Finally, here's my chronicle of the horseback riding trip, which turned out be even more grueling than the hike with my sister.
I had a lot of firsts on this trip.
I had my first time getting stepped on by a horse, my first time jumping a
horse, my first time getting thrown from the saddle, and my first time almost falling down a mountain on a
horse. We
rode through the High Uintas Wilderness, which consisted of large valleys
surrounded by big mountains. Most everyday we would ride through a mountain
pass, which involved going up and down steep rocky slopes, and we would camp in
the valleys. There were some really awesome views, and each place was
different. Some mountain trails were large, solid rock steps, others were
mostly gravel. The valleys ranged from thick forests to large plains, and often
a mix of the two.
When we went down our first pass of
the trip, Dad, his friend Kelli, and Kelli's daughter Zoe all got off their horses to lead them down. I
rode mine all the way down the mountain. It was rather hair-raising, having Zip
(the horse Kelli brought for me) ease his way down, stumbling seemingly every
other step, with a very steep drop just over the edge. During another pass,
though, we all got off to lead our horses down, me included, since the path was
so gravelly, I felt a bit more anxious about having Zip fall and take me with
him. So I led Zip down the mountainside, but being the novice equestrian
handler that I am, didn’t stay in front at all times like I should have, and
that’s when I had my right foot stepped on. The pain went away only a couple of
days ago. At least I didn’t get a mark, unlike when Dad’s foot was stepped on!
To avoid another foot-crushing, I
decided to ride down the next mountain pass, even as everyone else dismounted.
I think I would have made it without
incident, if I hadn’t been leading the way down. When we came to a switchback,
and the horses behind us were in view, Zip took it into his head to try and
join them, by trying to cut the switchback and climb up the steep, gravelly slope. I tried to get him under control, but
for a minute the best I could do was to keep him going in circles on the very narrow trail, hoping he wouldn’t
slip. Fortunately he didn’t, and I was able to steer him back in the right
direction eventually (with my heart pounding).
In the valleys, the trails often
weren’t much better than in the mountains. There were plenty of hills to go up
and down, and occasionally the only way we could even see the trail was by
watching for the rock cairns stacked at regular intervals. There were often
huge rocks right on the path, as well as trees fallen over it. We often had to
take detours around said trees. During one such detour, Zip stopped at a huge
section of brush. I thought he could’ve just pushed right through it, but he
just stood there. I leaned over to see if he was caught on something, and he picked
that moment to jump over the
obstacle. I came clear up out of my stirrups and over the saddle, landing on
Zip’s neck. Fortunately I was able to get right back in the saddle and
continue. We had to do a few more jumps since then, but I never got thrown
again!
Didn’t see a ton of wildlife, but we
did see a moose, which made the horses a bit edgy, even though it was moving
away from us. We also came across a flock of sheep, which really made the horses flighty. I had to struggle to keep Zip under
control until we got all the way past them. We also saw some animal bones in a
couple of places. Going down one mountain slope we saw a horse's skull. If I remember right) the place was called on the map “Dead Horse Pass”.
For breakfasts we had things like
nine-grain cereal, toast, and even pancakes, for lunch we had fruit rolls,
cheese sticks, sausage sticks, and peanut butter and jam tacos. For dinner we
had things like soup, and rice tacos. Thursday night both Dad and I got really
sick after dinner. We were throwing up pretty bad; I’m thinking it was
something we ate, except that Kelli and Zoe weren’t sick, and they ate same
things we did.
I had tried to prepare for the trip
by exercising on the treadmill for half an hour each day, but apparently even
that wasn’t enough; my knees would be sore at the end of each day, and I
generally felt pretty exhausted (even Zoe seemed to keep up better than me).
With some practice, though, I was able to get into the routine of setting up
and breaking camp, and getting the saddle and saddlebags loaded and unloaded.
Overall,
I’m glad I went. There were a couple of moments where I wasn’t sure I would
live through the experience, but I did, and I feel like it was worth it to be
able to do and see the things that I did.
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