Archives for 2019

With no dialysis today, and the forecast saying it wouldn't rain until later in the day (yeah, right, like I believe THAT by now!), I saddled up Flash and headed out with the intention of doing the entire Red outer perimeter trail. After making him stand around so much yesterday, Flash was raring to go, and we set out northward at a nice quick walking pace. It wasn't long before he wanted to cordo and largo, but it was limited because of all the narrow and often rocky trails. We managed to keep his boots on (his fit better than Apollo's), but one did come off a couple of times when we had extenuating circumstances. It was a lovely ride, with all kinds of varying terrain and footing throughout the journey, and we completed the 14+ mile trip in just 3 hours and 39 minutes, with an average of over 4 mph despite the terrain. Not exactly endurance race speed, but certainly respectable. When we got back to camp, our neighbor Lisa commented that she should have warned me the entire red trail would be an 8 hour journey (with lunch stops and breaks, I suppose), and she was shocked to see me back in camp already, sure that I must have taken a shortcut back, but no, I did the entire Red Trail! I never felt like we were really rushing, though, I just let Flash go at whatever speed he wanted, which is always faster as the day goes on, unlike a stock horse that generally gets slower. Crazy! Anyway, it was a great ride, and we were very satisfied with it all around. As always, we sat in the screen room relaxing for a bit before settling down for an evening of dinner and a movie! This is the way to live!!

Had a great night sleep (Lola has been sleeping in the truck lately, which could explain that!), and didn't get up until almost 8:30. Got the horses fed and the yard cleaned up, then rousted Hubby out of bed before it got too late. A few minutes to dress and a glass of juice, and he was ready! I got the horses saddled, and we headed out on what I hoped would be a ride of suitable length for him. He's been getting stronger, but he's still a long way from where he needs to be, but he managed to get up on Apollo with hardly any help from me, and we set off northbound on the red trail. Our plan was to go out past the overlook about a mile and a half away, then cross down to the red/white inner trail and come back that way. From my GPS elevation profile, it seemed like it had the most gradual grades on it. We were doing great until we got to the red/white inner trail and found another "closed trail" ribbon. I had noticed there was what appeared to be an alternate route that other horses had obviously taken, so we backtracked to that and followed it only about 100 feet, when it ended up right back on the trail that had been closed! Well, we didn't know quite what to make of that, but we kept on, figuring that maybe since we had had so many dry days, and the trail was probably closed off because of mud, that by now it would be in better shape. It was, for the most part, only a few really muddy places, but far fewer than any other trail I've been on since we left Tennessee in June! By now, Hubby was feeling a bit achey, not in his back, which is where we thought the trouble would be, but in his groin area. Guess his muscles are out of shape since he hasn't been on a horse in a while, and Apollo is really round, even though he did lose some weight this year. He's still a big, wide horse! We were doing great, checking to make sure their boots were on after every puddle, then we turned up a trail and the horses started trotting, and when we went through the next puddle and I looked back to check, Apollo had lost one of his boots, dang it! I climbed down and tied up Flash, and started hunting, walking back a long way, but no sign of the boot. I'm thinking it might have slid off when we picked up speed, but I couldn't find it. I went back to earlier puddles which I'm sure I checked after we went through, still no boot. Unfortunately, there is some long grass along the edge of the trail here, but Hubby was really starting to ache, so I gave it up and we headed back to camp, which was only about a half mile away. I guess I know what I'm going to be doing tomorrow! I hope I can find it, I hate to lose a boot, and so far, I've only ever lost one that I didn't bother to go back for, in the Badlands of North Dakota. Usually I can find them pretty easily, but this one is a bit of a mystery, or else we lost it earlier, or it got flung a lot farther off the trail than usual. We'll know better tomorrow! Got back to camp just after 1:00, I let the horses wander in the grass after I unsaddled them while I moved the corral around. I didn't want them to overgraze the area behind the highline. That done, I got the horses settled in there and started to get Hubby on his machine. Just as I was getting ready to put him on, a park employee showed up to tell me that I couldn't put the fence where I had put it, as it was too close to the pavilion, and made a series of suggestions as to where I might put it, though I had to not put it in any other campsite, not put it near the pavilion, not put it where trailers come in, which left me with either all the way on the other side of the campground, or in a long thin line along the edge of the long grass, with no way for the horses to reach water or the highline where I had hay for them. Well, I guess it's either that or back where I started from, and just let them overgraze the same area all week. What would you do? Well, eventually I decided to just put the fence back where it was and then whenever I get the chance, just let the horses wander the area grazing wherever they want. My neighbors, Lisa and Jamie, insisted it wouldn't bother them in the least, though I'm sure against some rule or another, but at least that way they'll have a chance to eat some nice clover and fresh grass for a few hours a day, which will help to not wear out the grass where I have the corral. Fixed dinner and settled down for the rest of the evening, as usual!

By the end of the day yesterday, the campground got pretty full, and unfortunately the people that came in last parked right next to us, and they had a couple of yapping dachshunds, which woke me up earlier than I wanted this morning, and picked a fight with Lola the moment she came out the door. Sigh... But I wasn't going to let that stop me from my good mood, I was ready to go out on my first ride here. I planned about a seven mile ride, in the southern section of the park, as I had learned there was some kind of biking event on the north side of the park, and they evidently use some of the same trails, or at least cross the trails, so in order to avoid any conflict, I planned a southern route. I rode Flash today for the first time in a while, his fetlock is perfectly healed, and I put boots on his front as I heard the trails can get rather stoney, and in fact, they were! There was some mud, too, but nothing like I've been seeing in other areas, so I'm very grateful for that! We headed out on the main Red trail, which is a perimeter trail that goes all the way around the park, with a plan to just go as far as the family campground, then move on to the interior perimeter trail, which goes around the lake, and return on that. Well, my plan got a little waylaid when I came across a ribbon that said the trail was closed, so I had to improvise. Fortunately, it's not a huge park, and between the two main trails are an abundance of trails marked black/white which link the two, so as long as you don't get turned around as to which way you need to go to get back to camp, it's not too hard to get around. I did miss one turn that I wanted to take, went left instead of right, but all it did was take me back to the red trail I came in on, so no worries. Flash was excellent today, very calm in the beginning, like always, but he does tend to get a bit friskier one he warms up, but still very manageable. It was a very nice ride, only one fairly steep climb (which we had to descend as well due to the wrong turn), but not too bad, especially compared to some of the more challenging ones I've been on lately! We got back to camp at a good time, and it wasn't long before Hubby was hooked up to his machine, dialyzing away, and we were watching old movies to pass the time!