Hi Darlin’!
I was up before the crack of dawn this morning, had breakfast and fed the horses and left them with extra hay, and drove out of camp with Lola before 6:30 as the sun was just coming up. The reason was because Kari had invited me along with a group of her friends to go riding in the wilderness, but the logistics of taking Flash was just too complicated, so Kari offered to let me ride her horse Velvet, while she rode a younger horse named Bliss. I arrived right on schedule, got my saddle on Velvet and drove out to who knows where to meet up with her friends, who all arrived at the same time as we did. These were all world class gaited horses, and I was looking forward to seeing what a true, uncompromising gaited trail ride was like. We headed out in short order, but it quickly became clear that there were so many horses that Lola got confused (I didn’t realize the group would be so big), so we ended up having to leave her in the trailer as we rode off, which was the right choice, I had enough to worry about without adding keeping an eye on her to the mix. I can’t say that I’ve ever gotten introduced to a horse doing 20 mph, but that’s about what happened. We all lit off down a road to get to a trailhead, and everyone was going at racking pace, and I had to keep up. Velvet was full of energy, and was trying to make it a race, so it was a little while before I figured out how to get along with her. It’s a totally different feel than Flash, of course, but I managed to hang on long enough to get the hang of it. Lost my sunglasses though, I hadn’t battened everything down well enough because it was a bit more bouncy than I’m used to. Anyway, once we settled down a bit, it was more comfortable, and I was pretty pleased with the way it went. The trails in this part of the forest are unmarked and not very well maintained, so there were lots of times we had to go around or over trees. With this group, though, at every opportunity they were moving along pretty fast, so I had my hands full keeping up, though my horse was entirely capable, I just needed to learn to handle it! Whipping through trees on a narrow trail can be a bit harrowing! We did over 13 miles, left after 8:00 and were back just after 11:00, so we made good time! It’s a beautiful raw forest, with a lot of challenging sections, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Special thanks to Kari for the invite and the transport! We got back, rinsed down the horses and sent them out to pasture, then I headed into town to trade in another tank of propane. I thought I still had two full ones, but it seems I only had one, and since I need to do laundry tomorrow I didn’t want to take any chances on running. Unfortunately, the Tractor Supply doesn’t fill propane at this location, and the Coop is too dang expensive, so I ended up just swapping out a tank at Walmart again, though this time I made sure I got a brand new, unrefurbished tank. The last one wasn’t new, although it was freshly painted and the dates are good on it, but it wasn’t quite new. Doesn’t matter, really, just a little sentimental about trading in the last original tanks on the trailer. Silly. Anyway, got back to camp, there were lots of dayriders’ trailers, and they were all starting to come back and leave around the time I got here. Had a relaxing afternoon, heading to bed early, tomorrow is a busy day of laundry and packing up. Good night, babe! Love you!
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