Monday, Dec. 16, 2013 – Gorgeous Day and Another Great Short Ride

After a morning of getting caught up on business, we decided to knock out a bunch of the little meandering trails they have “inside” the Paradise Loop. Their maps are not very clear, even though they’re posted at every intersection, and we ended up missing one of them, but it was still a fabulous ride. Mostly it was through those lovely, crowded cedar tree tunnels (very spooky, but fun), with a couple of clear areas where we got in a few canters. Apollo on his best behaviour today, no leaping or jumping. I don’t know if it was because he got it all out of his system yesterday, or if it was because I didn’t put the saddle bags on him today, or because I added back one small extra cushion pad under his saddle, but I liked it! Think I’ll have to try out each thing one at a time to see if it makes a difference, and try to narrow down the cause of his rodeo-ing. Anyway, it was a great ride, and the weather finally warmed up to the upper sixties, with a nice warm southerly breeze, just what we had expected for Texas at this time of year, but haven’t really seen yet. Hopefully we’ve seen all the winter we’re going to get! (fingers crossed!) Did a little prep work for tomorrow’s departure, supposed to stay pretty warm all week, thank goodness. Next place will be a bit more primitive, but it’s only for 5 nights. Getting rather spoiled with water and electric so close. Love the Army Corp of Engineers here! They’ve done great job! No pix today, my video camera battery died!