The Journey To Peanut Lake

Quzqo got his feet trimmed back on the 15th, and I suspect they were trimmed too short, because he's been ouchy-footed on gravel ever since. So in order not to discomfit Himself, our latest trail ride was as much woodsy trails as possible. We had a bit of gravel road to negotiate, but that's what soft, sandy shoulders are for!

Last weekend we were on a woodsy trail, and paused a moment so Quz could scarf down some green tasty maple leaves...suddenly he JUMPED backwards and spun 180 degrees and started to bolt back down the trail! I remember hanging off his side and thinking "I MUST NOT FALL OFF!!!" and simultaneously regained my upright position and gathered up the yards and yards of slack reins and was able to stop his headlong plunge into the forest. After a minute or so of discussion that involved another spin, a little half-rear, and much backing, I got him back to the scene of terror, his heart was pounding so hard I could feel it through the leather of the saddle fenders... warily, warily he tip-toed to the side of the path as much as he could and giving the ground the hairy eyeball, crept past the horror...

I never saw what that horror was...there was "nothing" there...if it was still there, it was in an alternate dimension that only horses can see. My theory (judging from the violence of his spook) was that there was a snake on the trail that suddenly slithered off. That'd scare ME too. But it traumatized Quzqo to his core, and the entire balance of the ride featured a psychotic obsession with...STICKS! Any stick laying on the ground was at the least given the hairy eyeball, at worst...a four-legged spook-stop and snort.

But that was last week. This week...horses are related to elephants I think, because yes, sticks were still the Spook du Jour. We were walking down a hill on a dirt road, and since Quzqo's toes were still ouchy, he was keeping to the shoulder where the sand was soft. He got so close to the grassy bank that he stepped over a branch laying slightly in his path, and apparently hooked it with a foot, that dragged the branch underneath him, and (I imagine, because I couldn't see and wasn't paying that much attention) hit his hind legs.

Well, that fat little Arabian shot up in the air and BUCKED a couple of crow-hops down the road, dislodging the branch! I laughed and was glad I had my trail saddle and not the English one I used to use in my younger, stupider days (yeah, 40 is "young"). What a maroon, that horse!

We enjoyed a lovely woodsy ride, other than the stick issue, that soon transfered to a stump issue. I'd forgotten my bear bells, but luckily the biggest animal that we spooked was a squirrel.

It's sort of a boring time of year for trail rides. The Spring and Summer wildflowers are past, and the autumn foliage has yet to make an appearance. There's not a lot of birdsong, just the distant whine of chainsaws as people prepare their firewood supplies for winter. We've had so much rain this summer that the landscape is still a beautiful rich green...a pleasant change from summers past where things are dry and brown by this time. Also noteworthy was the absence of bugs...we missed the mid-summer weeks where the deer flies are the worst, I guess that's one benefit to being lazy.

Today's objective was to ride to Peanut Lake, a TINY little lake about 5 miles from the barn, right on the Michigan Shore-to-Shore trail. It's a gorgeous, uninhabited spot, with beautiful hardwoods and pines, and a nice scenic ride through the woods.

We went our usual route, passing the skeletal remains of the dead doe that terrorized us earlier this year. No beer cans on the roadside to collect for the dime deposit, no dirt bikers, no hunters, a very peaceful and pleasant ride...other than the sticks, of course.

We crossed the wonderful wooden bridge built by the Michigan Trail Riders Association back in 1997....Quz just can't seem to step up on that thing, he always has to LEAP. Usually we turn around and go back to the barn at that point, which is what the horse fully expected. Nope, not today, today we go on, we go up the hill and down the two-track at the top. HA! Let's just say we had a little discussion, with the horse having a different opinion than me, but as usual, I won and we trotted up the narrow tree-lined horse trail.

I love the two-track at the top, it's about a mile, maybe longer, with mysterious off-ramps into the woods, probably leading to the meth labs or pot plots or the orgy groves, I don't know, I've never bothered to investigate. But what's nice is the road is straight, level, with a minimum of spooky things, and one can really get their horse into a nice road-eating trot or even a canter and just enjoy the woods on both sides!

There's a paved main road to cross, and we've been working on his manners at these "intersections" as well as with the cart and harness. Let's just say we need more work... he started walking and swung his hindquarters into the road as the lone pick-up on the road came our way... of course he did!

Across the road the route degrades back into the narrow horse trail (keep your toes in or get them snapped off by a nearby tree!), it's beautiful in there (see photo above), all hardwoods and hilly and windy and full of sticks that must be avoided. Usually we see deer, but not this time.

Well, we got to the swamp at the bottom of a very long, steep hill (I used to have to dismount and lead old Tezlu down that thing...it's so nice to have an agile sure-footed relative youngster to ride!)...I was HOPING that the bog at the bottom would have dried up by now, but no, it was still four feet of hoof-sucking mud that I knew Quzqo would have nothing to do with. I suppose if we were other riders, and their horses went over it, he would jump it, but without that, my ride was at an end. No Peanut Lake.

See, now if we'd had a normal dry August, that bog would be just soft dirt, and we could have crossed it without a problem!

The trip wasn't a total loss, I finally got to photograph this awesome tree growing out of a cedar stump...I saw this stump back in 2006 but for many obvious reasons, never got back to photograph it until now. I just think it's cool, in a parasitic Alien face-hugger sort of way.

An uneventful ride back to the barn, the day was so nice, that the horse wasn't even hurrying like normal. I'll take uneventful any day of the week!