Saturday, Jan. 4, 2014 – First Ride of 2014 – Reimers Ranch Park, near Austin, TX

At long last we had a day warm enough to go riding!! After sending my brother from Florida off to the airport, and spending about an hour at my other brother's welding shop, where one of his guys fixed a couple of pieces of the horse trailer that had weakened and broken. Pulled out by 11:45, arrived at Reimers Ranch Park about 30 minutes later, paying the $12 entrance fee. We were delayed starting the ride because we knew the terrain would have a significant amount of rock and stone, so I had to spend some time trimming both horses front hooves so we could put on their Cavallo simple boots (in our mind, probably the best we've used so far.) Finally we were able to saddle up and get on the trail. As it turned out, while there were quite a few stretches of heavy rock, a good portion of the trail (well, road, actually) was packed dirt. Being a multi-use trail, it was double track, and we passed quite a few cyclists and joggers along the way. The terrain was typical Texas Hill country, occasional copses of short trees dotted around a brown grass landscape, but it was a very nice ride nevertheless. We got quite a few canters in, and Apollo was on his best behavior, once I checked him once or twice when he started to bundle up. We did the entire perimeter loop of the park, plus Turkey Loop, completing the 4.75 miles in good time. The horses seemed quite comfortable, and appreciated getting out on the trail again, they've been hanging out in the yard for way too long! A quick stop at the grocery store on the way home, and we soon settled down to a bowl of home-made split pea soup that I had made yesterday for the family, and a couple of playoff games. A great way to start our fifth year on the road with the horses!