Hey Sweetie!
What a lovely, long ride today! After a so-so night sleep, I got up, did my chores, had breakfast, then saddled up Flash for our group ride today. I left, with Lola in her newly-refashioned safety vest, about 10:15 for our meetup at 11:00 at Orange and J. Just as I crossed the road on to the orange trail, a rather large and noisy group turned in just behind me, so I picked up my pace to get out ahead of them, all downhill of course, so I ended up reaching J by about 10:45. They ended up being a few minutes late, but I had a nice chat with four fellas who are camping up on top of the hill in the state horse camp. Eventually my group came along and we headed out. Instead of Table Rock, though, we headed out to Indian Head, which I don’t remember ever going to before, then around and down to the Artesian well for lunch, then back out on the challenging pink trail, where one of our group decided to head back to camp before the turn (and who ended up getting lost anyway, then found again by our group when they finished the pink trail), and another girl’s horse got so tired she stumbled a few times and almost went down the hill, and could scarcely carry her even on the flat. My phone died part way through so I didn’t get a GPS of the whole ride, but when I went back and reconstructed it, it looked like about 13 miles, but it seemed a lot longer. And it may have been, with steep climbs and descents, the GPS is very often misleading. Once we completed the pink trail, I peeled off to climb back up to camp, while they headed east, then north, back to 3 Reasons farm. It was close for me, and Flash, after all that exercise, still decided to gait up that long hill most of the way! Lola was so tuckered she practically dropped onto her cushion in the screen room while I unsaddled Flash and gave him a wash and rubbed him down with some liniment. One of the older guys that I met this morning came by and chatted for a bit, then I got everyone put away, changed my clothes, then took the truck out to 3 Reasons for steak dinner with the gang. There was a thunderstorm in the vicinity and I didn’t want to leave Lola alone, you know how she panics when there’s a storm, so I helped her into the truck (she was so tired she couldn’t climb in on her own), and traveled the 10 minutes to the farm. A nice group, a great dinner, and, of course, I sang for my supper by doing Snowy River for them, with only one little bobble, but it was the largest group I’ve done so far, ten people, so I thought it went pretty well. As it started to get dark, I drove back to camp and settled down for the night. No TV, I barely have enough energy to type this blog! And tomorrow is likely going to be even longer for me, since Table Rock is on the other side of the park, plus they want to go down into the state park, with is another few miles south, so it’s going to be another long day for me, but I don’t mind, it was a beautiful and fun day! I just hope Flash is up for it, because this group is all gaited and Apollo would never keep up, plus it would be too long for him. But if Flash is gimpy, I may have no choice! I think he’ll be all right, though, he certainly seemed fine gaiting up the hill at the end of the day! Well, I’ve had my shower, and tonight, I’m going to be early, long day tomorrow! Good night, my love!
Speak Your Mind