Hell Rides of October

Way back when I ran a boarding stable I thought it might be fun to have a trail ride and lunch for my boarders. We were situated on a nice quite road, just across the street from a huge Regional Park. So began the Hell rides- at first I called it a Hell Ride because it was held in October as near to Halloween as we could get. And though the weather was usually great, warm and sunny sometimes it was not. 

On the first Hell Ride there were about nine or ten riders of varying ability. No problem- we'd stick to the main trails. The day was pleasant, the horses used to the trails- all except Elsa's horse, a big Appaloosa. Man, he was a pretty thing- black and white and about 16 hands! Elsa had just leased him and he hadn't been in the barn long.  He'd never been on these trails, but the rest of us had and we weren't going to ride far. 

We got to the top of the first hill and that horse saw the open meadow in front of him~ he just bolted!  Did I mention he was an ex Appaloosa RACE horse? He was trained to go faster when the reins were pulled! Elsa stuck with him for about a quarter mile, but the tree line was coming up and he wern't stoppin'. Elsa bailed~ ended up breaking her pelvis. 

The next Hell ride, we had a young woman and a cagey red gelding. It was sleeting and windy- but we were not to be deterred-we rode out, dressed for the weather( flasks in pockets), but we never got to use them. That big red cagey gelding got to the wide open top of the hill, a place we called the lagoons(because of the three lakes up there) and he bolted! We all stood on the top of the hill as she charged in a wider circle around us, hollerin" Hold on! Turn him, turn him!" 

She stuck with that bastard, but ended up walking him home- about 5 miles. 

Another ride ended with one horse kicking another and hitting an artery in a back leg.

And the last ride ended up with one horse kicking at another and hitting my brothers leg. Sounded like a gunshot. He still isn't right!

It got so my friend D's horse would charge for home, then slam on the brakes in front of the ranger station where she always drew up to use the emergency phone!

So we stopped the Hell Rides. It seemed that they were cursed from the start. 

Oh and one last thing- any of the pictures any of us tried to take on that day never turned out. There was always a glare on the photos, or they were over exposed or the went missing in the lab....

Creepy? You bet!