Going on a Ride!
First Day, The Start & Obstacles

waiting to start

Rise early enough the morning of the ride to feed your horse and yourself breakfast, go over your notes and map from the rider's briefing and be tacked up and ready to go by start time. At the discretion of the judges, riders may be instructed to approach the starting line mounted or with the horse in hand (this could become your first judged event, a mount.) Judges will observe your horsemanship, and the manners of your horse. Riders are generally timed out in 30 second to 1 minute intervals, depending upon the ride. Set your watch to 12:00 when you are timed out, this makes it easier to to keep track of your used time. After leaving the start, riders travel at their own pace during the day, following trails marked with colored ribbons as well as using the map which shows turns, elevations, and milage reference points along the route.

to the start line on to the trail

bridge The horses are observed several times during the day, often at a surprise point in the trail. Some judges will hide along the trail to observe the rider and horse along difficult stretches like a hill or water crossing, for example. Natural obstacles like those found on trail rides are used whenever possible. Some of those may be a bridge crossing, water crossing, hill climb or descent, log crossing, ditch crossing, manuvering between obstacles (like trees or bushes), or in one of our rides...riding past a pasture of cows (rarely seen by Alaskan horses.)

Horsemanship tests will also be used during the ride. Some of those may be mounting and dismounting, off side mount or dismount, transition from walk to canter, a side pass, tying a ribbon to a tree mounted, back up (either simple or up or down a hill.) Novice riders will have less difficult tests, while Open will have the most difficult.

ribbon tie judge off side

Near the end of the marked trail is a spot called the *2 mile mark*. From the 2 mile mark all the way into camp, the horse must maintain forward motion. You cannot stop or walk backwards or circle to kill time if you have miscalculated your ride time. You may wait at the 2 mile mark if you have gone too fast, but be aware this is a sign of poor horsemanship as you have not timed your ride or rated your horse properly.
Among the stops along the trail will be the P&R checks. What is P&R? Go to the next page and find out!