December Trail Tip

Cassie and I riding in the snow on my Birthday

You don't have to quit riding just because it's winter.  A couple tips for staying warm while riding include dressing in layers.  Wear thermal underwear under your pants and shirt.  A heavy jacket made with a wind breaking material, over the two layers of clothes will keep the wind from cutting through. You can buy heated gloves and heated socks, both of which can be anything from insulated fabric to actually being battery operated.  A warm hat, as well as a scarf will keep your head and face warm.  Another alternative for keeping your feet warm is a stirrup cover you can buy that has a small pocket in front for adding a hand warmer.

Battery operated gloves

Battery Operated Socks

Stirrup cover with pocket for hand warmer.

November Trail Tip

Even though State and County Parks are usually safe places to ride during deer firearms seasons, it's still a good idea to have some kind of hunter orange on you and/or your horse.  There are some times when a portion of the trail might go along the boundary of the park, right next to private property.  There is still a chance of an accidental shooting, especially if your horse is mostly light brown.  Don't take a chance when getting something hunter orange is so easy and affordable.

October Trail Tip

Gorgeous colors.

As October passes, you'll get to enjoy the fall colors Missouri is so well known for.   However, later in the month, leaves begin to fall heavily, hiding the trail that just a short time ago was easy to follow.  Often, your horse, if you've ridden him on the same trail before, will know his way even when you don't, but you can't count on that.  Besides hiding the trail, the look of the forest totally transforms, and it's much easier to get lost.  Some trails are well marked so this isn't a problem.  Most trails, however are not, especially the large wilderness areas, so you need to be more aware of your surroundings.  There's no shame, especially if you've not ridden a trail before, in marking your trail as you go.  If you do get lost it is easier to follow them to find your way back.  It may also help some other trail user.  I would suggest using a different color than orange however.  Hunters often use orange to find their way in and out, and they are often bushwhacking off trail, so you don't want to accidentally start following their trail.

Where's the trail?

There was a story about hikers that got lost at Rock Pile Mountain.  This trail is notoriously easy to get lost on, poorly marked, and to make it worse, had a lot of damage due to a derecho that had torn up a swath, leaving a mess of dead trees and totally hiding the trail in that area.  They had to call for help, so area firemen had to go out and find them.  As they went in to look for them, the firefighters used orange flagging tape so when they were ready to make their way back out, they could find their way.  See, even the "professionals" aren't afraid to use temporary trail markers.

Several hikers over the next year or two, before the markers finally disintegrated, were able to find their way back out due to the trail markers that the firefighters left out on the trail.

Read the article about the hikers lost at Rock Pile Mountain:  Article

January Trail Tip

If you like to ride in the snow and your horse is shod, spray a thick layer of cooking oil spray on the bottom of your horse's hooves to help keep snow and ice from balling up in his hoof.  Be sure you have a hoof pick with you in case he still manages to get an ice ball formed that you have to pry out.

September Trail Tip

Train your horse now to allow you to put a jacket and poncho on and take them back off.  Fall weather temperatures can change quite a bit, all in one day.  You want to be able to safely add or remove clothing as needed.  Train to allow you to do it from the ground and while in the saddle.

When I was riding in the Bob Marshall Wilderness in Montana back in Sept. of 1993, My horse Cody, had no problem with me taking out and putting on a rain slicker while I was in the saddle.  We had no clue that doing it while on the ground in front of him would be a problem.  We had just finished a lunch break when it started to rain.  As we were getting ready to mount up, I took my rain slicker off of the back of the saddle to put it on before mounting.  All of a sudden he spooked and pulled the reins out of my hands, galloping off back in the direction we had come from.  Luckily I didn't have to hike back too far to catch him again as he stopped to graze in a small meadow about a 1/4 of a mile away.  It could have been a bad situation though, and ever since then, I've always trained my horse to accept me adding or subtracting clothes on the ground as well as on the saddle.