Tom Vicky and Gaitways trail adventures

Get info on trails and track our horse adventures

Happy 2010!!!!!

 

This page will go oldest to newest so ya'll don't have to always go to the bottom.

 

For more information on the some of the trails we've ridden just click on our Everytrails Link at:

http://www.everytrail.com/profile.php?user_id=186324

You're welcome to download the maps to your GPS!

Montana De Oro August

Left behind again... Mom and Dad went to Montana De Oro for a trip with their friends from Sylmar. I got left behind to play with Kona Kisses.. my BFF Paw style. So, here is the story from them.

We took off Thursday. Big thanks to Deb and her ETI group for a fantastic weekend. We didn't know many of the people but they all turned out super nice, super fun and great company!

It was cold and foggy but the boys didn't seem to mind.

Friday morning, we had a great breakfast, saddled up the ponies.. watched dear Deb get dumped..(no worries she bounced off Sandy's horse) and continued on to follow a nice trail above the bluff's down to Shark Cove Inlet.

We got back in time to see that Hei took over Big Woody and had a nice fire going.. Deb and I always have a terrible time together..Even when Big Woody is attacking!

Who'd a thought our camp king and his servant would make homemade Ice cream!!!

Saturday.. the weather was even better and we headed down to the beach to ride some waves!!

Except for the crazy beach flies, we had a great time attempting to get the horses in the "Horse attacking waves".

Here's Deb in front of Morro Rock.....

Here's Tom and Vievo in front of Morro Rock

After we got tire of the flies and Vievo said enough, we turned around and headed back.. Vievo looked great coming up over the bluff from the beach.

We kind of lost Vievo in the sand but we waited patiently..

 (Thanks Deb for the pic)

And Deb and I played around..

When we got back to camp, the ponies were tired. Tom quickly took control of Big Woody and Deb dumped me flat for a new friend. WHATEVER!!!

Sunday before we headed home, we took one last ride up Hazard Canyon, just to stretch their legs.

Deb got this amazing shot while she was out riding.. These are real Vultures sitting on this poles..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dad and the Ventura Parade

Yeah!!!  I got to watch Dad in the Ventura Parade!! This August, Dad got to ride in the wagon with his new Group, The Ventura County Sheriff's Posse. Everyone is really nice.

Mom and I walked along and took pictures. It was really fun~~~ This is dad in the wagon and some of his friends; Kevin, Laurie and Kim.

 

 

 

Cheseboro to Simi and Beyond

Here is the link to our trail that we rode.. http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=746656

The plan: Ride from Cheseboro into Malibu Preserve and back. About 15 miles.

The turn out.. GPS only downloaded half so we missed our goal turnoff taking us all the way to Bell Canyon and on to Rockedyn before we rode a ridge that was above Simi Valley and FINALLY dropped back into Cheseboro. According to Everytrail, 23.3 miles.

Marcy and Pam came all the way from Leona Valley to ride with me.. I don't know but I am sure happy they came out. It was great riding with them.

                        Look.. They are still smiling.. that's because we were still in Cheseboro and they didn't know what was ahead!

                                 Schnapps and Vicky dropping to Malibu Preserve

                       We soon realized we might be lost.. but all our maps told us we were still in Malibu.. just didn't know which way to go.

                     At the top of one of the ridges, I realized we might have a long ride in front of us..

 I let the girls take a break in the shade... I didn't want anarchy!!                                       Good place to stop for lunch..

 After a nice lunch... when Marcy was done enjoying her cucumber..           we moved on and found ourselves above Simi Valley. Yup, we went a bit too far.

        But we kept moving.. and found some beautiful trail areas!!!

  We finally got to the top and could see where we came from.. we only rode a few ridges.. remember the pic of the water tower?

    We made it home safely.. had a great day, some tired horses and alot of laughs.. thanks guys!!!!

  Pictures : Complments of Marcy and me!

 

 

June Gloom Beach Fun

Well, it's about time Mom, Dad and my brothers looked out for my needs. And my needs were to run and play at the beach. Mom said we went just to get Vievo used to going to the beach, but I really new it was for me...so I ran and I ran and I ran and I ran. My new kid brother, Vievo, really wanted to join in but Dad held him back. But I still ran..

It was a great afternoon. Dad even got Vievo almost to the water. He did great. Mom took a good picture of him (she should have taken more of me but I was off running someplace)

Schnapps flies solo

                May was a bad month, mom lost her beloved Arab, Ice. And she just wasn't motivated to do much. But than, a little tick must have bit her because she kicked into gear full speed. Poor Schnapps. So, off she went, on Father's Day to Lake View Terrace to ride a Trail Trials all by herself. Just her and Schnapps. I know what a stinker Schnapps is, so we were a bit concerned. But she came back really happy. She said horses left in front of him, horses came up behind him, and they even passed horses on a narrow trail. She even carried the plastic sign across the river for one of the obstacles. She said Schnapps did great. They might have scored better if mom hadn't been fooling around so much! Good job mom.

Mom said Corral 20 did a great job with the obstacles. They were really fun and challenging at the same time. They are a great group of people.

This is mom and Schnapps posing for a pic (Thanks Jerry!) after their successful ride.

This is a view of his ears while heading down the river

 

First of May getting out and about

It was a lovely weekend. The weather couldn't have been more perfect and I got to tag along for the adventures!
Saturday, we took Vievo and Schnapps to the Land Conservancy in Ojai. Mom and Dad worked with Vievo and Schnapps.. making them separate and go places apart. And Vievo got to meet lots of great strangers.
Sorry, it's blurry (it's hard to take great pictures with only paws!)

After a bit, they finally thought about my needs and took me to the river. Apparently I wasn't the only one wanting to play in the water.. Schnapps was splashing all over!


Sunday, we took off with Auntie Lisa. Bob and Nancy followed along with their big ol boy Nic. We went all the way to Chatsworth. I got to run around while they got ready, but I had to get in the truck
while they rode. They did a Trail Trial Event with the ETI group, Corral 54. There were 10 obstacles. I guess it was easy and would have been alot easier if the horses would have behaved, but the only good 4 legged critter in that group was Nic, who wound up placing 4th place for his first Trail Trials!!!
Here are some shots of the crew during the ride..
Bob and Nic coming down the hill
Lisa coming down the hill
The crew coming up the ridge (mom was taking pictures)
Bob crossing the bridge


Cruising Lake San Antonio



We closed March with some light Lake riding just North of Paso Robles.


Mom, will remember this trip for a long time to come for several reasons.

She had a lizard crawl up her pants (very funny).

She found out how hard Vievo could kick

And she learned how to tell when the Charcoal ISN'T ready for cooking..

Anyway, we stayed at a nice place called Horse World. It's on North Shore and directly next to the entrance area (to the west).

You can see the lake from the camp area. This pic is from our general area toward the lake.

There is a huge arena and about 19 more stalls closer to the arena (14 behind and some big ones just next to the arena)


My brothers stayed in stalls closer to the camp site we parked at. There were other horses, so Wyat had to scream and kick!


Friday, we got settled in and as mom talked to our new camp neighbors, she learned how to capture a lizard. Apparently, someone gave him wrong directions!
The thing crawled right up under her pants and she didn't catch it till it made it to her thigh.
Our friends Laura and Eli came for dinner and some great conversation.
At dusk, mom scared Vievo and he paid her back by kicking her in the thigh. No worries, dad wrapped her leg nice and tight
so she wouldn't bleed into the sheets.
Saturday morning was your normal camping morning.. Emergency room (for stitches), breakfast and a ride!


I had to stay behind, but mom said the trails were great!


Saturday, after a nice 6 mile ride, cousins Carol, Nevin and Scott made it out .They even brought me a friend, Riley.
Carol and Dad took off for short ride to the lake. I think Wyat liked Carol on his back alot better than dad!


Spring In Agoura Cheseboro Park

it was a beautiful spring day,

and the ladies just had to go play,

They saddled up their horses,

And off through Cheseboro park they charted new courses..

Don't let the greenery fool you, there are horse eating couches just waiting to jump out!

But have no fear the cabin will protect us from all the scary creatures of the State Park! (Or is that Grandmothers house? )

Molly, Schnapps and Chelsey the mule all bravely rode into the park, no bike, no hiker, no kid in a back pack could steer them away!

Oh NO!!!! Not the dreaded grass!

We even played with a few obstacles... And Chelsey had to step REALLY high.

We rode all the way to Sheeps Corral and hit the ledge.. no sidepassing here!

When we were done harassing the mountain bikers enjoying the views we hit the Palo Center Trail and headed home.

And yet, we've skirted into spring with another great ride!

I had to put this one up, so we all know it's not just Deb who takes dorky pictures!

Ending January with Fun

Well it rained a bit last week and messed up our ranch for playing,

but that don't stop my mama and me!

 

So, I said, "Momma, go get Auntie Netty and take me for a run where I can chase rabbits and jump over rattle snakes".

 

And we did just that! Auntie Lanette and Mom took me to Lange Ranch on Saturday. What a way to end the month! It was beautiful weather.

 

 And I lead the way, scaring off dangerous rabbits and mountain bikers. Those girls were goofy, so I tried to stay far ahead (so no one would know I was with them). We only got a few shots but it was a great day.

 

Auntie Lanette and her Abba G roupie, Dolly..

 Here I am making sure everyone moved for the crazy girls.

 

Sunday, oooh Sunday..

We all went to a place called Paramount Ranch. I guess they filmed lots of movies there. I got stuck in the truck but Mom, Dad and Adrienne took off for a while to ride.

 

I guess they rode right next to a highway with lots of motorcycles and than through town with lots of old buildings, kids and flying things. Mom said the horses did great!! Especially Vievo, who got to experience Harley Davidsons and Race bikes buzzing past his head for the first time..

Here are a couple of pics of them out in the park..

This was Adrienne... there were kids swarming the horses so she and Joker were the bait!

 

And then they went back into town before coming to rescue me. I guess they had a pretty good laugh when Vievo decided to hop down a hill out of  sinking dirt.

 

 

Fun with Bill Cameron

OOHHH What a fun day in Palmdale! We spent the day with Bill Cameron, our own California's kicking star of the Extreme Horse Race! He was a great guy, with a wonderful ability of making this simple and easy to understand, no matter how naughty the horse was (Schnapps was the worst). We took Vievo, Schnapps and Pal. This was Vievos first big outting. Nothing like throwing him into an arena with a bunch of hot horses, trains near bye and obstacles to maneuver around.

Thank you so much Bill and your team. You're a great group and it's really nice to see some able to teach that isn't biased toward a specific breed of horse, and so darned down to earth!

 

Lisa and Pal went first, they were an excellent model to start with. Pal stayed nice and calm.

The obstacles were as follows: Key hole pattern, side pass the mail box, back through the boots, step over and through the silver spinny things, back through the barrels, trot the barrel circle, and if you got far enough, walk over the tube and lope the poles

It finally came to be Vievo's turn. It wa amazing, he actually took a sidestep, was able to back through the barrels, and even stepped over the tubing! What a great day it was for our youngster. He was totally relaxed the whole time.

Birthday Adventures in Norco

Mom spent her birthday with her gal pals, Denise and Debi.

They had a great weekend riding Lake Paris and Gavlin Hills. So, here's moms tail..

Hi all! What a great birthday weekend with my crazy gal pals, Denise and Debi. I drove out and picked Deb up from her ranch in Sylmar and we headed off to Denise's. We got there a bit early, so Denise tacked up and through Dallas into our trailer and we took off for our Saturday adventure, Lake Perris. It was really pretty. Mostly flat with only one real climb but really fun. We did alot of long trotting. Schnapps paced at almost 9mph an hour.. do we see an Endurance horse in the making??

Here's an overview of the area and some of us heading out..

Than, we came across this CRAZY site. We actually had to ride, right beneath some mountain climbers. That was some good spook proofing for the ponies.

But we made it through and climbed our only real hill.

At the end we played around on some obstacles and took pictures. We rode around 15 miles that day.


Sunday, Ms. Denise and her wonderful hubby Steve, treated us to a yummy breakfast. Deb and I loaded up in my trailer and Steve and Denise loaded up in theirs.

We headed out to Gavlin Hills. This was a great area.. it started out flat.. But it got hilly quickly. REAL hilly. Steve questioned my sanity because I follow his wife without any questions asked..

After we went down this one, I started asking a bit more about where we were headed. Yup, this was one steeeeeeeppppp and deeeeeep rut. Schnapps almost couldn't see over the top. We just kind of slid on down.


The rest was mildly steep, with a few narrow areas and some good crosses.. another solid 3 hour ride. Woo HOO!!

This trail dropped down into the valley on the right and we climbed the face on the other side.

It was a great weekend! Even dinner at the Spunky Monkey, or cow or whatever is was called was a hoot.

Thanks for being such a fine darned tootin Hostess with the mostest Denise. And thanks for being such a wonderful map gal Deb, even if we do get to Big Bear by accident!