Had a full night's sleep and woke up feeling absolutely great! Yaaaay! Got Hubby dialyzed pretty early, though I had to call the park office to see if they could change out the 30 amp breaker at this site. It kept tripping for no apparent reason, even when the load remained the same. They came by moments later to take a look, and said they would be back later in the afternoon to change it out. It was a beautiful warm day, but the forecasts had been saying sunny for days today, which of course turned out to be wrong, we had scattered showers all morning. But I was so determined to have a ride on Apollo, I didn't care if I had to get a bit wet. Fortunately, it had mostly cleared out by the time we finished dialyzing, so I went out and started getting Apollo ready. He gave me no trouble at all putting his boots on (he almost seemed glad about it!), and stood quietly while I saddled him up. Just about then, the rangers came back and started to repair the circuit breaker. I found that none of the batteries I had for my GPS were any good any more, but I saw a little mini-mart just outside the park entrance, so I took a quick ride over there and bought some. I finished getting Apollo ready, wearing my new Troxler helmet, and Lola dog and I headed out to the trailhead. What a nice ride! Though I thought there would be gravel on the trails, in fact, there was almost none. It was all dirt covered with layers of leaves, well-enough used so that it was easy to follow. I was also relieved to see that there was a lot more variety to the trails than the map indicated. It essentially showed one long, winding trail that followed the erratic shoreline, with a straight run down the road back to the camp at the end. In reality, the windy trail loops into the straight trail, which runs parallel to the road, many times along the way. You can circle each field and come back to the straight trail, take any number of cutoffs if you don't want to go all the way out to the shoreline, just lots of variety which made it more interesting. Though the park had delayed the trail openings from this weekend to next (due to the rain expected tonight and tomorrow), today they were just beautiful, mostly dry with just a few wet spots around the fields, but absolutely no big deal. I can see why they want to preserve the trails by holding off another weekend, but today, it was a gorgeous ride. Best of all, Apollo did brilliantly! This is his very first ride on his own, without his Mama (mine, too, without Roy! Well, except a few times on other people's horses), and he just did perfectly, totally responsive, seemingly happy just to be doing something besides eating and standing around. He never got excited, though he walked fast at first, as always, and I waited until he was good and warmed up before jogging and eventually even getting a little canter in. He's obviously as out of shape as I am, not having been ridden since last June, and he started to sweat and lather after the first few jogs, but I didn't overwork him (or me!) We stayed out about 90 minutes, doing almost five miles of the 9.2 miles of trails here, and I was surprisingly not the least bit sore, as I thought I might have been after so long. By the time we got back, the circuit breaker was fixed, Lola had thoroughly enjoyed her run (but she immediately found her ball and started tossing it at us to play, of course!), and Apollo seemed very pleased that he had had a break from his routine. I must say he seems to be much more settled since we got on the road, particularly since we've been at the park (he's not much for stalls), and he's relaxing back into his old self, which is great to see. I put him on an anchor so that he could munch on some of the new grass that was springing up nearby, and before long, Hubby and I were both enjoying a nice steak dinner, our first real solid food in days, before settling into the only really comfortable place in this little trailer, our bed! A few more Longmires on Netflix and lights out!
Saturday, June 3, 2017 – Another Ride with Callie, Watched Other Clinics
As Callie was leaving today, and Hubby still didn’t feel up to it, I arranged to take her for another ride this morning, though I wanted to go early enough to get back for two other demonstrations that were planned, one on packing for back country trips, and another on the wild mustang program, so I was up early, and had the horses saddled and ready to go by around 8:30. Today we headed out on the yellow trail, which took us out along the southern side of the resort. I have to say, I was rather disappointed. It seemed that they once had really nice trails here, but for some unknown reason, they had decided to maintain their trails with a bulldozer, and as far as I’m concerned, that’s the fastest and surest way to ruin a trail. So instead of winding our way through pleasant woods, we were following bulldozer tracks that had all but destroyed the trail. There were a lot of other, nicer trails weaving through the woods, but they were all unmarked and not on the map, so we didn’t dare take them. We still enjoyed ourselves, but the trails were rocky, wide and ugly, so it was only being on a horse that made it worthwhile. Callie enjoyed herself, though, and that was more the point than anything. She did much better today, even cantering up hills a couple of times, so she was obviously getting the hang of it. We did managed to get back by 10:30, and I made it over to the packing demonstration by 11:00. Turned out to be a very casual, almost unofficial packing demonstration, no mule or horse involved, instead using a barrel with a saddle on it. If it hadn’t been for a young lady named Mickie who was determined to master the art of packing, it would have been a really lame demonstration. It was mostly just answering her questions that made it interesting. I mean, how are you supposed to ask questions about something you don’t know anything about? I didn’t even know where to begin! Once that was finished, I went over to watch the mustang clinic, and even though the set up was a bit more professional, I didn’t find the demonstration particularly interesting. Didn’t really learn much about the program, didn’t really learn much about the clinician’s training philosophy, didn’t really learn much of anything except the names of the horses he had brought with him and where they were from. Sorry to say, it just wasn’t very interesting or informative, not quite sure what the point of it was. Sigh. I really wanted to learn more about it, but again, how is one supposed to know what questions to ask when one has no foundation to know what to ask? Guess I’m just a bit picky when it comes to watching presentations, as would be expected from someone who teaches people how to make presentations… Anyway, got back to camp around 2:30 and felt so tired I took a nap, then relaxed the rest of the day and evening, putting away as much stuff as I could. We’ve decided that since there is rain coming in tomorrow, that we’re going to leave very early in the morning and try to get home before the rain builds up too much.
Friday, April 28, 2017 – Fabulous First Ride Day at Owl Creek, AL-Bankhead NF
Tuesday, April 25, 2017 – Short, Solo Ride to Recover Lost Water Bottle
After a leisurely breakfast, I saddled up Apollo and hooked up Clio to a retractable leash in order to pony her along (these two have NEVER been separated, and if we tried, there would be blood, so no risky business here!) I headed out the same road we went yesterday, of course, and a walk and occasional jog. Hubby had things to do and didn’t want to come, so off I went! I knew for a fact that I had lost them within the first 3 miles, and I suspected I lost them going up the first hill once we got off the road, which was about two miles out. It was a long climb with numerous berms along the way, and we had leaped from one berm to another, so I figured that was the most likely place. I still looked along the side of the road, just in case, and I certainly did find lots of beer cans and other beverage containers, but no Disney metal water bottle! I soon reached the hill and headed up, and sure enough, about 2/3 of the way up I found the metal bottle, and a plastic bottle (for Lola), and a little notebook that had dropped out as well. Having already gone two miles, I considered completing the short 5 mile loop, but that would have meant a lot more climbing, and I was concerned for little Billy dog, as I had brought him along on this trip, and he was already looking a bit tired, so I headed everyone back down the hill and we took the relatively flat road back to camp. Billy still had trouble keeping up, poor thing! I so hate that he can’t go on long rides with us anymore (unless I decide to fix him up some kind of buddy saddle for him to ride on!), but he is at least 13 now (he was a stray, so we’re not quite sure his age) and it’s just getting to be too much for him. It was another beautiful day, though, and everyone behaved perfectly! We were only gone a bit over an hour. Our original plan was to stay here until Thursday, but the weather forecast is showing a beautiful day tomorrow and a very high chance of rain on Thursday, so we’ve decided to head out tomorrow instead, to avoid getting the alfalfa in the back of the truck wet. It’s only about 150 miles to our next stop (Owl Creek Horse Camp in the Bankhead NF in Northern Alabama), but we have numerous stops to make along the way. Fortunately, there is supposed to be potable water there, so filling all the tanks may not be necessary, but I’m waiting for a call back from them to make sure. If it’s a hand pump, I’ll be getting water before we get there!! Anyway, it was a pretty quiet day again, and a nice little ride with a successful end, but we’re looking forward to our next, new back yard!