Another first, First group ride

Well, yesterday was Punkalicious's first ever group ride. He had never been out with more than two other horses before. This was the third annual "Circle your Wagons" ride put on by a friend of mine. This year, it was out half way to Yuma, I think, in the MAricopa Wilderness area. Which, is 20 miles past Maricopa, by the way...
Thankfully, Vicki and Dakota were able to go with me. This turned out to be HUGE for me, or I don't think I would have gotten through the day. I picked them up at 7am (ugh, after not getting home from work the night before until about 11pm...) After about an hour and a half, we foundsigns that brought us into the parking area. About the parking area.... we were about 50 feet from a VERy active fright train track. About every 20 minutes, a BIG train would go through. Not the best place for horse parking...Santana wasn't too sure about these very loud things at first. HE danced around a bit, but never blew up. Once everyone arrived, we took off on out ride. Santana was fresh, and raring to go. I was very unsure obout this, there were about 16 horses, and he was certain that he needed to lead the ride. I was certain that he did NOT need to lead the ride, and hence, we had a differing of opinions. Thank goodness for Vicki. She kept me calm and talked me through the first few minutes; minutes that I thought I might not survive. I don't have any experience with this situation. But he never was dangerous, no threat of bucking or rearing, he just wanted to GO. We had to go through a tunnel, under the RR tracks to continue on the ride. Everyone had to dismount as this was only about 7 feet tall. He had no issues with the tunnel. He just wanted to go. I was told this was a "crushed granite" trail. It was very rocky. Another chance to test his bare feet.
Anyway, we all re-mounted once throught he tunnel, and we were off. I had to keep zig--zagging Santana across the trail to let him "go" with out letting him have his way of passing everyone. This was the conpromise we made. He did a lot of trotting, but never tired. The trains kept passing through, as we were riding parellel to the tracks. He did very well, and we did a ten mile ride. The trail was very flat, nothing challenging except the trains! After we got back, we had a little cook-out at the trail head with the folks on the ride. IT was a fun day.