#toptrailrider

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(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwfquTXfRa0)

Here’s a video from the National Ride for Open Trail over Labor Day Weekend. Watch and Smile!

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Stormy Midwest Sunset Sky at Turtle Rock Ranch—home of Top Trail Horses Leonardo and Courage. 

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PREMIUM OPEN TRAIL MEMBER MAGGIE BRADSHAW

As the Program Manager for Top Trail, I get to know and know of some pretty awesome equestrians. One of those awesome equestrians is Maggie Bradshaw. Maggie trail rides... a lot! In the past year she has been rewarded handsomely for her participation on the Open Trail by participating and winning several Top Trail divisions:

*Top Trail Rider (most recorded miles for the first quarter of 2015) *Top Trail Horse May 2014: Max (1st) *Top Trail Horse June 2014: Max (2nd) *Top Trail Horse August 2014: Blaze (1st) *Top Trail Horse January 2015: Whiskey (1st) *Top Trail Horse February 2015: Blaze (2nd) *Top Trail Horse March 2015: Blaze (1st)

I wanted to know more about this amazing horsewoman and how she came to be such a devoted trail rider with wonderful horses and this is what I learned:

How long have you been riding? I was born with the horsey gene that we all have in common, but it was a little burro named Sangrita that started it all. She was a stepping-stone to Honey, an ornery palomino paint. Honey was the one who taught my sister and me about riding.

I got married and had a family, wasn’t involved with horses for a while. Then twenty some years ago, my husband Wayne and I bought property in OK to build on and bought horses. I rode with our local trail riding club, wagon trains, parades and a women’s reenactment group called the Wild Women of the Frontier.

With age, injuries, and an appreciation of a smooth ride, most of our friends are now riding gaited horses so Wayne and I made the switch to gaited horses in 2014.

How long have you and Blaze been a team? At the end of May I found Blaze, my TWH, in Texas. I knew the minute I saw him we had a connection. I think I probably had the biggest grin ever on my face that first ride. He enjoys burning up some trail!  I love that we can encounter deer, armadillos, rabbits, quail, turkey, and pheasant along the way, with no worries.

Favorite trails? My favorite trail has to be in the Stough Creek Basin of the Shoshone National Forest in Wyoming. We spent an incredible week on a pack trip with great friends several years ago. Absolutely stunning scenery.

Lake Carl Blackwell, Stillwater, OK is my favorite “local” place to ride. It has such a great diversity of trail.

Proudest equestrian moment? My proudest equestrian moment has to be any time spent with my 14 year old granddaughter, Haley. I love fostering her horsemanship skills and spending time making great memories.

How did you learn about Open Trail? I found Open Trail on Facebook. I really appreciate J.R.'s vision to document all the trails ridden in the United States. I have always loved keeping track of my mileage and having an incentive to get out on the trail more was just what I needed.

What are your goals for this year? My goals for this year are to ride at least 150 miles a month, take a Quarterly Top Trail Rider title, maintain a top ten position in the monthly Top Trail Horse, build on my partnership with Blaze and to take that extra 10 minutes+ time each day to embrace the outdoors with him.

By using Open Trail, I have doubled my yearly average to right at 1,000 miles last year.

What GPS do you use and what are the pros and cons of GPS devices or apps you use or have used? I have used a Garmin eTrex VistaCX GPS to track my mileage for the last four years. I was always juggling the camera, phone and the GPS around in my saddlebags. I had some technical issues with the Garmin GPS and website that left me disenchanted. It was when I changed my cell phone to an iPhone that I discovered it was more convenient to use it as my camera and GPS.

I have used the phone apps: Endomondo, MotionX, and Easy Trails. I love the speech feature of Endomondo, it will tell you your progression of mileage and time. Endomondo will also show on your map when and where you hit each mile. I don't like to have to depend on using the computer to upload trails from Endomondo's website to Open Trail. MotionX is a great app, it just has way more info than I need to know and eats up the phones battery fairly quickly.

I prefer Easy Trails, as it is so simple to add trails to the Open Trail database. I can upload a GPS trail from my phone to the website and not even use my laptop. I am able to view my current trail with over 10 different types of maps. It keeps track of all my past tracks and has waypoints with photos if you choose. It would be perfect if it would include a speech feature to announce trail progression.

I always keep an external power bank in my saddlebag to charge my phone while we are out on the trail. You can usually find Blaze and I riding around jamming to music on Pandora.

Join Maggie, Blaze, and Whiskey out on the trails @ www.opentrail.us

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Premium Top Trail Rider: Christine Shenefield

Christine is a valued Premium Member of Open Trail and has been with us right from the start. As a Platinum Member, all Christine’s equines are eligible each month for all Top Trail Challenges plus she can set riding goals and track her progress. For a full list of Premium Member benefits: http://www.toptrailhorse.net/premium-memberships.html

Christine, her three horses (Sky, Bling, and Brooklyn) and mule (Taz) are always in the running for Top Trail Horse and Top Trail Rider. This Top Trail team have some impressive wins thus far: May 2014 Top Trail Horse 2nd, July 2014 Top Trail Horse 1st, Participation Challenge (July-August), and January 2015 Top Trail Horse 2nd. Christine rides when it’s HOT and she rides when it’s COLD! It’s quite apparent that she loves to ride and is devoted to her equine partners! We want to thank Christine, Bling, Brooklyn, Sky and Taz for being part of Open Trail and the Top Trail Horse mileage program and recognize them for their support and enthusiasm .

Become a member today and join the most innovative and fun mileage program for the American Trail Horse and Rider. www.opentrail.us

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Featured Top Trail Horse: Red Stormm (Pico)

February was beautiful in California where Red Stormm (Pico) and his owner, Doreen Lopez, live and explore trails. While many of us were battling winter weather woes, these two were able to get out and ride just under 170 miles—clinching Pico’s first place ranking for February on Top Trail Horse. By recording and uploading their trail miles, they are receiving an award from our sponsor: Equestrisafe (www.equestrisafe.com)

“Pico” is a purebred Arabian who came into Doreen’s life last May. They have been blazing trails ever since as well as participating in some competitive distance riding events—they even won their division in their first CTR! Doreen says that Pico is not only beautiful, but he’s loving and fun—the perfect partner.

Doreen is like many of us, including myself—got bit by the horse bug early in life, took riding lessons, got her first pony—well her first “pony” was a donkey by the name of Dusty! He was the first of many equines over the next 10 years and then she was out of horses for awhile until Pico came along last year! It’s good to be back in the saddle!

I asked Doreen about her favorite trail and she really loves the Knollwood One Trail. “It winds through old growth Eucalyptus forests and lush green meadows.” That does sound beautiful doesn’t it?

Doreen uses her Top Trail member account to stay on track to reach her goal of 1000 miles. She is well on her way with over 700 miles as of March 17.  Her advice to those who want to rank #1 on Top Trail Horse: “Just get out there and ride, ride, ride! (And always have fun doing it!)

Join Pico and Doreen and the rest of us on Open Trail (www.opentrail.us) and participate in Top Trail. You may very well have the next Top Trail Horse!

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Discovering America from Horseback. Open Trail is a central repository for Horse Trail across the U.S.

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Incredible Endurance

Dusty, a 9 year old Morab, is an incredible equine athlete with a big trot that just eats up whatever trail is in front of him.

This past summer Dusty and his girl, Wendy, traveled from the midwest to the Reno, NV area to make an attempt at the Tevis Cup. 100 miles in 24 hours. To say it was tough is an understatement—but despite the extreme challenge they made it to the finish line and completed the entire 100 miles in the allowed timeframe! Memories made on their trek will never be forgotten and have indeed strengthened the endearing bond the two of them already had before their Tevis experience.

Since then, they continue to enjoy their leisurely conditioning rides back home and travel to endurance rides where they continue to be highly competitive. They are also racking up miles on the Open Trail website and continue to place very well in the Top Trail Horse monthly mileage challenges.

To date Wendy has 665 miles, Dusty has 447, and Wendy's lovely TWH Cooper has logged 218 miles on Open Trail in the Top Trail Horse mileage program. They're all going strong!

We love all of our members—especially those who, like Wendy, with Dusty and Cooper, are participating in Top Trail by uploading their trails. It doesn’t matter if you ride 2 miles or 102 miles on a trail, make those miles and trails count by uploading them to your member profile!

Won’t you join us today? Become a member of the most innovative and cutting edge website: Open Trail—not just another trail directory!

www.toptrailhorse.com www.toptrailhorse.net www.opentrail.u

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Congratulations to Kelly and Roper: Top Trail Horse September Mileage Challenge Winners

Every month at Top Trail we like to see who rides the most miles. We give nice little presents (usually supplied by generous sponsors--this month it was eSaddles.com) to the top three horses with the most miles ridden and uploaded to the program website. Well, not really to the horses, we give the awards to their owners. 

Kelly signed up late August and in September she started riding and uploading like she was employed by the Pony Express! She rode 18 of September's 30 days and uploaded 21 trails totaling 156 miles. 

She and Roper already on a roll for October with nearly 40 miles in 4 days so far. I have a feeling if she doesn't win in October she will most certainly be close to the top!

Join in on the fun: http://www.opentrail.us/