First Trail ride with Suri!

Last Sunday I had my first trailride with Suri! It was great and she did so well! As I wrote earlies I had posted an add on a horse forum looking for people with horses to go riding with. Maud was one of the people who reacted and also wanted to go riding so last sunday she came over with her horse and we set out for a trail ride.

For Suri this was very exiting, a new horse and also riding out of the driveway onto the road! She was almost prancing and was very exited. The first couple of 100 meters are along a relatively quiet road (just a few cars and bikes) but soon we came to the challenging parts:) (trail riding in the Netherlands can be quite challenging because it is a small and very densely populated and therefor very bussy country. There are no horsetrails that are just horsetrail, there is ususally a bikepath next to it or also a walking path or the trail is also used by the military or by mountainbikes)

We came to a large road where we had to cross and immedeately go under an overpass. Here I was glad that MauI ds horse went first to give Suri the confidence she needed to follow. Going under the overpass we had to ride on the bikepath so immediately impatient bikers were ringing their bells behind me. I signalled them to please wait (Suri was a bit bouncy) but they started passing left and right anyway. This was a nervous moment but luckily Suri held her calm and nothing happened.

Then we came to the entrance of a castledriveway, this is also the entrance to the woods behind it. There are always some flags but because there were kids camps there were lots of extra beach flags on both sides. Suri was to impressed with being out riding to even notice them I think:)
Then after a short walk along the castle lane we had to go through a bike tunnel under a highway to get to the rest of the riding path. Mauds horse went first and Suri followed with no problem. She was nervous, I could feel it but she stayed very cooperative.

Then came a long stretch of path along the highway. Here we also trotted a while, she felt as if she was hesitating each time to put her feet down, it was all so exiting! Along the path is a bike path so also many bikes came by.

Then we came onto a different path along the railway. Two trains passed (noisy) ans Suri was fine. Then we crossed the railroad and came onto smaller pathes. Here we met some horses and carriages and also some other riders. We had some more long trots and Suri was getting more relaxed here. After a loop in the path we returned for the same way back and again crossed the railroad and through the tunnel and along the bussy road. She was allready so much quieter on the way back! In total we rode about 1,5 hour and I am very proud of Suri. We met lots of new challenges along the way. She stopped at points to look at things (especially fallen trees which were scary) but she never tried to run or turn around and was always in control. She had her ears forward all the time and was exited to be out. We had a great time and it was a great start to our trail riding!

I hope to go out again soon but I will still go with other horses untill everything is completely normal for Suri. Traffic is very bussy here and I don't want to take risks or scare Suri and give her bad experience.

Maud took a picture with her cellphone of us. Here it is: