RTA Jeopardy Trail Ride

Yesterday, Liam and I with our friends attended the Readington Trail Association Jeopardy Trail Ride. The ride was held at Round Valley Reservoir. They were offering a short course (3 miles) or a long course (7 miles). We were planning on doing the long course.

I wasn't able to ride Saturday, so Sunday morning I arrived at the barn bright and early and was able to spin Liam on the lunge to get the sillys out. Lunging him before we went worked really well. When we arrived at the trial ride he was more relaxed than ever before.

We signed up and after talking with the registration people decided to do the short course twice. They said the long course was really rocky and hilly. They suggested to either have shoes or boots on your horse. Pony has four shoes, but Liam only has front shoes. That wasn't even the deciding factor, I figured Liam would be fine without hind shoes, but the pony is 24 and can get really sore on steep downhills. She will hop on them like it hurts her. My friend will get off her on every downhill and the pony is fine, but since they said we could do the short course twice we figured that was the way to go...

This time after registration I swung by the start and let them know that my horse can misbehave a little at the start. They completely understood and told us they will not make us stop and wait to start... We headed back to the trailer and before we knew it were tacked up and on the trail.

We did get lost a few times...  I am not sure how that happened, but I am sure it was because we were gabbing away.

We passed this weird looking jump on our way into the first round of jeopardy questions.

It looked like they took the fire pits from the campgrounds and stacked them up to make a jump. Maybe it wasn't meant to be a jump, but sure looked like one and in my opinion a dangerous one. I hope nobody actually jumped this. We walked around. Liam thought it was very scary the first time around.

The jeopardy questions were a lot of fun. The first round was general knowledge. You had to answer the question with a question, just like you do in jeopardy. My friend was asked the largest height of a pony. Come on, how easy is that??? What is 14.2 hands. I was asked in my opinion a much harder and broader question. When training a young horse what needs to be consistent? That could be anything, I said handling, the correct response was what is signals or cues... Such a broad question. I pouted away.

Next up was Liam's first view of the reservoir.

What is that?

It was so beautiful! We walked this path right next to reservoir for a little while with only a small tree line in between. Then back into the woods for our next jeopardy questions. This question was about breeds. My friend was asked what breed of horses live right off the coast of Virginia and Maryland. Duh!!! OMG easy, what is Chincoteague. Of course my friend got is easily!!! I was asked, again in my opinion, a much harder question. What elegant breed of horse is native to Portugal. Ummmmm, who knows.... The answer was what is an Andalusian... Again I pouted away...

Next up was the first time we saw a little part of the reservoir up close and personal.

 



Did I tell you that the ride had a costume class? We met a fellow rider on the trail dressed up as a medieval horse and rider.

Liam was frightened by this unknown rider and horse in their getup. His eyes got really big... The woman and I both laughed at Liam and his silliness. We let the woman pass us and continued on our way.

Next was the final jeopardy question. The topic was horse care. Again, my friend got the easier question, no fair... My friends question was: when a horse grabs onto a solid surface with their teeth and sucks in air, answer: what is cribbing. She got it easily... My question was: the proper way to pick a horse's foot with a hoof pick, I said: what is along the frog, correct answer: what is toe to heel... Broad question.

I was 0 for 3 with the questions, my friend was 3 for 3... I guess I need to increase my knowledge...

We were back at the start before we knew it and around the trail again for a second time. We had a ton of fun and both Liam and pony were fabulous. Got back to the trailer, untacked and loaded up and headed home without any difficulty...