Archives for February 2019

Another beautiful Florida morning, crisp and cool then warming up later. I saddled up Flash early and headed out for our 18.5 mile loop to Riverbend Park. I checked his leg for warmth and swelling, and felt very little, so I just wrapped it up nice and hit the trail. It must not have bothered him much, because almost every time I gave him a loose rein without instruction, he decided to speed up. He's gotten great about not reacting to birds jumping out of the canal at him, and at one point, I think he was even having a race with an ibis that kept moving out in front of us, for a much longer distance than usual. We saw lots of wildlife today, lots of birds, a couple of alligators, a bright green iguana, and finally, the pink bird we saw Sunday, though I'm not sure it's an ibis now, it has a rather strange, shoehorn shaped bill, which, with a little research on the internet, turns out to be a roseate spoonbill. Flash was brilliant, with several nice canters, and once again, when we were finished, his ankle felt only slightly warm, so it's obviously not bothering him much, though I'll keep an eye on it. I was back by noon, so Hubby and I enjoyed a nice brunch together, then we went into town for a doctor's appointment for his back (we're hoping to get some injections in order to get some long-term relief), then met both brothers and my new sister-in-law at Jeff's favorite restaurant, Rancho Chico in Tequesta for a nice meal. I splurged on a strawberry margarita (well, two, actually) and had a good time all around. A very nice day!

Started the day saddling up both horses so that Hubby and I could take a ride, and brother Jeff joined us on Frost. As we went up the road for a tour of the neighborhood, we met up with another rider named Cary on her TW Coco(a?) who joined us as we rode along the canal for a bit. She evidently boards a couple of streets over. She showed us a little detour that avoided the road for a short segment before heading off to her barn, and we carried on until we reached the end of the line, where I wanted to show Hubby these crazy palm trees. Someone meticulously cuts off each frond as it dies off, then lacquers or polyurethane's it to make the whole trunk shiny. It actually makes the tree look fake! We all had a good laugh about it before heading back to the other side of the neighborhood for about a 3 ½ mile ride. Just as we were heading down the last canal on the way home, Flash decided to lay down. He had started doing that earlier, but Hubby had been able to stop him, but this time he went quicker, and Hubby didn't have time to get his foot out of the stirrup so he sort of toppled out of the saddle. No injuries, though his elbow kind of bashed into his ribs, which will probably hurt later. It took us a few minutes to get him back into the saddle without a mounting block, but we managed it, and got the rest of the way home without incident. On the last stretch, though, we saw what we thought was a rare pink ibis, I managed to get a quick photo just before Flash laid down. A nice ride, always good to have Hubby with me on the trail!

First, brother Jeff needed a ride to the auto parts store for a part to fix his power steering pulley on his Bronco (which is really hilarious, he has half a dozen vehicles scattered around his property, none of which are running at the moment!), then brother Glenn needed a ride down to pick up a rental car, which dragged on longer than it should because he hadn't fully confirmed availabilities at our first stop (first because, guess what? They didn't have any cars available!), so then we had to go further to pick one up at another place. They didn't have the size he wanted, so they upgraded him to a small SUV, and he was happy because it fit his golf clubs. Once we got back, Jeff and I decided to go for a short ride, to see how my horse Flash and his horse (well, his boarder's horse) Frost did together on the trail. Just a short run around the neighborhood, but everything went fine. Jeesh, I though Apollo had a slow walk, but Frost is even more of a slug than him! So I have to hold Flash back quite a bit, and that made him a little antsy, but it all worked out. Lola came with us because we just went out the back to Hungryland, heading for Pratt Whitney Rd. We got farther than Hubby and I did last week, but still didn't make it to PW, as he's still pretty out-of-shape and started feeling it. It was a good thing, though, because at their sluggish pace, we barely got back before the sun went down! Settled in for a quiet evening.