The Trail Drive

Driving the horse down the road is a blast, but it's even more fun with company!

This late afternoon I was hitching up Quzqo for a drive 'round the (4 mile ) block, and imagine my delight to see Bob and his wife, and a few boarders were also tacking up for a trail ride! We all finished about the same time, and as I was getting into the cart outside the barn, the trail riders all emerged from the indoor arena, and we all set out together!!

Now there's no way I can take a cart on a horse trail (well, not the one-horse-wide ones anyway), and since I saw the riders were heading South to take the long route around the property, I told them I'd probably see them up on the road, and Quz and I headed off down the main paved road Northwards!


By the time we made it to the road and leisurely walked up the hill, the trail ride was halfway up the hayfield perpendicular to the road. We waited for a few minutes at the top, until an approaching car made me move the horse out of the way, and seeing the riders were still about 1/4 mile away, and I was bored, we continued on down the road and down the steep hill.

After we'd made it down the hill, which takes a while because Quzqo is very careful, pushing his butt back into the breeching to keep the cart from running up on his heels, the riders finally crested the hill and made their way down towards us. We waited for them to catch up, Quzqo straining to listen and turning his head to try to see what was coming up behind! He could hear the snorts and hoofbeats and the voices, but those darned blinkers kept him from seeing. When the horses magically appeared within his field of vision, he did startle in place, but then relaxed, and seeing that none of the horses were spooked by the cart, we walked along with them!

That was different...let's just say "Dusty", ha! Things are a lot dustier down at horse-butt level with half a dozen horses walking down a dry dirt road...not that appealing!

The riders soon took a right turn into the woods down an old logging trail, and I bade them farewell, and we continued down the nice dirt road at a snappy trot. Apparently Quzqo's feet no longer bothered him, and he was willing and able to do his best roadster imitation!

We headed North on the paved road, and I got Quzqo trotting again; the little bugger actually broke into a canter before I slowed him! I heard something unusual coming up behind us, turns out it was a tractor with a front loader...hmm...that should be okay...???? They passed us, and Quzqo tensed up but didn't spook...until the big white pick-up following the tractor went BLASTING past, and poor Quz about jumped out of his harness! The driver had a big shit-eating grin on his face...yeah, well, there's a special place in Hell for jerks like you, my friend!!

Today we did something different...when we got up to Bronson Lake, we turned left instead of just wimping out and heading right ("around the block"). If you go left, you go down a dirt road bordered by some of the downright scariest redneck hovels in the township. Quzqo usually spooks a couple of times along this stretch when I ride him, how would he behave being driven? It was pretty quiet, nobody working on the wrecked cars in the driveways, nobody sitting on the porches of the singlewides, drinking beer, nobody driving their ATVs or dirt bikes...looked safe enough.

Once we got over some small hills, I got him trotting again, and he went right to it, head high, tail up, just happy as can be! It didn't take us long to make our way to the end of the road. It does continue into the woods as a two-track, and eventually joins the Michigan Shore-To-Shore trail, but I couldn't picture anyplace wide enough in there to turn a cart around (and there's no way I could go all the way through to the paved road on the far side...it's a little too adventurous in there for a horse and cart)(famous last words!). We turned around at the cul-de-sac (fancy name for a dirt turnaround spot), and headed back just in time to see the trail riders from the barn emerging from the woods waaaaay down the road by the redneck hovels!

Yeah, I'll admit I felt a little snarky, seeing as I was obviously covering more ground quicker than them...I suppose if they stuck to the roads and did as much trotting, they'd be heading home too, but that's not the point of a nice trail ride. We passed by them as they headed for the woods and we headed towards home.

We pretty much followed the same route as the previous time, heading down the residential road, absolutely nothing spookworthy to be seen. In fact, it looked something like this:




Sorry, no sound, just imagine the clip-clop-clip-clop and the squeak of the leather and jingle of the harness hardware!

Uneventful drive South on Lake Ann road other than seeing a white pick-up hauling a BIG white 5th Wheel travel trailer approaching. I just stopped the horse, turned his head to the right, he couldn't see it coming due the blinkers, truck passed, horse was oblivious, we continued on!

It was just a beautiful afternoon/evening, temps in the upper 60's, only bugs being the little no-see-ums floating in the sunshine, the colors on the trees are just beginning to turn...totally glorious! There'll be precious few lovely days like that before winter sets in, I intend to enjoy as many as I can!