Hey Sweetie!
Had a good night sleep after all that flurry of activity the last two days, managed a leisurely breakfast and met with the crew at 9:00 this morning. We headed out toward where the horses stayed overnight, though at one point we had a little mishap. A dog literally came out of nowhere right in front of the truck and there was nothing Francesca could do, and we heard a couple of thumps, but then we saw the dog running away, not even limping! We all hoped it would be okay, but there are so many stray dogs around, I imagine this happens all the time. She stopped and retrieved the front license plate which had popped off, but otherwise there was no damage to the truck. Anyway, we carried on, and were soon mounting up on horses. Today's journey took us to the highest altitude I have ever ridden. Our previous record was about 10,500 feet in southern Colorado, but today, we reached the remarkable height of 13,931 feet! It's a wonder we didn't all need oxygen! Thank goodness I've been taking these altitude pills, I'm sure they made a difference today. We stopped for lunch next to a lovely manmade lake, and enjoyed a full chicken dinner before looping back around. Today the trail was mostly gravel road, which is the predominant trail here, lots of open space, and above the tree line, so pretty sparse on vegetation except for some pines obviously planted for erosion prevention, until we descended far enough to resume the usual vegetation. Pretty reminiscent of riding in the western USA. Jane was fascinated with the geology, there was sections of obviously ancient upheavals that had some pretty interesting fault lines. It was about ten miles total, so very enjoyable, not too hard, another good day! One discovery I made was the my horse isn't a gelding, she's a mare! I never looked! They cut roach manes on the geldings and let the mares grow long (sounds rather sexist, doesn't it?), and mine has a long mane, but at the beginning, Jane stated that she had the only mare, and I took her word for it. Trust but verify! I didn't do it! Regardless, she was perfect today, very steadfast, no problems with any trail surprises, though a couple of the other horses shied from some concrete pipe by the road. It was a nice ride. We got back to the hotel by about 4:00, and I got busy trying to finish my video from yesterday. I've gotten a bit behind, but I managed to finish it off last night, primarily because I opted out of dinner. I just was still so full from lunch, and was so far behind on stuff, and I just needed a little alone time to finish these jobs. Had a long talk with Jo back in Florida, she's going through a lot of stuff right now, then finished my video, had a long hot shower and am off to sleep! Good night, babe! Love you!
Speak Your Mind