Friday, July 31, 2015

Hiking Georgia With Dogs: Garland Mountain Horse and Hike Trail


Last weekend we headed out for another agility and hiking day with our pals Johann the Dog, Gracie, Rach and their mum Leslie. 

After playing agility for a few hours at the Canine Ranch, we headed up the road to the Garland Mountain Horse and Hike Trail, near Waleska, Ga. 




There are 12 miles of trails for both horses and hikers. We mapped out a 2.5-mile course on the yellow and green trails. It's still super hot here, so we didn't want to overdo it.


The parking lot was filled with horse trailers when we got there, and we weren't sure how the dogs would react to horses on the trail.  But as it turned out, these were the only two we saw at the start of the trail, and we didn't come across any horses while hiking. 

I thought the sign was pretty amusing! Do horse people carry horse-sized poo bags?


Probably not! Here's the rest of the sign! The parking lot was pretty clear of horse poo, the trail wasn't too bad, either.


At the start of the trail, we saw this nifty horse playground. Some of the instructions reminded me of dog-training tips.



Seems like they're using shaping techniques by rewarding the slightest try and waiting for the horse to offer the behavior.



Here's the Cowboy Curtain. Rocco was too short to demonstrate!



The second challenge was the Step Up Tire. These look like the same exercises we do on our K9FITbone.



Rocco shows his all four feet on technique! That's a big tire!

Next, it was time to head down the trail.



It was a nice surface, soft and a bit sandy, and nicely maintained.


We saw some interesting tree trunks. And some of the trees were labeled.



I especially like this one. Did you know a PawPaw is a type of tree with large, simple leaves and large fruits? I didn't see any fruits or leaves on this one, but it did remind me of this tune... Way Down Yonder in the Paw Paw Patch! Listen to the whole thing...  you can thank me later (you'll be humming it the rest of the day!).


That's Rach, Rocco, Johann and Gracie! They sure had fun on this hike! 

Have you ever seen a PawPaw patch? Let us know in the comments below!

The fun and games continue every Friday with FitDog Friday, the weekly Blog Hop brought to you by To Dog With LoveSlimDoggy and My GBGV Life to promote a healthy active lifestyle for pets (and their people, too!). Join in every Friday by linking up your FitDog story or visiting the blogs in the Hop.


25 comments:

  1. What a fun time and how neat to have a place to hike and play with your horse! We never used to be able to go places where horses go because Katie has a thing for horse poo, but now that she doesn't come along much, we can go. We are laughing imagining some guy walking his horse carrying a heavy 40 gallon hefty bag full of horse poo and a big shovel!

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    1. I know, right?! I didn't get to see how they actually do scoop poo!

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  2. Looks like a great hike - love that pick up after your horse sign...wish we had some of those on our trails!

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    1. There was some poo on the trails, but mostly at the beginning and the dogs were good about leaving it. The sign was really just mean to keep the parking area clean, but I like the idea of requiring horse poo cleanup too!

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  3. That sign is hilarious but I guess they mean it! I am so jealous I can't go on the hikes with you, but it's probably too hot so we would just be miserable anyway.

    You know I love Rocco and your photos that's why I had to nominate you for 8 Photos of Happiness! Rules are simple. 8 photos of happiness and nominate some other blogs and thank Ariel’s Little Corner of the Internet for creating this event. Tag, you're it! Love Dolly

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    1. Oh thank you! I'm sure I can find at least 8! I'll go check out your post now!

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  4. What a cool place. Love all the challenges they give you to try.

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    1. We thought those horsey challenges were cool too!

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  5. What an awesome hike! I love those exercises for the horses, and definitely seeing Rocco on that tire ~ BOL! Our post today features a similarly large tire ;-) I don't recall every having come across a Paw Paw tree..

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    1. Oh that's right! You did come across a large tire!

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  6. I've never seen creative activities for horses before! I believe they make horse "diapers" but they're kind of cumbersome.

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  7. I may have missed this in the post, but how long did it take you to walk the trail with 4 dogs? I'd lie to do somethng similar.

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    1. It was less than two hours. We stopped a few times for water and to take photos. I imagine Rocco would have been happy running the entire thing and then it would have been a lot quicker!

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  8. This looks like such a fun place to hike with a dog. I had no idea that horses had agility type obstacles for a challenge. The picture of the four dogs in group needs to be in a frame. They look so happy!

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    1. Thanks for stopping by! My Rocco is the short dog in the picture and the other three are some of his best pals!

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  9. That looks like a really great place to hike. One of our favorite trails at Mendon Ponds Park near Rochester, NY is also popular with horse riders. I have definitely never seen a "horse playground" though - that is so cool!

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    1. I thought the horse playground was really cool too!

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  10. Hi Y'all!

    Oh what a neat place to hike.

    Y'all come on by,
    Hawk aka BrownDog

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  11. People go climbing in the outside for many factors, such as healthier work out, excellent opinions, good company, isolation, to name but a few. Whatever way we choose have fun with our walking in the crazy nation, it's value considering other choices that could start up such a lot more. It might be worn by a hiking group

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