Outdoors classrooms come in all shapes and sizes. For those of us who spend time in the mountains on horses and mules, we can choose to ride the trails in the parks and arenas or we can spend our time helping our animals learn to use their heads, watch their feet and develop calm attitudes when they run into tough stuff in the woods or mountains. I have to admit, I have never ridden in a man made arena but I am fortunate to have plenty of natural "arena's" to work my animals in. The ride today was one where we focused not only on climbing hills to harden muscles and increase the animals wind but I purposely picked a ride that included working our way up through a couple of recent logging sites. Rides up through sites like this really teach an animal how to stay clam, watch their feet and how to think when they come to rough or nasty spots. Lots of slash and broken tree tops to get through, go over or sometimes even go under by the time you make it to the top of the hill. Other than one 6" log I cut through at the foot of the hill simply because it was too long to drag out of the way and to high to jump over going uphill, the "trail" is pretty much as the logging operation left it, UGLY! The first couple of pictures are the trail back into our riding area and the last pictures are of the one logging site we worked our way up this morning. Many folks I know think we are slightly touched in the head for riding where we do but it is a sure fire waay to determine if the animal you are riding has "what it takes" to head to the big canyons.
