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[RC] Riding with 2 stallions at Mountain Mettlt - Marlene MossSo here is my ride story and our experience with riding with our stallion, Max. First the ride was a new one, Mountain Mettle, SW of Denver in Colorado. Absolutely gorgeous! Probably one of my top 5 rides for terrain, beauty and views. Camp was in a hay field next to a parking area for the trail system, so there was a covered place to eat as well. We parked at the far end of the field and had to move once to not only put Max where he couldn't see a pen of mares, but where they couldn't see him since they were quite impressed (probably with any stallion!) Max actually did well overnight after the initial frustration. I had an extra Hi-Tie receiver so we moved one to the other side of the trailer since I was riding a mare. Unfortunately the best place was at the end, so Max kept going around the end of the trailer in case he was missing anything. That rocked the trailer, but didn't make any noise. So I slept lightly, but I slept - and of course Stace slumbered like the dead. The start of the ride was tough. The mares near us were taken out to walk and eat and be longed in front of Max and one ended up peeing, so he went into high gear. Putting easyboots on a moving target, yippee! We wanted to duct tape first, but that didn't work, nor did getting boots on all 4. But Max has great feet and we lost the 2 front boots fairly soon, so he did lots of rocky trail barefoot. Mostly the trail had great footing, so slowing for the rocky areas wasn't a problem. We waited for everyone to leave before mounting so it was 15 minutes before Stace made it on since Max didn't stand well with all the horses gone. But once he was mounted, Max figured out the job and away we went. The lower part of the ride is just perfect for trotting and cantering and Max enjoyed it all. By the time we hit the hills we started catching up with other riders. Much of the ride is single track with no room to get off the trail. We were behind riders that kept stopping to let their horses eat even though there was no way for the rest of us to pass. And of course there wasn't any grass where we stood, amazingly fairly patiently so we asked to pass. They were able to turn their horses into the trees, and Max walked right past like he'd been doing this his whole life. The thing about Max is that he is 11 years old and has not had huge amounts of public socialization since he's been only a breeding stallion primarily before we got him. We just didn't know what to expect, but he was really fantastic on the ride. The funny thing is that we hooked up with someone else riding a stallion and she rode with us because we were experienced with riding with respect for her horse too. She's a friend and we own her stallions first offspring. So my mare got to do the ride in a stallion sandwich! We had one incident with a bike - spooked Max a little, but my mare really spooked and I wasn't paying attention. So off I went and I tried to hang on to the reins since I knew she was going to run into one stallion or the other. She drug me and I let go when her foot hit my head. No major injuries (thank you helmet!) but I was a little shaken up. By the time I was ready to go we discovered another problem - a broken stirrup with the lady riding the other stallion. We tried a few things before we finally got going again. At the vet check Max did talk to a couple horses that got a little close, but he mostly focused on eating and drinking - both of which he did very well. On the trail he had excellent heart rate and recoveries but was still a little slow coming down at the checks, but knowing what we've seen conditioning, that is just a temporary issue as he gains more experience. The first loop of the ride was 21 miles or so. I clocked 18.5, but knew I'd lost a little in the valleys. The remainder was to be 9 miles and we had already seen the last 6, basically level, perfect footing. So we took it slow since we had more rocks and had done plenty of downhill trotting already. We let the horses eat which they enjoyed. Unfortunately, that trail down to the bottom part was almost 6 miles, not 3 and with our other delays we were running behind. When we got to the sign that said we had 6 miles and couldn't remember how much time we had for a 30 miler we just decided to go the speed that worked right for the horses and if we made it great, if not, at least it was a gorgeous conditioning ride! The horses knew we were close and really wanted to run, but we kept the pace right for the terrain and yep, had a gorgeous conditioning ride! But we really couldn't fault the stallion for anything other than our slow start which we planned and a couple minutes in pulse recovery. He clearly showed he's ready for more and will not be terribly difficult to handle. As several people mentioned to me, it will be harder to manage people not realizing we have a stallion, or not understanding that another horse can just be a little too interesting to him for a while. But considering he is 11, and not been highly exposed to events like this (he did one 25 several years ago, but didn't camp and was ridden with horses he knew), he really did fantastic. He did not at all let other horses stop him from drinking - and I keep pushing the envelope with my mare and made them share a tank, he could handle traffic better than most new horses I introduce to the sport and he was not tired, nor even foot sore and got excellent vet scores after a 30-33 mile ride of essentially all up or down hills. On top of only having about a month of conditioning. I think he's a keeper! Not to mention he pays his bills! Thanks for all the advice! I think the remaining small issues will resolve themselves in just a few rides. Next will be 4 days of camping at Shamrock in Wyoming! Marlene Marlene Moss www.LosPinos-CO.com - boarding, training, sales www.KineticEquineAnalysis.com - saddlefit for the horse in motion =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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