First things first today, I had to run down and drop off an envelope for the outgoing mail at the ranger station, running the gauntlet through the sugar sand again, slipping and sliding in several spots, but it was to pay our taxes, so I couldn’t let it go another day. Got back and had a leisurely breakfast, and did some work on the computer. Just as we were getting ready to go, I got a call from my brother here in Florida (the one we’re on our way to visit), to tell me that one of our other brothers (who was supposed to be flying from Texas to Florida today for a week of rest and to visit the same brother) was in the hospital undergoing some sort of heart surgery. Not a heart attack, apparently, but a torn aorta. Kept the phone with me for updates, and fortunately, the surgery went well and he’s going to be under careful observation for a few days, but don’t know yet about the recovery involved. Easy to deduce he won’t be flying to Florida any time soon! Well, Hubby had already saddled up his horse, so I saddled mine and away we went! It was an absolutely perfect day weather-wise, one of the best we’ve had in awhile, so nice I only had to have a tank top on. It’s great to get some sun. We did the full official trail today, which is about 10 miles, but we saw lots of side trails we’ll explore later in the week. It began with a very long, very straight stretch with old growth and palm trees along a little river which is shared with the bikers (we passed several along the way), crossed a good sized wooden bridge over the river, then eventually worked our way out to the country road. The trees thinned out until we were essentially in almost open fields with just a few pines and lots of squash palms. After that we crossed the county road, did some pretty straight runs along the boundary, came across a lot of pig sign that got the horses snorting and whirling around a bit. We crossed the road again and came across some actual pigs crossing the trail, a couple of mamas and some babies, and the horses were like statues at first. Once they caught sight of us, they ran off, which seemed to give Apollo some confidence, so he strutted past the area with a bit more panache and a lot less fuss. I guess he finally figured out that the pigs were more afraid that we were pig-eating monsters than he was that they were horse-eating pigs. We had some fantastic canters and lovely long trots, as everyone is getting more and more fit. We even trotted across the bridge on the way back, about 10-15 yards of planking that made a wonderful clippety-clop sound as we went over it. A great ride! We arrived back at camp about 4:00, just as one of my brothers texted me to let me know that my other brother was out of surgery and seemed to be doing okay, though we’ll know better in a few days in the ICU. Settled in for a relaxing evening, enjoying the quiet solitude of this place.
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