a thin layer of snow/icey type condition.. Crap! As we start to gingerly walk down the hill, Edgar's back legs keep sliding a lot and he is not wanting to keep going. He takes a few more steps and slips more, so I stop him and I can feel that his body is shaking and he has that feel of wanting to blow! He just didnt know what to do and I think it was scaring him that he had no control over his own legs. So I immediately jump off and decided to walk him for the first 1/2 mile! There are 4 bridges to cross in that distance and I decided it was safer to stay off of him until I was past anything slick. Derek and Smalls did just fine, slid a little, but Smalls wasnt bothered by it. 2 of the bridges still had an inch or more of snow on them, 2 were clear. So after the 1/2 mile, I got back on and we worked our way through the trails, avoiding any down hill areas that might be snowed over still. We did have to back track a lot and get very creative on our ride to find a way to avoid the snow as it was just very slick and even on the flat areas where there was snow, it was icey underneath and the horses would slip.

As we finished our ride, I did ride him all the way back to the trailer, across the bridges and just took it very slow. It is mostly uphill/flat on that section back. So what was supposed to be a fun relaxing 2 hour ride, turned into a challenging 1.5 hour ride. It was still nice to get out, but not sure I will go back there if there is snow on the ground.. just too difficult to ride in.