Tuesday, August 4, 2020 – First Ride at Tippecanoe

Hi Darlin',
Finally woke up feeling refreshed after a great night sleep! I could have slept longer but I had set my alarm because a bunch of folks I met down at Loretta Lynn's back in June decided to come ride with me, so I had to be ready by 9:30, which I was. I decided to leave Lola home when I knew there was such a large group, she doesn't always stick around when there's that many horses, but one of the gals had brought her dog along so we still had canine company. We did a couple of long loops in the morning, really nice trails! Mostly sand, so even with the rain over the weekend there really wasn't any mud, just a few soft spots. The trails are mostly fairly wide and well-groomed, albeit mostly flat, so it's very easy riding. I started out further back, but after awhile Flash was getting antsy because I was having to try to slow him down, and eventually we got out front where he immediately calmed down. A couple of times I had to take him for a long canter and back again, just to keep him happy, but everyone seemed fine with that. We came back and grabbed some lunch to take with us down to a new, short trail they had recently put in that led right down to the river, and by then, I had decided to bring Lola along for the rest of the day. I found her up in the bedroom again, so I expect to see dog hair and probably footprints when I go to bed tonight. Despite the fact that the entire park is centered on Tippecanoe River, there was no access for horses until last week. Evidently there's a small patch of land that's privately owned, but they reached an agreement to let the park manage it, and they turned it into a nice picnic area with about 100 feet of shoreline. There was only one hitching post, though, so some of us had to tie horses on to a small fence and a couple of trees. We all had a nice lunch, and Lola had a nice time fetching, including a few swims in the river before we mounted up and headed back out on the trail, doing another few loops. The morning ride was nearly 10 miles, the afternoon ride about half that. My phone died so I didn't get a GPS map of the whole thing, unfortunately. Anyway, it was a wonderful ride, a fabulous day, with lots of good company. I think it actually did Lola a lot of good, because even when she fell behind me she stayed with the pack until she caught up again, and she may have learned a bit from watching the other dog, too. Oh, I forgot to tell you that when we were in Michigan, my hosts had a Newfoundland named Angus (with a Mohawk haircut-really!) that Lola liked so much she actually tried to get him to play with her! It was so much fun to watch her jump around trying to coax him into play! So uncharacteristic for her. She didn't try that with Ellie, the dog that was with us today, but they did seem to get along all right. Got back to camp after 4:00, sat under the awning for a while (haven't bother to put the screen room up this time) before finally coming inside and settling down for the evening. A fabulous day, perfect weather, actually a bit cool, and it's supposed to get down to 49 degrees tonight! I had to close all the windows, and I suspect I'll be pulling my extra throw over me at bedtime. Speaking of, it's about that time anyway, so I'll say good night! Love you, babe!

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