Girls' Adventure - Hocking Hills Edition

Almost a month ago now, Pyro and I loaded up for the 4 hour trailer ride to Logan, Ohio. (I've been very busy preparing for Nova's arrival, etc., but more on that in another post!) We met 4 of my girlfriends at Pine Creek Horseman's Camp near Hocking Hills State Park for a couple days of trail riding (and inevitable shenanigans that come with hanging out with some of my favorite women).

The incredible "Overlook" cabin was our home for the weekend.

Meanwhile, the ponies had cozy stalls to tuck into when we weren't on the trails.

Pyro, for one, was pleased to be tall enough to poke his head out. A couple (shorter) horses were not so lucky. 

I've been here once before 4 years ago when 3 of the 4 ladies (who were my bridesmaids) hosted Missy and me for my bachelorette party. If you aren't trail riding by day and enjoying drinks around a campfire by night for your bachelorette party, what are you even doing?? 

Please enjoy this selection of throwback photos: 

They surprised me by decorating Missy at the start of the weekend.

...bachelorette-appropriate decorations

Missy sported a horn like the majestic unicorn she is.

Blessed to have these women in my life <3

Campfire entertainment also included glowing stick figures... anatomically "correct" ones.

Now, back to Pyro's excursion. 

He traveled very well considering this was one of his longest trailer rides ever. I've been trying to dial in what support he needs when traveling, as he often wants to go off his grain when away from home. He thankfully never has issues eating his hay, but it would be REALLY GREAT if he could get the extra electrolytes in his system with his ration balancer. He's prone to thumps and needs the extra electrolyte support when working hard enough to sweat (like trail riding in warm conditions). I started with giving him one dose (1/4 tube) of Ulcergard a day, beginning the day before we left. When he still turned his nose up at his feed at the first meal away (Friday night), I started giving him a dose morning and night, and that seemed to do the trick. He happily ate his grain the rest of the trip. While expensive, I'm glad to have a game plan for keeping his tummy happy through the stress of trailering. 

When away from home, I've taken to putting his breakaway emergency collar on. It velcros on, is reflective, and has my contact info written on it, which is a lot easier to access than his microchip if he happened to get loose. 

Friday evening was spent unloading, settling in, and exclaiming over how nice our cabin was.

We pulled more chairs out onto this porch to enjoy meals with a view.

Said view

After dinner, we walked down the hill to the stables to do night checks and let the ponies stretch their legs. We hand walked/grazed a bit, but I decided to swing up on Pyro bareback, with his lead rope tied around as reins, and enjoy our very first night ride together around the campground. He was tuned into me the whole time and accepted this new experience with ease. Good boy!

Pyro's first night ride!

We ended the night chatting in the hot tub, eating venison burgers I grilled for dinner, and reconnecting over our beverages of choice. It was pure heaven. 

We ALL ended up bringing a loaf of bread and had to commemorate our moment of extreme preparedness. 

Saturday morning started with relaxed breakfast, coffee on the deck, and planning our route for the day. 

"PCHC" = Pine Creek Horseman's Camp, our starting point

As we were solely out to enjoy one another's company, our horses, and the beautiful Hocking Hills, we were in no rush and had flexibility to take breaks and turn around where we wanted. We had a general idea of the maximum loop we'd be willing to do, but were all in agreement we could make it an out and back. 

Track of the out-and-back we ended up doing, starting on the green trail, taking the left branch of the purple trail past the Artesian Well, turning right onto the white trail, and turning around at Crystal Falls to retrace our steps.

There were some serious hills at the beginning and ending of the trail.

Before we hit the trail, we made use of the covered arena at the campground to warm up and get the horses' minds with us. Pyro, unfortunately, was downright feral. His mind was everywhere but on me. When I started with some groundwork, he either ignored or overreacted to every cue. I focused on keeping myself calm and movements smooth. I worked from the softest cue I wanted him to respond to up to as much pressure as it took to get him to *try* a behavior in the right direction in predicable 4 second increments, giving him time to think. Eventually, my refusal to join his chaos got through to him, and he went from launching himself in the air while flailing his head around to *almost* as soft and responsive as he is for groundwork at home. 

There's no media from that chaotic warm-up, so enjoy the height difference between Pyro and Fleur, the grade quarter horse mare I started under saddle 5 or 6 years ago. 

I hopped on and started him through our normal warm up, asking him to be supple through his shoulders, carry himself, bend, etc. He was more "up" than at home, but rideable. When I asked him to transition to canter, he threatened to crowhop. As I was working him through that, the dust from the arena was starting to impact my friend who has asthma. She exited the arena... and everyone else started following her. Pyro was NOT pleased to be left behind and felt like a ticking time bomb as I was trying to find a good note to end on. I admittedly got a bit frazzled as I called one of them back while avoiding starting the day with getting bucked off. Once he was no longer alone, I was able to get a relatively quiet canter and called it good. 

It's safe to say Pyro is taller than all of the full quarter horses we were riding with, and he obviously has a longer natural stride than them. However, he was not feeling confident enough as we started down the trail to lead. This put us in that awkward spot of me having to consistently ask him to slow down and shorten his stride so he wouldn't be right on top of the horse in front of us. He was tense, tossed and shook his head frequently, and took all of my attention to navigate safely down the trail. 

Sweaty even at the start of the trail from how much extra energy he was expending fussing with his head.

I was relieved when we made it to the Artesian Well and decided to stop for lunch. It's a lovely spot, complete with hitching posts, mounting block, and fresh water that bubbles up out of a post.

Pyro settling at the hitching rail.

He shared the "drinking fountain" with his new bromance, dependable Skippy.

Laura looking like a model with Skippy next to the Artesian Well.

Blessedly, we all got a chance to unwind, cool off, and chill out. When we moved on down the trail, it was like Pyro's "reset button" had been hit. It also helped that the trail was wide enough for a bit we could easily pass, and he worked his way to the front, confident enough to lead at times.

You can't see it here, but Pyro was walking happily on a loose rein at this point.

A perk that came from Pyro working himself unnecessarily hard in that first portion of the ride was that he learned to drink at every opportunity. Water crossings have previously been a sticking point with him... but no longer. 

Pyro: "I LOVE WATER NOW"

He actually led through this shallow crossing, a first for him. 

We continued in this relaxed, happy manner to Crystal Falls. It was particularly dry at that point, so the falls were more of a rock formation with a narrow stream at its base, but it was cool nonetheless.

You could hear voices echoing off the rocks like a natural amphitheater. 

You had to walk through narrow gaps that were flooded by the stream, and Pyro handled it perfectly.

Many photos were taken

The mares

It was fun to watch little Fleur truck through everything like a champ. Pyro still occasionally chose to jump the odd patch of mud while she kept a steady walk through everything.

Despite coming back on the same trail, the view from the other direction was beautiful and fresh in its own way.

For the remainder of the ride, Pyro kept the brain cell firmly between his ears. However, in the last mile or two, he began flipping/tossing/shaking his head again. This time he wasn't tense underneath me, but he would flip his head so dramatically that he got his reins caught on his ears multiple times. Yes, there was the occasional bug, but not enough to warrant his reaction. I think we were both happy to get back to camp at the end of the 7 miles.

Looking a bit like an angsty teenager

Much dramatic face itching ensued

Hosed off and grazing. His boots (Scoot on fronts, EasyBoot gloves on hinds) worked perfectly for this ride.

Slow and steady (elapsed time does not include lunch stop)

Once horses were comfortable and settled, we enjoyed a superb crockpot meal that had been cooking while we were riding.

BBQ chicken with green beans and rice, eaten on the deck overlooking the campground

The horses got some more in hand grazing time at night check, and we rounded out the day sitting around the campfire.

The hot tub was also revisited

Sunday morning, Pyro's back palpated slightly sore. (Unsurprising given the extra dramatics he did on top of a long ride, and he was 100% fine the next day.) It wouldn't be fair to ask him to go for another trail ride, which was our original plan for Sunday morning before parting ways to head home. Thankfully, Pine Creek has an expansive obstacle course to play on, so we opted to visit that instead. I worked Pyro in hand while the others rode.

An equestrian playground

Shorten up that limo!

Pyro: "This is dumb, but fine."

There was zero head tossing, and I really enjoyed solidifying his trust in me away from home through this work. We started with things he had seen before (poles, stationary bridges, steps up and down), then progressed to new obstacles. 

Front feet barely on the skinny bridge

Carefully placing his feet like a tightrope walker

The teeter totter was definitely new to him.

After a realizing it moved and building confidence on it...

...he would hop off the end, but was willing to go over it for me.

We ended our session with confirming he understands the assignment when offered water.

Packing up and driving home was uneventful in the best way, and I got home in time to let Pyro settle in his stall, eat dinner at his normal time, and go out with his herd for the night as usual.

One of my favorite moments from the weekend, confidently leading with Pyro

I have had... a LOT of time to unpack and pick through what went right and what went wrong on this trip. There have been many introspective questions and observations of external stimuli and behaviors. While not exhaustive, I'm going to dump a list of those thoughts here:

• While Pyro trailers quite well now, it still (understandably) stresses him out. He needs some serious gut support to avoid any negative impact.
• Even though he trailered consistently last year, including a trailer ride about the same length as this to the ranch horse show in Ohio, he hasn't been out and about a ton this year, and he has NEVER trailered this far without Missy. I took the year off from showing, and this trip was a big step up from the 30-60 minute drives we've done for day rides a few times this season. It was his first time staying overnight away from home in about a year, and he's still young enough to need more consistent exposure to and gradual increase of asks like this. 
• Being stalled overnight when he's used to night turnout (where he plays HARD with the other geldings) appears to be a LOT to ask of him. I think he needs more support from me in this regard to be successful. While I used hand walks, hand grazing, and ground work on a 12 foot lead this trip, I think he would benefit from getting to lunge and really move his body as I bring his brain online prior to riding.
• While I tried my best to be the calm, clear leader he needed at the start of our ride Saturday, his threats to buck definitely rattled me. Yes, we worked him through it, but I was shaking from the adrenaline dump when we left the covered arena. It's possible that part of his tension at the start of the ride was him feeding off my nerves. We both got to regulate our emotions and return to baseline over the lunch stop. I'm filing that bit of information away for the next time I can't seem to get him to come back down emotionally. 
• This fussy, head flinging behavior on the trails is relatively new. Yes, he'll "circle bird" at play in the pasture, but this consistent flinging of his head is unusual. The trail ride in Brown County prior to this trip was the first time I had noticed the behavior, and he exhibited it (along with tension) when we popped back out in the sunny, hot, clear cut area towards the end of the ride. On this weekend, it was worst at the beginning and end of the ride, through the hilly portion where it was quite hot on top of the ridges, and he was sweating a lot. As I've ticked through possible triggers (bugs, sweat, light or wind if it happened to be head shaking syndrome...), the situation I've been able to narrow down is when he sweats in that rainbow halter bridle. If he sweats in his regular leather bridle at home, even in the bright/hot/buggy outdoor arena, he doesn't fling his head. He didn't do it the first two trail rides of the season when he went out in his leather bridle, despite one being extremely hot and sweaty. He stopped the behavior on this trail ride when he got to cool off over lunch, then started again when he got hot and sweaty again. I think he hates sweating in the halter bridle! I'm not sure if it's the biothane or the fit that he takes exception to, but I will not be using it on him going forward. 

All in all, I'm so grateful I got to go on this trip. There were a lot of "building my horse of the future" moments, but there were also a lot of really good behaviors from Pyro, and we ended the weekend on a great note. I'm trying to give myself some grace while working towards better supporting Pyro through excursions like this. Most importantly though, it was such a pleasure to spend time with my pony and reconnect with my friends in an incredibly beautiful place. 

Thankful for these horsewomen!

Here's to getting out there, doing the thing (even if it's not smooth sailing), and going on adventures with the people who matter most.