Set the alarm to get up early, so we could be back from our ride before the heat of the day, as it was forecast to be near 90. Fortunately, it was cloudy, which helped a lot, and after a nice breakfast, we got the horses out, trimmed their feet a little bit, put on their boots and saddled up, and were out on the trail by 10:40. I had planned a short, easy ride, just over 4.5 miles. It began on trail #1, which was a two track dirt and sometimes gravel road, and was just what we needed to get ourselves stretched back into shape. Somewhere along the line I missed a turn (the print on the map was so small I couldn't make out my plan), and we stayed on #1 instead of turning onto #6, which added about another 1.5 miles by the time we were through, but it worked out okay. We got back onto #6 when we reached the middle of our figure 8 loop, and though it was a bit more difficult, it was nothing for our guys! What a great ride, though! The horses were brilliant, no rodeo-ing from Apollo, and several great opportunities for trotting and cantering. A lot of the trails were just dirt, which was a relief, though a few sections were quite rocky. The ranger had informed me that there were many caverns around here, and that when you could hear a hollow sound under the horses' feet, that meant we were over a cavern. We did, in fact, have that happen several times, which was pretty cool. Hubby faired well, and was only starting to feel a little twinge just before we got back to camp, even though the last stretch was probably the hardest, so no damage done. As soon as the horses were put away, we put another ice pack on it, and he went to bed and took a nap. I did some computer work, then decided to put up the 10X10 canopy we had over the horse corrals, to provide some shade. Despite instructions that said you need 3 people to get the canopy up, I managed to do it on my own, and the horses didn't seem bothered by it at all, just a short moment of concern from Clio, but she settled down at once. After Hubby's nap, he did a few more chores, and I did a repair on one of Clio's boots (the leather strap had worn, and only the velcro was holding it on), before we settled down for a relaxing evening, hoping that Hubby's back will be good tomorrow for another ride. We've already decided to stay past Monday, as my computer work revealed it would take at least 6 rides to accomplish most of the trails here, which are abundant. Might as well get 'em done while we're here, who knows when we'll be back!
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