#youridewekeepscore

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.