DAY RIDES...Round 1

So, I guided my day rides last weekend. It was super fun and I am excited about having that as a weekly job for the summer. I was “orientated” to guiding the day rides as I rode for 5 hours to bring four horses down the road from the ranch to the bakery. Most of the horses are at the ranch for the summer, but we were going to do the rides at a different place for the first weekend because of transportation for the guests. One of the girls that lives in Stehekin, Chelsea, and I each rode a horse and ponied another to get them all down the road. She took me on the trail that I was going to be taking the day riders on and shared tricks and tips for making the rides go smoothly. It was great to spend time with her on horses and get to know more about Stehekin….that was on Thursday. My first riders arrived the following Saturday to go on a ride. I had the horses all saddled and I actually caught the correct ones and had their names right and everything…which may not seem like that big of a deal…but they all look the same…so it can be a bit tough to distinguish between them. Anyway, the ride went really well!! The riders listened and the only issue was the horses continual efforts to grab bites of grass as they walked along the trail. After another ride in the afternoon with four riders, I pretty much had things down as to what to tell them to prepare for the ride and fun facts about the area to share on the trail. Of course, I was also pretty tired after spending all day with the horses, saddling and unsaddling and riding. Sunday was much easier as no rides were scheduled. I actually had a chance to do some leather work on saddles that needed repairs and cleaned them up a bit. There is a nice leather shop with every tool you could possibly need, so that was pretty fun. I hope to do some more there too when I have extra time this summer and even learn some new things. This past weekend I trained another day ride guide, so she will be guiding for the next two weekends. When the rides start going out everyday (June 13), then I will be “back in the saddle.”