Brig's first trail ride.

Today I took Brig for his first trail ride. He was a little nervous at first and he seemed to be concerned that there was something behind him waiting to attack him. But after about 10 minutes he calmed down and was calmly walking on a loose rein. I was expecting the trails to be bark mulch so I didn't think that I needed to have shoes on him. But I was wrong. We were mostly on hard packed dirt and gravel with some areas that were quite rocky. His feet were quite tender especially when we had to go downhill. Poor guy. He did great though. The picture above is of Jen with Leo and Ryan with Susie. As you can see from the picture the weather was decent when we left but just after we turned around to head back it started raining. It rained pretty hard and we were all soaked right through by the time we got back. Ryan's trailer is only a two horse so Jen had to stand out in the rain with their horses while Ryan drove Brig and I home. She had Ryan's koola coat on over her soaked clothes so hopefully it kept her warm enough.
I was impressed with Brig a few times today. Not only was he pretty calm and relaxed about the trail ride. When something scared him, like walking through mud or over a bridge, he would stand on the other side scared and shaking and once the first foot touched the scary thing he would immediately calm down and walk through or over the scary thing like he'd done it a million times. He also loaded into the trailer like a pro. He was a bit worried about getting out as he had to back out and step down. But it didn't take long to convince him to back out and that he wasn't going to fall over a cliff that he thought was behind the trailer.
I think that I will get shoes put on him soon so that we can enjoy the ride more next time. I was worried the whole time today about his feet. Hopefully the weather will cooperate more next time too.
I had planned to take more pictures of us riding but didn't get a chance since it started raining so much. I took one of Brig beforehand but he doesn't look very good in it so I'm not going to put it up here.