We Ride Sport and Trail Magazine October 2018 | Page 39

Jumpers my whole life and to be honest I’m most comfortable trotting the course for now. I’ll canter too, but I think because I spent most of my life cantering over perfectly flat ground to the jumps in a show ring, the rolling hills are still a bit of a feat for me, but that is good. I have something to work towards! There is always more to work on at Bolender Horse Park.

My girlfriends and I seem to mostly like riding through the water since we don’t experience that too much on the trails around our homes. When we do come across a stream, the practice at the Bolender’s has come in very handy!! My horses don’t look twice at crossing a stream or shallow river any more. All of the obstacles at the Bolender’s have made riding in the wilderness a piece of cake! My horse easily tromps through heavy brush, nicely steps over fallen logs and can slowly turn on a dime to get out of a situation. He can walk a very narrow raised path, thanks to their low and safe balance beam and much more. Best of all, he has learned to know exactly where his feet are.

The obstacle course is good for ALL horses because it builds confidence and like I said above, they pay close attention to where their feet are because they have to! My friends and I also love to end the day calmly trail riding through the beautiful huge pastures and trees to relax. From there, after putting the horses away in very nice stalls for the night, its cocktail hour, complete with appetizers that we all bring along to share. In the summer months we usually do this outside on the patio.

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