After a good night sleep, we were once again awakened by all the activity over on the other side of the campground, but it wasn't too long before they all started breaking up and going home. Hubby decided he was up for a ride after breakfast, so I saddled up the horses and planned a very short ride. He started to feel poorly after less than half my planned ride last time, so this time I planned something very short, less than an hour, essentially just down to the dam and back. He managed to climb up on Apollo with no help from me except holding him still, and off we went! Fortunately, the new trail that I took had quite a gradual grade down the hill, just right for him, and we went as far as the far side of the dam so the horses could put their feet in the water (which is how this whole adventure began almost 10 years ago!), then headed back toward camp on the red/white trail for a bit, then up on one of the black/white trails to get us back to camp. All told it was about 2.5 miles, less than an hour, but he was feeling quite strong when we got back, which is a great improvement from the last couple of rides when he was really fatigued and in pain from one thing or another, so he was a happy camper! Of course, once again, the weather forecast had predicted no rain until the wee hours overnight, but we had several storms come in throughout day, so I was scrambling to put tack away before one storm, and feed the horses before another storm. It was a tough dialysis session, too, for some reason, I suspect Hubby let himself get a bit too dehydrated, both on the trail and when we got back, so we had to deal with some issues with that, so he ended up being exhausted by the end of the day from that. By the end of the day, we finally had the place to ourselves, with all the campers (horse and otherwise) gone, and all the day riders, until the entire campground was empty. I let the horses graze on the grass for a long time before putting them away in the portable corral just before the third storm of the day passed through. Now that I've given them some of the new hay, they're not eating as much of the stuff Lisa gave me, though they were tucking in a bit on the bales under the gooseneck when they were loose, so it's all good. With them both getting a longer than usual ride in over the last two days, the short ride today must have been a relief, and tomorrow, they're going the have the whole day off as we go shopping, housekeeping and laundry, whoo-hoo! Off to bed now, though, to join Hubby is his fatigue.
Speak Your Mind