Training begins!

By Nancy Gourlay

Four riders showed up at the Big Qualicum Fish Hatchery for a nice, easyride out to Horne Lake and back. We started out and finished up together although we took turns at trotting for a while, (at individual comfortable paces). We took a break at the lake side and shared some bran muffins withthe horses (brrr - cool wind) then came back along the beautiful banks off the river. We met another rider near the end who's keen to join our activities - bonus! It's a great horse-friendly place to have a work-out. We covered about 13 miles in under 3 hours.

BCCTRA Training Ride - March 27

By Joanne Schneider

Four members of BCCTRA participated in the 2 – 2.25 hour ride on Sunday March 27. There were challenges for both rider and horse. The first hour of the ride was through more wider trails giving both riders and horses a chance to settle in. Still in that first hour we went under a train tressle, through a creek , up a long gradual road where we took the opportunity to do some trotting, we crossed two foot bridges, past a large culvert and went through a muddy goey scarry large puddle. All the horses were great. After following more trails through the bush we crossed out onto the logging road and began the second half of the ride – which in my opinion was the funnest part. Mostly uphill , cross a nice clear shallow stream, up a bank and then up and up. Weaving through trees, watching our knees, ducking around low limbs, up a long 1.5’ wide trail along side a steep bank (many thanks to the dirt bikers who built a lot of the trail we were now covering!). Emerging at the top of a forested hill was a clearing surrounding by Arbutus trees and containing a large compound made with saplings tied together for wind buffers, a fire pit in the middle (I’m sure for seasonal use), and of course a blue tarped lean to -- which just happened to flap when the last rider – Kerri Lynne on her young 5 year old was just going past ! We all heard it and held our breaths. He was a trooper and didn’t react. After taking a breather and taking in the surroundings, we carried on down a trail to an old forestry road, then back around and up another winding trail I have jokingly nicknamed “The Crime Scene Trail” - as there is lots of the yellow tape strung across wrong turns or loose banks. There are tight turns and a mossy rock face to cross bringing us back to the compound. From there we retraced our steps back – so down hill now and down the long steep narrow trail - back to the main logging road (at this point a light rain started to fall) . We used the last kilometer of road as a cool down before arriving at the horsetrailers. We were all too busy riding to take photos, but on the cooldown managed to snap a couple photos.