On Sunday, I went on  three hour trial ride that started at noon. I was worried it was going to be hot but in fact it was the exact opposite.  The ride was perfectly shaded by the tall trees and a cool breeze blew from the ocean.

Having been in California for 2 weeks, I decided it was time to get back where I belong… on top of a horse riding across the land.  I started my online research by looking at all the places that offer trail rides with in a 2 hour radius. My plan is to take a trail ride at all of them, find out the best ones around and blog about them there.

Five Brooks Stables  is located at the Five Brooks Trailhead that has many well maintained trails for horses and hikers.

The parking lot was full of big trucks and horse trailers of locals who are taking the day to ride around Point Reyes National Seashore

The Five Brooks Ranch seems to be a nice place.  They were friendly and knowledgeable.  The horses are in good shape and all of them had shoes on.  I was told at most each horse is used at most 5 hours a day on 2 trails.

My ride was great!  It was awesome to be back in the saddle. I was accompanied by 2 lovely ladies, it is always more fun to ride in a group.  The horses were well used to the trails, just give them their head and they will find the best route.  Some of the trials were steep but they were very sure footed.

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My horse’s name was scout, originally they had me on a bigger horse but they could not get the stirrups short enough so I ended up on Scout.  He was a good boy, for me, but I didn’t let him get away with anything.  Which in his case was trying to munch on the green grass along the trail.  There was a crop attached to his saddle which I didn’t need to use. The trail guide (Stewart was his name I think) sounded impressed that I didn’t use it and said usually he needs it to keep him going.  I told him I used to teach riding lessons where none of my lesson kids used crop.

For the most part the trails were single lane, which made it interesting when we came upon horses or people.  Everyone was very friendly and moved to the side to let us pass. Sometimes I heard the trial guide call out if he could not see the approaching group to find out if they were on horseback, so they could plan the pull off and pass options.  We walked past one group of riders that had a riderless horse in the middle of their group (of 5 or so). That was the coolest thing I had seen in a while, what a great way to get a yearling used to the trails and in shape.

We crossed over a bridge, I just love that sound.

I found this hikers website that describes pretty much the whole loop we did: Five Brooks Trailhead leads to rain forest-like landscape

Tips:

• Bring a water bottle
• Ask for a saddle bag
• Bring a light sweatshirt
• If your on Scout, be prepared his saddle has no padding for your bum. Ask if they have any saddle seat pads.

@fivebrooks