Appaloosa Horse Association of Alberta

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June 2nd  (weather permitting) - Novice/Youth Sat. Trail Ride/lunch

June 16th Fathers' Day ride.

Sept.15 & 16

Sept. 29th

Oct. 8th

2.  Foals with mares must be haltered and led.

3.  Red ribbons on tails of kickers.

4.  Trail boss has absolute authority.

5.  Try to keep one horse length between horses.

6.  No dogs.

7.  Anyone under 14 yrs of age must be accompanied by a guardian.

8.  Trail boss assign drag riders.

9.  When going through a gate, pass through single file and wait until everyone has cleared the gate.

10.  No tie downs (river hazzard, etc ).

11.  Iincase of runaways or other accidents, dismount, hold your horse and get off trail.

12.  No abuse of horses.

13.  No smoking, esp in dry conditions.

14.  No littering.

15.  No drinking of alcohol during the ride.

16.  No running when in a group, or past other horses.

17.  Someone carries a first aid kit.

However, the only AHAA members present on the 2006 rides, were Val Beattie and myself. We both hold dual memberships, so AHAA representation was merely coincidental.

 I thus have a proposal for future trail rides, and recommend that the trophy for AHAA trail rides for 2006 not be awarded.

The Trail ride buckle should in the future, be awarded  for miles ridden on AHAA sanctioned rides. This would serve two purposes:
a/ place the AHAA trail riding buckle in line with the AHAA show buckles
b/ encourage AHAA members to travel and to host AHAA trail rides in their area

Now to the rides that took place

May ride took place at Bull Hill. There were only four participants , two of which never made it out of the parking area. Hans, myself , Val Beattie and Bruce Beattie showed up, while the remainder of the Sundre group decided to ride elsewhere with the Bowden Light Horse.

Bruce and his great white steed, Snowman had a wreak mounting. Like all us oldies, Bruce sought ground advantage in order to mount a fairly tall horse. A gravel pile at the start of the ride seemed ideal. Somehow Snowman wound up falling over backwards, with Bruce making hard contact with the ground. Could have been those hoof boots wife Val never tried at home first???  Well, us women are used to taking the blame!
Finding nothing broken, Val and Bruce assured us that they could make it home, and encouraged Hans and I to continue on the ride. (guess that would cinch my AHAA trail riding award, as I was also on the remainder of the rides! Pointless! )
At our noon hour break, Hans and I were pleased to see that we were still packing Val’s coffee thermos, filled with delicious hot coffee generously spiked with Irish Cream .Meanwhile, back at the parking area, Bruce was looking foreward for a bit of fortitude in the soon to be discovered, missing thermos!

The June ride was moved from the original location of William’s Creek to Pioneer Ranch, due to the wet conditions  Turn out was again small

No rides were held in either July or August

Sept ride was held at Neechi Valley. We encountered racing dogs and horses, bent on rounding up the cattle on the lease land. This provided a bit of excitement, but thankfully no wreaks. Weather was excellent

The final ride of the year was the annual Thanksgiving ride, held at Pioneer Ranch, with a pot luck supper afterwards at Shiela Watson’s The ride was uneventful, except I soon discovered that hoof boots on all four feet provide very poor traction once they become packed with mud !Einstein and I were literally slip sliding away!. 
Cows that recently had calves weaned off them tried to beat us through several gates leading back to the home corrals and their darlings. Going to make cowhorses yet out of our pleasure horses!