We're super spoiled here for trail riding - at the place I was boarding there was a nice lake about a 30 minute hack away, and tons of nice forested trails.
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| A typical scene |
Moving where I have, I'm in a more residential area. When I had the horses at home years ago, I usually had to spend a bit of time on paved roads and sidewalks to get to the better riding. But, across the street at S's, she's built a lovely network of trails that directly access unlimited amounts of crown land. We could literally ride for weeks and never touch pavement.
I've been doing the odd neighborhood loop anyway, and it's somewhat amusing - Sophie happily walked everywhere through the forested part, through ditches, over bridges...but a fire hydrant and a storm drain almost had her pooping herself :) Civilization isn't something my two have seen a lot of, apparently. Bridget being Bridget, she's fine with everything, but the noise of the city bus driving past us had her looking twice.
Mostly, though, we've been hitting the new to us trails and enjoying some new scenery.
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| Look closely and you'll see some friends we took for a walk last night. They went ahead for a while, then hid in the bushes and let us pass, then popped out to follow us for a while longer. Bridget and her chestnut eared friend think they're big dogs and barely pay attention to them. |
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| Friend S enjoying a spectacular view across to Vancouver Island. |
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| 600 privately owned waterfront acres that we have permission to ride on and rarely see anyone - just us and the wildlife. Just a little spoiled. |
I'm terrible for not taking trail riding photos, which is a shame because our surroundings are stunning. Perhaps the different sights and new areas to explore will change that? I'll try!
Wow, what amazing trail riding! I'm so jealous, that's the one way I fault my current barn: it's in a triangle of land surrounded by very busy state highways on 3 sides and some farmland owners that are bitter my BO bought this land, so no trails within 30 minutes of the property for us :(
ReplyDeleteOh, been in that situation - feels like it's so hard to find everything in one barn. Currently, the nice arena is a trailer ride away, so come winter I'm going to be extra jealous of your on site indoor :D
DeleteVery cool! The first picture almost looks like a jungle and I always love being able to see the water. Around here most of our trails are under the redwoods, or rolling hills with oak type-trees. The horsey areas (Woodside and Los Altos Hills) have great trail systems throughout town so the residential stuff is typical. And lots of deer, turkeys, and coyotes but no bears!!
ReplyDeleteIt looks so gorgeous there! The 'jungle' pic is our typical riding, open spaces are a novelty for us. Bears, tho...so many bears. They're stocking up for winter and are everywhere right now, even a huge one in my front yard last night when I got home, just casually crushing the fence as he left lol
DeleteBeautiful! More pics please?
ReplyDeleteI'm going to try to do a better job of pics! I feel like I got so used to the old trails I stopped appreciating them. It's nice to have a refresh :)
DeleteI am so jealous of your access to this. Also happy for you.
ReplyDeleteThe last couple of years have been a lot tougher than I've shared on the blog so I'm fully appreciating this change. If you're ever randomly in the area, I'll take you out trail riding!
DeleteWow, that is absolutely gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteThe view in the ocean pic is gorgeous, and unexpected - you go down a steep, narrow, forested trail and pop out there!
DeleteSo jellin. I've got miles and miles of gravel roads to ride on - with my barefoot, thin soled horse. (Thus it doesn't happen.) Even if I haul out to the local-ish trail area I always seem to end up on a gravel road (they use some of the areas as community pastures, so need road access). I so wish for miles of trails with good footing.
ReplyDeleteI could do without the big black dogs, however.
Our footing isn't much better than the gravel roads, unfortunately...it's a pretty rocky, mountain-y area. We do a lot of walking. I miss riding in the community pastures - wide open spaces aren't much of a thing here! Fingers crossed hard, the big black dogs are sometimes curious, but easily chased away for the most part. They've got a pretty easy life around here and tend to be fairly laid back.
DeleteSO awesome you are able to tackle these great trails!
ReplyDeleteI'm really enjoying it!
DeleteOh what a beautiful spot!
ReplyDeleteSo pretty. Apparently there is a beach access somewhere nearby we'll explore next. I suspect it's typical pebbly beach shoreline not overly conducive to more than a walk, but still, it will be fun.
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