Lefty and the X Trail

By: Ron Mc Coy

Lefty and the X Trail

...sometimes your best boots just don't measure up!
In the year 2000 a new six mile trail to Versailles State Park was opened. I'd been told that it would be open for sure in the spring, so on the Friday before Memorial Day, figuring it would be open by now, Karen and I decided to check it out.

At that time we lived about 40 minutes from Versailles State Park, our second largest Indiana State park, which has about 5,900 acres. Upon our arrival there, we quickly saddled up and rode out and, by golly there was no new X Trail in sight. I was greatly disappointed to say the least, but we did have a nice ride of 7 1/2 miles on A Loop. We were almost back to the day use area when Karen suddenly pulled up her horse, and pointing to a sign that said "X Trail" and commented that she hadn't noticed the sign there on the way out. Neither of us could believe that we would have missed it.

We decided to follow the sign and as we rode more trail markers began to appear along the trail. Pretty soon we came up to a park employee in his truck busily unloading more signs for X Trail. They had just opened it! Our time running short, we were unable to stay on the trail that day. That would be another adventure.

Eager to try the new X trail, I decided to try it out the following week. Karen was at work that day and Sara was in school, so I had nothing else better to do.

It didn't take long to gather up my gear and load up my "Goes anywhere, does anything horse". The park is fairly quiet on the weekdays and is a day-use only facility. On the weekends, it's a different story, full house.
I ride with my spurs on whenever I ride my horse Lefty,
As he can get kind of lazy. I've got a pair of really
old boots full of holes, with worn-out heels and soles
that I keep my spurs on and just leave them on.
Whenever I ride, I change into those boots before
jumping into the saddle.

The first part of X Trail is wide and in excellent condition. It winds around and comes to a creek that runs through a tunnel that goes under Highway 50 to another part of the park. On the other side there were several very pretty small waterfalls over which the trail goes and it continues through the creek a little way further until you hit a regular trail again. Now, in reality, this is not as intimidating as it might sound to those who haven't seen it. Since I was on Lefty, "My goes anywhere, does anything horse", he plodded along quite nicely.

Altogether, X trail is about six miles with a Y loop of two miles and more recently a Z loop of probably another two miles. There were four or five places that were really muddy, but have since been fixed. We got through the bad places OK and had a super ride. Before long we headed back and had made our way back to the creek where the pretty little water falls were. On the last one it was a step down of about 12 inches with water running over it from sheer sided bank to sheer sided bank. It was there that my "Goes anywhere, does anything" horse absolutely refused to step down. I tried unsuccessfully for ten minutes to get Lefty to take that step. No luck. I knew I'd have to get off and lead him. This usually works, except this time. There I was wading around in several inches of water. Remember those old boots I was wearing?

I tried to push him off that didn't work. I got behind him and shoved him with a "Come on old fat horse”. He wouldn't budge. Last resort measures were in order. I stepped off the ledge into the drink, water to my knees. I stretched the reins out in front of him. Now as most of you know, in this situation a horse will jump straight towards you. So with my great wisdom and experience kicking in, I took a stick about four feet long and held the reins way out to one side, so he couldn't jump towards me. He crouched a bit, looked at me with his big, sad eyes and took a giant leap straight towards me, like I was going to catch all 1200 pounds of him. Water showered all over like a water slide ride at an amusement park. I climbed on him with my boots filled to the tops with water that was now draining down through the many holes. It gave the appearance of two sprinkling cans hanging from my legs. I tried to look nonchalant however and even waved at a few motorists on the highway.

I've ridden this trail several times since and someone has fixed the ledge. Versailles has about 22 miles of trails now and is a premiere place to ride. So, add it to your list for new adventures this year.

Ron Mccoy

Horseback Riding Article Source: http://www.horsebackridingarticles.com

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