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The Durbin Ride is an annual treat for the riding club I'm a part of. Each Summer no less than 20+ horse and riders pair up for 3 days of fun. Typically, the ride starts in Randolph County West Virginia and ends at the annual Durbin Days event in Pocahontas County (approximately 30+ miles if I remember correctly). This year, due to road work events, our typical route was not passable. The club chose to spend the 3 days in Durbin, enjoying the entire festival and riding out from the Durbin base camp each day. Honestly, I think I might have like it better. Rather than packing things up each evening/ morning, we still got in at least 40 miles (15 hours or more of riding), and had a solid place each night to come back to. We could not have had better weather for the ride, and my dear Jean-Luc was a doll. We lead the ride a few times (until we were going too quickly downhill for our quarter horse friends). Jean-Luc also spent quite a bit of time in the back or in the middle. He didn't seem to care where he was or what we did, he was just pleased to be walking along with his buddies. Usually this ride is the easiest ride we do all year, however, I don't know that I would say that this time? I won't say it was hard, but I also wouldn't call it the "easiest" thing the club's done all year. We went straight up some old logging paths, rolled around on a few goat paths, and came down one or two places that felt like The Man from Snowy River - those were questionably funny. At one point I was staring at a horse's bum in front of me, then the next thing I knew, the it was just gone! Down we were going, and all I could do was lean back and let Jean-Luc do his thing. I love these people. They're just good horse people (excluding the new members that showed up that have more than a lot to learn about good horsemanship, but that's not what I'm choosing to focus on here). We had a few tumbles this ride, one person in particular took a few more rolls than anyone. By the end of day two, she looked like she'd been in a car accident. The falls weren't really anything to shake a stick at, just life lessons in paying attention really. For example, when someone says there's a stick on your left . . . move to the right, don't look at it. Or when you are going up and down mountains, tighten that saddle! That said, by the end of day 2 we all were ready for some relaxation. Our muscles may or may not have been sore, regardless, nothing feels as good a chilling in a creek in a lawn chair after several hours in the saddle! Follow that up with the annual low country boil, and it's easy to see that I was one happy girl! The last day of the ride was super chill. We welcomed a few more friends to the ride, ignored the weather man saying it was going to rain and saddled up for another 2 hours in the saddle. By the end of that I figured I would be done, however, the person I was trailring with had other ideas. Each year, the end of Durbin Days for the Riding club is summed up with the annual Durbin Days parade. I am not much for parades. I don't know, I just don't like the idea of being on my thousand pound critter in the middle of a few thousand people, fire trucks, random loud noises and more. It feels like a death trap. Death trap or not, I agreed to participate in this one this year. "What am I thinking?" I said outloud before we saddled up. Before I knew it, I was saddled in our fancy duds, polished Jean-Luc's feet and was ready to walk down the road! I can honestly say it was a blast! We had to wait a while to get going, but we found a group of people to ride in the parade with that gave Jean-Luc confidence. Then, while walking in the parade, during the inevitable stops that would occur I would pick out a little girl or boy and ask them to come up to me. They (and rightfully their parents) would look at me nervously. "It's okay," I said. "Hold out your hand." I would then place a small apple treat in their hand allowing them to feed Jean-Luc a treat while we hanging out quietly in the parade. This trick was AMAZING! Not only were children getting to have their first experiences with a horse, Jean-Luc now LOVES parades. My little man was one fantastic critter this weekend. I could not have been more proud! We since gone on to do no less than 30 more miles together on summer trail rides with friends. It's been great and I look forward to posting more about that in weeks to come.
2 Comments
Liz
7/31/2018 07:09:39 am
Sounds like a really fantastic time! So glad y'all had good weather, too.
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Chelsey
7/31/2018 10:25:48 am
It was awesome. And the rides since have been amazing!
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AuthorMy name is Chelsey. HorseGenerator's Cuevo Gold, or as he's known around this barn, "Jean-Luc Ponycard", was foaled in 2004 from Generator's Hurricane & Cheyenne's Little Bit. Top 10 Blog Favs.Archives
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