Hiya Sweetie,
Another good night sleep, foggy this lazy morning, before I and my neighbors saddled up for a short ride. I took Apollo, since it's been a long time since he's been ridden, and I was still a bit worried about Flash, though he seemed to be fine this morning. Apollo was the ultimate slug today, and felt pretty stiff most of the way. We only went a couple of miles, and, of course, we ended up way behind them, so when we passed by camp, I pulled in to switch horses. The plan was to ride down to the main tent to see if they had our volunteer packets, but I was hoping to have one of the vets look at Flash anyway, so I figured there was no time like the present. I put Apollo away and quickly saddled Flash and rode him down, only to meet my neighbors already on the way back. No problem, I kept going, and it turned out there were no packets for us anyway. I had a vet look at Flash, but I couldn't get him to gait (he hates running beside me, and I just haven't taken the time to teach him to do that very much, since I hate running beside him!), so it was pretty pointless. But on the ride down, he was full of energy, and kept that going all the way back to camp, so I decided to see how far we could get, and headed out on the orange trail backward, which is the trail we were going to do yesterday. He acted perfectly fine! We went as far as the intersection just before the carriage barn, and turned around to make sure the markings were clear going in the correct direction. I did some trimming, and reported one intersection that needed a marker, but otherwise it was in good shape. Once we were clearly heading home, Flash picked up speed, and we even cantered for half of what used to be the finish field, and fast gaited (largo) most of the rest of the way, without any apparent detrimental effect. His ankle possibly felt the tiniest bit puffy, but otherwise, he seemed fine! With a few more days off, and if I'm careful not to overdue it, I think he'll stay fine. Got back to camp and rinsed him off, which turned out to be moot in time, then rode up to the tent with Cam and Steve for dinner and the riders meeting. We no sooner got there than another torrential rainstorm rolled in, drowning out the presentation that was going on before dinner. That lasted a good half hour. Yesterday the forecast showed dry for the next week, today it shows rain for all of next week. Sheesh! It stopped by the end of the riders meeting, but another black sky was to the north, so we hurried back to camp (which is now full of trailers, tents and cars), walked the dogs and settled down for the night. Rain started again about an hour later, looks like it's going to be another soggy night, and a soggy ride tomorrow, darn it! Watched an hour of TV, had my Sleepytime tea and shower, and off to bed! Good night, baby! Love you!
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