Hi Darlin'!
Another busy day here at the ranch! While some folks pulled out today, there were still plenty of people left for the last day. I had decided to go on the half-day medium ride with Flash (Apollo's feet are still sore), and we headed out a little late after an incident with one of my neighbors, Lori, whose horse suddenly started shaking and his legs buckled while she was saddling him, and he fell on her. They had to rush her out in an ambulance to a life-flight pad and flew her to a nearby hospital. They thought she had broken bones, but it turned out that she didn't, just had bruises. An expensive transportation bill for that! Anyway, we finally got out of camp and headed around the edges of fields for a long time, very hot in the sun. Then we had some false starts of trying to through the woods where there was no trail. Bubba, who has been nothing but kind to me since I've been here, was leading the ride, and he has kind of a reputation for extreme riding. We have several forays into the woods where we had to turn back because there was no trail and it was impossible, so we ended up spending a lot more time riding around fields. As we came to the end of the ride, he started up the creek, and after about 100 yards, an older man next to me had his horse lost his footing and fall, and the rider ended up underneath him, and he couldn't swim, but I managed to get Flash close enough to him so he could grab his McCarty lead and pull himself up. Once we all recovered from that, we went a little farther, then Bubba couldn't find a place where horses couldn't cross without swimming (remember all the rain we've been having!), and some people we reluctant to carry on, so he turned around and started taking the group the other way. We were only about 50-75 yards from the beach at the camp, so several riders opted to carry on, and after seeing which way they went, I decided to give it a try. I had taken Flash out into the water earlier this week, but it had really scared him, but now he seemed okay, even eager to follow those horses, so I moved him out, and sure enough, he had so swim a few steps. I was so busy trying to keep my phone and camera out of the water I hardly noticed, but he did brilliantly! Got back into shallow water, still had his boots on, and climbed out at the beach! Good boy! I couldn't get him past Apollo, though, so I unsaddled him right there and carried everything back in my utility cart. I was a bit perturbed at some of the risks that we took, though, not knowing what the skill level was of that 20+ people that were on the ride. Got back with just a few minutes to spare before lunch would stop serving, managed to get to the cook shack just in time (though it seems they're used to Bubba's rides getting back late). After lunch I took Lola down to visit with Liz and her GSH pointer EmmyLou down at the creek, sat around with her group for awhile. Of course, Lola was more interested in fetching with humans than playing with Emmy, and Emmy was busy trying to chase fish anyway, so Lola eventually wandered down the beach and played with a group of kids for awhile. After an hour or so, I wandered up the beach to join another group, mostly from Indiana, that I had gotten to know, and stayed there until dinnertime. I had a chat with Lori by her trailer, they had already released her from the hospital, bruised but okay, and a few other folks as well. Finally settled down for the evening, even had time for a DS9, wifi service is much better now that so many people had left. Looking forward to a quiet remainder of the weekend, think I'll just leisurely do some housework tomorrow, and Sunday is for breakdown, of course, then travel on Monday to a place called Double J Stables next to the Mammoth Cave National Park. Heard some good things about it, though I've heard the trails are kind of boring, just a few long loops, but right now, boring sounds kind of good to me! I need a place to relax! Speaking of, I'm off the bed! Good night, darlin'! Love you!
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