Well, Hubby wasn't feeling any better today, but Apollo simply had to get some exercise, so I saddled him up for a short ride before brunch. He was uncharacteristically jumpy, wanting to go back to the barn and being just plain ornery. I had planned to do the River trail, but he was just not going in that direction, so I managed to swing him past the barn and head straight for the west trailhead, which he finally, begrudgingly, headed for. Once we were on the trail he settled down, at least until we came across some big white rocks, and then he started freaking out a little. Had to pass several of them, and had to make him stand and stare at them long enough for him to realize they weren't horse-eating rocks. Then he started the same thing with some big cut logs by the side of the trail! You'd think this horse had never been on a trail before, rather than having the thousands of miles under his girth that he has! Silly kid! Eventually I managed to swing back around to pick up the River trail on the other side, and he was fine the rest of the way back to camp. Apparently several other folks in camp have been having the same kind of jumpiness in their horses, so it must be contagious! Anyway, I put Apollo away, fixed us some brunch, then went out to saddle up Flash, as today is a workout day in anticipation of the endurance ride in a couple of weeks at the Goethe State Forest that I've decided to enter. We headed out for a long ride, and though he wanted to move out, he didn't jump right into a canter like he did on Wednesday, so I guess we've worn down a little of his energy. We headed out on the main trail straight to crossing at 441, as the plan was to do most of our riding at the O'Leno State Park across the street. I did my best to follow the planned route I had made, but naturally, the intersection numbers on the map were different than the intersection markers on the ground, so it didn't take us long to get off track. We made a couple of loops I hadn't planned on because of that, and missed one turn that I wanted to take, but following the trail exactly wasn't the point today, today it was about mileage and time. We reached the far side of O'Leno, on the old Bellamy Road, in about 2 hours and 10 minutes before heading back on the northern perimeter trail, which turned out to be the worst trail out here. Lots of downed trees with wide berths around them, overgrowth that kept smacking me in the face, and because we were heading back to the barn, Flash wanted to go as fast as possible, a little cantering but mostly his fast largo gait, and we ended up arriving back at the barn almost exactly an hour later. Whew! Average speed was something like 5.6 mph, which is just about a winning pace on an endurance race! He didn't seem any worst for the wear by the time we got back, he just needed a bath, which I gave him, then put him away to rest, which was my plan for the rest of the day! We managed to get through the day running off the batteries, but we're having some kind of trouble, it doesn't seem they are properly hooked up to the generator, as it only shows 6 volts when I try to use the jumper. A problem for another day! We watched a long movie and a quick Cheers before I took a shower and we headed for bed, with a pair of ibuprofen ready to go!
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