They had to wait longer than they would have liked to get back out on the trails, but the Souris Valley Trekkers were able to hold their saddle horse trail ride on the weekend, bringing horse lovers together again.
The trail ride from Roche Percee is usually preceded by a wagon ride in the spring. The wagon ride was a casualty of the spring flooding and was cancelled.
"Everybody is just excited to get going today," said Joyce Schlapkohl, an organizer of the trail ride. "This is just a real casual, good day."
Trekkers vice-president Richard Asbenlieder said, "A day like this with a bunch of horses, a bunch of friends, it's great."
About 45 people signed up with their horses to take part in the ride on Sept. 24, which began and ended in Roche Percee, following a trek of almost 20 kilometres. There was a trail ride in Alida the same day that they didn't know about and barrel racing in Carnduff. Schlapkohl said that may have affected the number of registrants, but they were very pleased with the turnout.
She said lots of people have been looking forward to the September ride.
"I have had so many calls about the ride," she said. "Because of everything that's happened this year, the horse people haven't really seen each other. The barrel racing, it's all been cancelled because of the wetness. The fall rodeo was great because you finally got to see everybody that you kind of missed in the summer."
The saddle ride was scheduled for July but the ground along the trails was too wet to go forward with the event. While they have had people from all over attend their saddle ride in the past, this year was mostly locals, with some people from Lampman, Arcola and Kisbey.
Asbenlieder said the trails are in pretty good shape this fall.
"There are a few where we can't go where we really want to because it's too wet, but we should be all right today. There shouldn't be a problem," he added. "We just had a pretty good rain, so it's not that dry here. When it's dry, you've got a chance of starting a fire."
Don Wyatt, Trekkers president, said the recreation hall, where they usually go for supper after the ride, is going to be demolished, but he said he hopes they build a new one.
"We're going to need a lot of help in the next year," said Wyatt. "We'll do a lot of fundraising."
Schapkohl noted that unlike the wagon ride earlier in the year, the saddle ride is not a fundraiser. She said they will make a little money off the saddle ride this however, because they are not renting the hall to have their meal. That will help the organization after the absence of the wagon-ride fundraiser this year.
The Trekkers are planning on holding their annual wagon ride again next spring.
