I went with my friend and her two horses to Catland Park in Ottawa yesterday. It took us almost an hour and a half to get there but it was fun! New place for me since I've never been there.
But I will say the hairiest part was the incline we had to drive up to get to the park! My friend was talking about it on the way there but I didn't understand that she was speaking of this particular Park. She was telling me how when you are driving up the incline, you must keep your foot on the gas and keep going ! Keep the momentum. Then she tells me about a friend of hers who didn't do that and she had trouble getting up the hill. She finally stopped and unloaded the horse's! Whaaaa?
When we came up to the hill I was like.
it was damn scary! When you're pulling thousands of pounds behind you and you're not sure you're going to make it, it was heart stopping. They must have put down some new gravel too because as we're going up I can feel her tires slipping. Both of us were a little tense and not saying a word. But when I felt/heard her slipping I just quietly said, "you're slipping." Oh, my heart. I mean we've got a live animals behind us!
It was a little tense, let me tell you! I told her if someone didn't know, I can totally see this being a problem. I mean you could start up that hill and get a little nervous and not keep on the gas like her friend. And then what do you do? Back your way down? Slide your way down!? Holy crap.
Of course I didn't get a video going up but I did get one going down.
I don't know if you can actually understand or get the feel from a video as to the angle, but here it is.
After that and we were in the main part of the park it was really nice. There is a section that had a pavilion, washrooms, a gym area for the kids and a baseball diamond. The horse area was further back and we kept going. Winding roads through manicure Lawns and plenty of woods.
Now this is what I call a mowed path!
There were many trails. Some through the trees and some out in the open. It was a beautiful day and thankfully we had a slight overcast sky so no direct sun beating down on us. The trails through the woods were sometimes a bit hairy. There were some deep ravines and sometimes you were going over a Culvert where the path was narrow and either side was a deep drop off. God forbid a horse spooked one way or the other because falling off either side would have been really bad. It sure made for an interesting ride.
Thankfully both our horses are pretty calm on the trail. So it was a lot of fun and very interesting.
We rode for a while and then ended up back at the trailer where we pulled out lunch. There was picnic tables and a garbage area under a pavilion. I should have taken a picture of the outhouse. It looked like a silver aluminum silo! Inside was a concrete floor with an actual toilet of course, over a hole. LOL. But it was fairly clean and not full of spiders. I was thankful for that. Otherwise I would have used the Great Outdoors.
Nobody was around for miles. In fact when we first got there, two girls were just unloading their horses. One was a pretty Palomino but when I looked closer it looked spotted on the rump! I said is that a Palomino Appaloosa? And she said it's actually a Walkaloosa! Palomino color and Appaloosa Tennessee Walker! I've heard of them actually! That was pretty cool.
When hubby and I got our horses I got the Appaloosas that I've wanted all my life. My husband knew nothing about horses so I just told him, show me pictures of horses that you like. I'll take it from there. Well, he always picked out the Palomino. He didn't know that. I had to tell him, that's a Palomino. If that's what you want that's what we'll look for. But I always told him it sure would be nice if it was an Palomino/Appaloosa. That way they'd still all be Appaloosas. Whatever, he got what he wanted and we've been thrilled to death with our choices. So it was fun seeing those girls and their horse, but we both went our merry way and they were gone when we came back for lunch. So we were the only ones in the park it seemed. I really thought there would be more people. But it was a Friday so who knows.
We ate our lunch and went back out for another hour and a half or so. I'd say we got there about 11:00 . We didn't get home till about 4:30. It was a fun day and we enjoyed it! I think the horses were tired!
why didn't I think of that? Of course I wasn't driving and we were on that hill before I knew it. But yes, she should have put it in four-wheel drive! I'll have to ask her about that. That would be the sensible thing to do, wouldn't it?
Once they moved. our parents would take trips out there with our family several times. Let's see, they've lived in Denver, Steamboat Springs, Beavercreek and Evergreen. Yes they were ski nuts too and they also got us into that! I feel like we've grown up in Colorado and so have our children, who now love it so much that they'd love to move there. We've all been on skis except for our daughter. But our son takes his three boys skiing a lot. In fact, they all have their own skis. We did too but they're long gone . Our daughter has a Toyota FJ Cruiser and they used to go to FJ get togethers in Ouray. I think they get togethers have stopped now for some reason. But they have gone off-roading in many places. So has our son and his family. 
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