# Rode to work!



## Iseul (Mar 8, 2010)

Soo, today I took Alahna to the shop to turn in paperwork! I kept telling everyone I was going to ride my horse in one of these days when I had off and I finally did it! I gave warning to my foreman that I was riding her in and I guess he told everyone and they were all outside waiting for me at my estimated arrival time, haha.

We took off around 11.45 and galloped without a stop (she took off..which, I was sure we were over, but I guess it's back to the drawing board on that one...) for about a quarter mile (maybe she ran QH races? XD ) and then we finished the two or so miles at a snail walk because she was exhausted..lol. She listened perfectly to the rest of my cues except for stopping. Even galloped alongside a car at one point in there..haha. But after the semi-dangerous part, she was an absolute angel. She had to look at the horses at the three farms along the way but never evem thought to take off running with them, which I figured since that's all she did last time (though they weren't quite as rowdy before). She didn't bat an eye at the barking dogs in yards (which I'm not too worried about because she'd kill them if I let her), gave the stink eye to a large tree stump covered in moss, and she didn't even pay attention to the van that honked as a thank you (I got off the road for him to pass) and the few jerks who flew past going 50mph+. We stood and talked to two people along the way who told me she was absolutely beautiful and the one old man laughed so hard I thought he'd break a rib when she shook, haha.

When we made it to the office, everyone was already outside and waiting, haha. My foreman gave me a big wave and I forgot to take a picture of our sign out front! Everyone absolutely LOVED her! My foreman laughed his *** off when I handed him my folded up paperwork for the week to him like I was a messenger. The shop mechanic loved her and joked about how his three minis would have to stand on top of each other to be as big as her, haha. One of the joint owners was leaving a few minutes after I showed up and to my surprise, he got out of his truck and came over to pet her, talk about brownie points! LOL
So, then we rode back home and ended up with a van driver up our butts (maybe 12ft behind us) that I pretty much cussed out as he swerved and floored it past us as I was turning up the driveway to the barn. -.-'

But, Alahna did absolutely great and we'll definitely be doing that more often! The barn owner was worried about me going out on her. He asked if I was sure and to be careful probably about...500 hundred times in the 10 minutes we talked before I left, haha. All in all, I had an awesome day and Alahna got a handful of treats when we got back. I'm taking a half day at school tomorrow to go out with a friend to the county (I think?) park and ride the trails (about a mile down the road the opposite direction) 

Btw, I usually stay in my lane, but in the one where I was in the opposite lane, there was a blind bend behind me in my lane and no shoulder or escape route..so we crossed beforehand and all was good

Anywho, this is the first ride on the road I've taken without anyone being with me (either another rider or a friend following me in my truck when I moved barns haha), so I'm very proud of her and excited to do more of it!


























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## Britt (Apr 15, 2008)

Sounds super fun!

I rode horses with some friends to where I work a few months ago. I work only 12 minutes from my house, but it's a much, much longer horseback-ride, lol... especially at just a walk!


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## Iseul (Mar 8, 2010)

I hear that! I meant to add in my post that I made it there at 12.30. Made it about 2 miles in 45 minutes, lol. My barn is 5 minutes away from my work.

I honestly didn't even realize how long it actually took, I had so much fun seeing people drive by, waving, and just looking at the scenery that I usually drive by too fast to notice, haha.
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## Saddlebag (Jan 17, 2011)

In Amish areas the big box stores have built shelters for the Amish horses.


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## Darrin (Jul 11, 2011)

We bought a puppy from a breeder that ran a tack store. When I want to pay for him I decided to ride my horse there and back, about a 3 hour round trip. The breeder was shocked to the core when I showed up on horse back but loved that I did it. Only had about a mile of road, the rest was trail along the river.


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## waresbear (Jun 18, 2011)

Love it!!!!


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## EdmontonHorseGal (Jun 2, 2013)

i remember way way back in the day, me and a couple friends riding our horses over to the local radio station to pick up some thing we had won. it was all back roads and a ravine to cross, but it was in the city. and riding down in the trails in the ravine that sliced through the residential area.

i'm so jealous over your tiny amount of snow left Iseul! we still have soooo much here.


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## Iseul (Mar 8, 2010)

Oh, don't be too jealous, we're suppose to get some storm to drop 5-6in sometime soon according to the weather (which I'm sooo hoping is wrong)..But I also spotted some 60* days in the 10 day!

Someday I'm going to ride down to the gas station..I have to spot out the road first, because there are a TON of blind hills and bends... o.o'
I might to McDonald's too..it's all backroads (cross one route) until you get into town, and there's enough shoulder to make a new lane with..but there's tractor trailers.. ;;
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## kiltsrhott (Mar 11, 2012)

That would be so much fun! The ride was probably good for your horse to see so many things along the way!

I would love the opportunity to ride my horse around to different places, but sadly I don't live in an area where I'm comfortable riding on the roads. We have a lot of winding, country roads with blind turns, no shoulder and speed limits at 40 -50 mph. Though we have a lot of horse owners in the area who would be respectful if they encountered a rider on the road, many drivers have no clue and would behave dangerously whether they were aware of how dangerous their driving was or not. We're also about 10 miles away from the nearest town and that's quite a hike on some scary roads! Someday, I will ride my horse through a drive through or an ice cream window or something, just for kicks.  I'll wait until we're at a show grounds within walking distance of a place like that and stop for lunch or dessert. I wonder how my horse would react to that...


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## EdmontonHorseGal (Jun 2, 2013)

there is only one road i can access from my barn before i hit either major highway or residential, and people fly down it. and there's construction happening right across from the barn too, so i don't think we'll be doing any road/ditch riding any time soon. 

hope the storm didn't cause too much grief for you. we got a good size dump of snow the other day, but most of it melted yesterday, thank goodness. spring is here!


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## Iseul (Mar 8, 2010)

We ended up only getting about an inch last night instead of what we were supposedly going to get, so I'm glad for that, lol.

I ended up taking a half day at school to go out again yesterday, haha. Rode down the road with another boarder/friend on her gelding to the park to ride the trails. More dogs (which she almost killed one), cows (which she wanted to play with), and some kids that wanted to pet the ponies and Alahna was having none of that..lol. She did impeccable again, as I expected. Tried to take off after a truck that passed going wayyy too fast, but that was corrected before anything happened.

I did decide that we're going to be road riding much more often though, at a trot. She doesn't do well working on things in the arena, so I guess our pace work will have to be done on the road. Plus, I need to get more muscle for her trot (extended is all she'll give me, lol) and she needs to build muscle up for show season.
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## 6gun Kid (Feb 26, 2013)

When we were kids, after football season, several of us would ride our horses to school and turn them out in the practice football field. A practice that was openly applauded by the coaching staff. We kept the practice field mowed and fertilized!


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## Oreos Girl (May 24, 2011)

My dad and I rode our horses into the town from the state park. It was in Crawfordville, GA. Can't ride in the state park outside of the designed equestrian area, but there was a dirt road that runs behind. I didn't want to ride all the way into town but my dad was like just a little bit further. I would say can we turn around yet, just a little bit further. We got off when we got to the courthouse. Ended up tying the horses to the hand rail off of the Mayor's office. Horses did really well, school buses, tractor trailers. April (my dad's new horse) decided she didn't like those powered 4 wheelers that little kids ride.


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