Road Ride Initiation

Last Friday I got initiated. I went on my first road ride.

Hyper ready and waiting to go on the road.

I was given a choice between Harmony and Hyper and I chose Hyper (yes you read that right). Even though I love Harmony dearly I decided to go with the horse that was less likely to spook, shy away from or get overly excited.

So I saddled Hyper and we were ready to go.

Only four of us went out, an officer and two other civilians, because the some of the horses had to do an escort duty. The horses used were Hyper, Heinrich, Hassan and Assurance.

We left the branch and walked down Long Circular Road and though Federation Park to the Botanical Gardens.

 

The route as best as I remember it.

Once in the gardens we cantered up the hill along a trail (orange dots). It was an amazing experience, not scary at all. I’ve heard people describe the experience before and their descriptions of cantering up the hill sounded quite frightening but this was the opposite. It was lovely. Of course I had to duck from the branches in the path and sort of steer him away from the roots.

Then we came down the hill and through the gardens where we stopped for a little while and I got to take some pictures.

Garden vybz

Hyper and Me

Garden view from on the horse

Hyper looking all nice and shiny in the sun

We got to the savannah and started off trotting in a line to the area by Stollmeyer’s Castle. Here we lined up side by side and went into the canter. Heinrich shot out in front, Hassan was second followed by Hyper and Assurance brought up the rear.

We stopped a little before the end of the stretch where the officer explained to us that going too close to the pumping station isn’t safe. We turned to come back up and they asked me if I was doing okay and if I was up for the canter back up to the top. I told them I was up for anything. So we cantered back up on the other side of the trees.

We started off in a line but Heinrich shot out in front again. Hyper followed second in line and I remember at one point feeling him literally change gears and increase his speed. We went straight up to the top and I tried getting him to turn but he wasn’t listening to me. I thought he would run into the hollows with me. Thankfully he didn’t he turned at the last minute avoiding a tree in the process as well.

And that was the end of my excitement for the morning. We went back to the branch and took care of the horses. The other riders were really impressed with my performance (yay). I can’t wait to do it again!