Arabian HORSE 🏔 Trail riding in MONTANA! POV

I got to the barn quite a bit early today because I have a really fun trip planned. It is almost seven o'clock and these boys are really excited to get turned out on pasture early this morning. They've slowly been getting their turnout time increased every day and today they are going to spend the whole entire day outside grazing. Most of the time the weather in Montana is awful but there is about two months out of the year where it is nearly perfect. Today I am going to take advantage of that by taking Ziggy on a little field trip. I want to make sure he eats a bunch of his breakfast first so I'm going to continue doing my chores. Nigel gets some alfalfa leaves while his mash is soaking. I don't have time to turn Whiplash and Goose out and Goose was not very happy about it. He's just gonna have to make do with his alfalfa and ration balancer this morning. I want to make sure I get to where I'm going with plenty of time so I am going to skip cleaning up all of the stalls this morning. I noticed Tiny was making a big ruckus out back and she alerted me to two very suspicious hot air balloons that were flying this morning. I got a lot of stuff ready yesterday but I am going to load some extra hay in the trailer for Ziggy. We don't have very far to go this morning but it's always nice to have a snack while you're in transit. I filled up a fresh jug of water for him to drink when we get where we're going. As I continue to do chores it looked like those hot air balloons were getting closer and closer. Ziggy is going to get a mash this morning just so his belly has some things in it while he's traveling and throughout our activities today. Frisco Bill is having his usual this morning and the last one to feed this morning is Nigel. I have a few small things to get ready before we leave so I'm just gonna go back into the barn and grab those. I am gonna bring Ziggy some pellets to have after our ride and then I am bringing this gel to put on his muscles. He will probably be sore and with those things loaded up I am pretty sure I'm ready to hit the road. Tiny was really adamant that I go make sure the hot air balloons were not doing anything to the horses. All of the horses have seen these hot air balloons before. The ones that are a normal balloon shape they don't seem to mind but sometimes there are some pretty weird looking ones that end up in the sky and they kind of get a little bit upset about those. Pretty much the only horse that really has a problem with it is Pete but he's gotten a lot better over the years. It seems like it's the perfect morning to take out a hot air balloon so I'm guessing I'm gonna see quite a bit more of these over the next couple of days. I am running a little bit ahead of schedule this morning so I did have some time to fill up the boys water and make sure the balloons didn't get too close for comfort. I am honestly not even sure if these horses have noticed them yet. Okay Pete. It seems like they're all preoccupied with breakfast and don't really care one bit about the balloons getting really close. Just when I thought they were ready to land they shot back up into the sky and got pretty far away so I feel confident that I can leave these boys to their breakfast and they won't have any trouble with the balloons. With a few minutes to spare I'm gonna turn off this water and then go ahead and load Ziggy up in the trailer. I have hauled Ziggy a bunch of times since I got him but we haven't really gone on any longer trips. I have been working him every day. Most of the time I lunge him for a little bit to loosen up his body and then ride him for 15 to 25 minutes. He has definitely been getting bored in the arena so this should be a good test to see how good of a trail horse he actually is. For anyone new to my channel I bought Ziggy about two months ago from an auction. He is 18 years old and he was previously working on a dude ranch. I typically would not test ride a horse by myself on the trail for the first time but there are going to be so many people out today that if I fall off and my carcass is laying in the trail someone will find me eventually. Today's ride is actually a poker ride so there's different stations where you pick up cards and at the end of the ride the best poker hand wins some pretty awesome prizes. I went back and forth about shoes on Ziggy but late last night I decided it wouldn't hurt him to put a pair on. He got the easy care speeds on and I did put a very soft pour in pad in just so he wouldn't get any stone bruising if there were a lot of rocks out today. It took Ziggy all of five minutes to settle in and he was back to eating some more of his breakfast. Last night I did give him a bath so he was presentable for public eyes today. After registering at the office and drawing my first card which just happened to be an ace I began getting Ziggy ready for the trail. I groomed him before we left the barn so I'm just making sure there's no chunks or hard stuff where his girth goes. I tried a few different saddle pad combinations for Ziggy and this five star pad which is a very thick wool pad seems to be working the best for him right now. Just in the last week he's really starting to build his top line. I think it's of course just from the extra exercise that I've been giving him. I don't typically feed a lot of rice bran because plain old quarter horses get pretty plump very easily but for a horse like Ziggy and also Skeletor the addition of rice bran really helps them maintain a better body weight. There are a couple of different routes to take on this trail today and I'm going to try and do the seven mile trail with Ziggy. That is going to be the shortest route possible so we'll see when we get out there how he's feeling. This poker ride has been happening for almost as long as I've been alive but I have never made it out here for the actual event. Typically this time of year any horse that I have that's broke enough to take on one of these I've already sold or they're in their new home. Honestly if Ziggy was in a little bit better shape when I got him he probably would have moved on to his new home by now but I'm pretty excited to take him out on the trail and get a good idea of what exactly he's like. Although he did come from a dude ranch some of these horses can be really sour with the other horses so it'll be interesting to see if Ziggy can handle doing this trail by himself for some portions. I do plan to ride by myself for sections of the trail and sometimes these poker rides can get a little bit wild so I am putting on a helmet today. Since this ride today is taking place on national forest land there are some special rules that I need to follow. Ziggy has been eating weed free hay while he's here. I didn't think about it until I was about to get on him but I maybe should have brought some bear spray with me. Typically bears will not bother a horse but it's always nice to be prepared. One thing that I have been working with Ziggy on is standing still for mounting from the ground. When I rode him last night he was perfect but I think the excitement of the day has really gotten to him so I'm just gonna take some time to readjust him every time he squirms. It probably took me about five minutes to get him settled and then he stood really still for mounting. I did not work Ziggy this morning or lunch him or do anything to get him quiet for the day. I just hopped on him and we are gonna see how he behaves. He was a little bit on the squirmy side right when I got on. There had been horses already leaving to hit the trail. With Ziggy being a retired guest horse I was assuming that this may be a little bit hard for him. Because these horses are often ridden by people that don't really know what they're doing they kind of get a sense of independence. Ziggy was convinced that he needed to follow all the other horses but I needed to walk back and grab my phone. Since there are gonna be a ton of people out on the trail today and it's a rather short ride for us I did not bring very many supplies. The only things I ended up bringing were my phone, my car keys and the map. It is a little past 8 30 right now. There have been a few groups that started out so Ziggy and I are gonna head on up to the trailhead. I was really surprised to see how many trailers were already in the parking lot. They are sending people out on the trail between 8 30 and 11 today I think. The longest version of the trail today is 10 miles and I think that's just gonna be way too much for Ziggy. All of the trails that we're riding on today are on the side of a literal mountain so this is the local ski hill. I'm not really sure of the elevation gain that we're going to be going on today. I probably should have looked closer at the map. Due to Ziggy's age and his fitness level there are points in the trail where I might get off and walk so he can have a little rest from carrying me around. So far despite his tiny little bobble at the beginning of the ride he is being a complete gentleman. I was kind of hoping to start off the ride in a group but I am not really seeing anybody around so we're just gonna head out by ourselves and see where this trail takes us. Bye Zig! The first couple of times I rode Ziggy I did ride him in a snaffle and he really just did not like it. Other than being pretty dull he does listen to just the halter that I have on him so that is all I'm going to be riding him in today. For the most part I am just gonna let him have his head and kind of cruise along and not steer him unless he gets off track a little bit. Bye! I could hear a few people up the road and I was hoping maybe if I pushed Ziggy forward a little bit we could try and catch up to them so we don't get lost. I don't really have a very good sense of direction and there are a ton of trails out here even though they're supposed to be very clearly marked I am guessing that it would be easy to get lost. I'm kind of surprised Ziggy wasn't more excited about getting caught up to the horses once he saw them but as soon as they were in his eyesight he kind of settled down again and went back into auto mode. As we caught up to some other riders Ziggy really got in a groove and I could tell that he was just happy to be out in the again on a trail ride. He has been I think just a little bit depressed being at the barn without actually getting out to go places and once we finally hit the real trail I could tell that Ziggy was really excited to be out and about. We ended up riding for a while bouncing between one group and another. Hey Ziggy! Every once in a while Ziggy would want to move out and trot along to catch up to one group and as he got tired and fell behind we joined another group. This trail was supposed to be pretty clearly marked but it did seem like the elevation gain that we were doing at the very beginning was more than it was supposed to be. We passed some pretty scary trail runners with big long sticks that Ziggy didn't care too much about. He very cautiously walked between two puddles. I could tell that the elevation was a little bit hard on Ziggy. He started lagging behind quite a bit. The first portion of this trail was kind of supposed to meander a little bit and it seemed like we were climbing at a pretty swift pace. I could tell that Ziggy was definitely on autopilot for most of the beginning of the ride. He was just stretching out his legs and I think he might have been happy to have me not flopping around on top of him too much. There was a bit of a discussion about how we were maybe going the wrong way on the trail but Ziggy wanted to go this way so we just kept chugging along. At the end of the day they were having some riders come through and sweep the trail so nobody would get lost out here. The nice thing about the poker ride is they do have a record of everybody that's gone out on the trail that day so if someone does get lost they will know. I wasn't really expecting to see too many people out on the trail today but we did see a ton of trail runners. One thing that's nice about riding in Montana is most people do have pretty good trail etiquette. Sometimes on my green horses this can be a really big deal if they spook and kind of go off the trail with someone with like a backpack or some walking sticks. When we finally made it to the first water stop it was actually a completely different one than we had thought. Here is a map of the trail system for today. Ziggy and I started way down here at For the ride we were planning on going up this trail to water stop one. After stopping for water we were going to cut across and take the shorter route down to water stop two but instead we ended up going backwards through this little shortcut and ended up at water stop two first. By the time we climbed all that elevation Ziggy was pretty tuckered out. This water stop is where I will get off and draw another card to go with my poker hand. We met some more trail runners that Ziggy just totally ignored. He didn't care one bit about them. Since I do want Ziggy to have a positive experience on our first trail ride I am going to give him a pretty long break here at the first rest stop. He did work up a sweat in the first part of the ride so it's only fair that he gets a little break. As he was cooling down one of the people in the party accidentally shot off some bear spray which created a little bit of a commotion for a second. I am really glad I wasn't standing downwind from that because that could definitely ruin your ride. This ride is actually the only fundraiser for the local backcountry horsemen's association. They are the ones that get out and clean up all of the trails in the area in the spring. They move brush and do some maintenance so it's great to support what they're doing because otherwise a lot of people wouldn't be able to get out and use these trails. I was hoping they would have water for the horses but Ziggy is going to have to settle for a few watermelon rinds before we head back out. Sometimes at these poker rides there can be a few groups that are a little bit on the rowdy side and when I saw those folks gallop off through the woods I was really happy that Ziggy decided he wanted to stay calm and enjoy the rest of his watermelon. After about 15 minutes Ziggy seemed like he was ready to get back out on the trail. Since it would be way too long to go back to the first rest station we are actually going to continue on to the third one. This was supposed to be part of the longest route available so it is a part of the trail that Ziggy and I wouldn't have seen unless we got a little bit turned around. I'm not exactly sure how long this whole trail will end up being but I think it's still around seven maybe eight miles. Since we did take quite a long break at the rest stop Ziggy and I headed out and there were no other horses in sight. All right Zig we'll eventually catch up. He was a little bit worried at first but after a while he got in a groove and he was happy just to be out there and look around. He did catch sight of another group of horses but he decided that he maybe was a little bit too tired to try and catch them. We spent some time just taking in the scenery and moseying our way down the trail. I could not believe how tall all of this foliage on the ground was. It was probably halfway up Ziggy. I really hadn't been worried about bears before this point but now that we were by ourselves trudging through the woods the thought had crossed my mind that it probably wouldn't be great if we saw a bear right now. All right buddy. Ziggy really didn't have too much to say the whole ride. He did scream maybe three times the whole entire day to other horses but for the most part he seemed really content just to be by himself on the trail. As we got higher on the mountain the ground started to get a little bit on the wet side I'm pretty sure we're going across one of the ski runs right now so as we head into woods I'm interested to see how the footing is. We are definitely getting some really good views today. The weather is perfect. Since I hadn't been out here I was a little bit worried that there would be some steep drop-offs which I am not really a fan of. As we headed into the shadier spots there was some ground that was a little bit wet and slick. Ziggy tiptoed his way through all the slick spots no problem. After about a mile back on the trail it seemed like he really hit his stride and had a little burst of energy. Ziggy really didn't run off or anything. I could tell when he was getting a little bit fresh and allowed him to trot as long as he wanted to. This footing is really nice it's like hard packed dirt with hardly any rocks in it so it's perfect to let him just move out and cruise through the woods. It was kind of cool seeing all of the chairlifts as we rode along today. I don't really ski or snowboard anymore so I'm not super familiar with the terrain and all of the runs out here and I'm sure it does look different in the summer. As we were coming up to a fork in the road I saw the flag which was on the trail that we were still on and I wasn't sure if we were supposed to go farther up or maybe turn to come down. We saw a few more trail runners and I decided that they're probably going the same way that we need to be going so we just followed them for a while. As we continued to climb in elevation it did get quite a bit rocky and I'm really glad I put some shoes on Ziggy yesterday. I think he probably would have been fine without him but I really wanted to make sure that he was as comfortable as possible on his first big ride. I let Ziggy slow down so we could get some distance between ourselves and the trail runners and then I let him trot out again. Want to trot? It seemed like this was an activity that he wasn't really used to doing out on the trail especially by himself. We got to what I think is the tallest point on the trail today and we ended up taking a little break. It got really windy and I did decide to go ahead and get off of him and hike on the trail for a little bit with him. With his top line being a little bit underdeveloped I didn't want him to have to carry me going downhill when he was obviously pretty tired. The trail is really nice and solid and not slippery at all so this should be a really good spot to walk. Since Ziggy really wasn't in a hurry to go anywhere we had lots of opportunities to rest and take in the scenery. Compared to cruising around the arena in circles I can tell that Ziggy definitely enjoyed this much more. At this point I'm pretty sure we're about halfway to the next water stop. Here Zig. I was really hoping to find a creek or something that Ziggy could get a drink of water from but he really wasn't interested in anything I offered to him. We had one little whips of daisies where I almost went down the wrong trail so it was a good thing they had it pretty clearly marked that it was the wrong direction. After about another mile hiking down the mountain it seemed like there was going to be some serious weather rolling in sometime soon. Come on. Even though Ziggy was kind of lagging when I was on him he definitely sprung back to life without the extra weight. It was really cool to see how muscular his entire body has gotten since I picked him up at the auction. As we continued down the trail today the views really didn't get any worse. We had pretty much a 360 mountain view for most of the ride. Ziggy and his eagle eyes heard something rustling around and then I saw that we had almost made it to the third water stop. I did go ahead and check Ziggy's pulse to see if he was back to normal and I could get back on him. I decided to just wait until we had made our way all the way back down to the next water stop which really wasn't very far away. I pulled another card for my poker hand. We had a few more slices of watermelon and then we headed back out on the trail. We only have about two more miles until we get back down to where we started. A lot of the trails out in Montana are old logging roads. They can be forest service roads as well so this is more along the lines of what I was expecting when I imagined this ride today. These roads are perfect for long trotting and getting your horse in shape. After the few miles we went without Ziggy having to carry me he did have a lot more energy saved up. The temperature was perfect and Ziggy just cruised around without a care in the world. We did end up long trotting for quite a while. I thought we would probably catch up to the next group but it was pretty clear that they had cruised on along out in front of us. Ziggy's sale ad said that he had never really been ridden out alone so I am really surprised he is doing so well by himself. I think he's probably happy to have someone on his back who is making it easier for him to be through the trail today. He was definitely enjoying these little spots where we were able to long trot and I just gave him his face and he could cruise through the trail. He really didn't spook at much on the trail but he was a little suspicious of some of the logs that were cut. As we're starting to come down off of the mountain there are going to be a lot more trees. There you go bud. Play Ziggy? Play? Play Zig? This two track was really nice. The dirt was perfect for Zig to walk on and there were hardly any stones or anything on the trail. The sun came out and it really looked like Ziggy was happy to just cruise along. His saddle really is fitting him well. It's not pinching behind his shoulder blades or withers. Even though Ziggy's tack does fit him very well for the ride today I do think he probably will be a little bit sore at the end. Since I was distracted on my phone we did almost miss the turn off for this trail. As we got deeper into the woods I could tell that the bugs were getting worse. Ziggy also started hearing some random rustling in the woods and I think he was getting a little bit nervous about it. I think it was probably a deer but we never really saw any animals out on the trail. Ziggy continued to move along although a little bit on the suspicious side because he was now more aware of things that were happening in the woods. Pretty much the entire ride I just let him have his head and he was moving at a pretty comfortable pace. Although it seemed like we had come down off the mountain we were still pretty high up. I think a lot of the last part of this trail kind of winds around and has a real gradual grade down to the parking lot. This trail would have been super fun on a fresh horse to come up this way but for Ziggy I think this is just what he needed on the way down so there wasn't too much of an elevation change. With all of his head shaking he managed to undo the lead rope that I had tied around. He probably would have been fine with me just having a single rope on him but I thought for good measure since I was by myself I better get off and tie it around. Hold on. It was at this point that I realized that my butt was really not in trail riding shape. I scooted Ziggy around so I could get back on and then we headed down the trail again. I do spend a lot of time taking care of these horses so today was just a really nice day to get out and finally enjoy one that I had worked so hard to bring around. I don't often buy horses like Ziggy that have been out in the world. He did have a few little tricks that I was not happy about but overall he was a really nice horse to get out and hit the trails with. I do have some broke horses right now but it takes years and years to get the kind of experience that Ziggy has. Every time I see one of these older retired dude horses come up for auction it kind of bums me out because they are the perfect horse for most beginners looking to hit the trail. Even though they do have a dullness to them they will generally take care of their riders very well. Besides a few little bobbles throughout the trail there really wasn't anything that Ziggy did that would be dangerous to a beginner. As we came across the last kind of open field I could tell that we were about halfway down. The trail started to get a bit more overgrown and this is where Ziggy's starting to have a little bit of the scares. There were a lot of fallen down trees and old stumps. He got a tiny bit snorty at a few of them. I think if he was with another horse it wouldn't have been a problem. He really didn't do anything bad other than just look at them extra long and he snorted a few times. I do think Ziggy is probably the kind of horse that if you were excited and scared it might kind of rile him up a little bit. Even without my glasses I can tell that these stumps are of no concern to us so I think that's what helped Ziggy pass them today. It's all right. This really is normal horse stuff so I'm not too concerned about it. We continue to slowly meander our way down through the last portion of the trail. This part of the trail is something that I wish I could send you guys a smell of. It was really intense I think because it had started warming up. The pine sap is a smell that kind of makes me think of going on trail rides so it was nice to get a good whiff of it today. Ziggy was convinced a few times that we were gonna head down some deer trail so I did have to steer him a couple times here at the end. He was getting a little bit impatient as we neared the end. I think he could tell that we were getting close. The trail ended up popping out right above the main building that we passed at the beginning. When we finally hit the parking lot I was really excited that Ziggy had done so well today. I was initially worried that he wouldn't be able to do the distance and he would get too tired. I was also really thankful that he didn't mind being by himself because we did do three quarters of the trail all alone. He seemed pretty content headed back to the trailer. He didn't speed up. If anything he slowed down a little bit. It was crazy the amount of people that had came just between the time that we had left and come back. With all of the stops and everything it took us about three and a half hours to get back down to the trailer. Even though we came back through a different parking lot Ziggy seemed to know exactly where he was going. I was a little surprised he didn't get excited to go back but he stayed pretty calm the entire way. I tried to set up my camera again to get some shots of me getting off but that did not work out. Bye Zig. I really wanted to give Ziggy some water because he hadn't had anything to drink all day but he was really not interested in it. He went right back to munching on the rest of his breakfast hay and I set about fixing him up some soaked pellets so he would get some hydration. I recently started giving Ziggy a few treats which he loves. He was a super good boy today so I made sure he had everything he needed to recover properly. Some horses really don't like to drink away from home and I have a feeling that Ziggy might be one of those horses. He is also an Arabian so he might just not be thirsty yet. With his mash all soaked and ready to eat I go ahead and give that to him get him unsaddled. I did pay pretty close attention to when he was getting too hot so I think all of the rest that we took really helped him recover quickly. He was only a little bit sweaty and by the time he had finished his mash he was pretty much dry. After Ziggy was set up with his food I went to go and get my lunch for the day. These were probably the best baked beans that I had ever had in my life. There were about 190 people registered for the ride today. Ziggy and I were one of the first 50 or so people to make it back. Our poker hand was decent but it did not stay on the board for very long. I wanted to hang around for a little bit but I was more concerned that Ziggy wasn't gonna drink being away from home so after visiting with a few friends we did head back to the barn. Overall Ziggy did extremely well today. I was really proud how he handled himself pretty much the whole entire ride. I don't think I'm gonna have any trouble finding him a really good home when I'm done with his little bit of training that he needs. I think today's ride was maybe a little bit too much for him with the condition he's in but I was happy to see him take a really long drink right when I got home. Tiny seemed to be pretty happy that we had made our way back to the barn as well. All in all today was a pretty darn good day. Thank you guys so much for watching and stay tuned for the next video.