Monday, Sept. 21, 2020 – Busy Ride, Hay and Productive Day

Hi Darlin’,
Had a wonderful night sleep last night, I’m so glad I brought the quilt down, it kept me nice and warm and cozy all night! The problem with the throw is that it’s too small and when I moved I get uncovered, then wake up cold. Didn’t have that problem last night! Woke up refreshed and raring to go! After chores and breakfast I ran up to a spot near the regular campground where I discovered I can get 3 bars of 4G, and made relatively short work of a whole list of things I needed to do, phone calls I needed to make, questions I needed to have answered, pictures and diary entries I needed to upload, all of which happened pretty quick. I was back down to camp by about 1:00, so I saddled up Apollo as planned and headed out on a route I had figured was a little over six miles. Not a terribly enjoyable ride today. The footing here is just so inconsistent! One minute you’re on big creek-like rock, the next you’re sinking in mud, the next you’re on a gravel road (really big sharp chunks), then you’re on gravel covered with green growth, and occasionally you end up on a stretch of nice dirt single track, but nowhere near often enough. Apollo had a tough time. I started out without boots, but when we hit our first gravel road I stopped and put them on, then we started hitting bogs, and when we were climbing a hill he lost one, so I decided to take them off again, because once they get that muddy they don’t stay on very well, and we didn’t hit any water where I could wash them off, then shortly after that we hit another gravel road, and he wouldn’t stand still long enough for me to put them back on again, so he minced his way up the road in obvious discomfort, then on the last mile home we finally had a nice stretch of dirt for a bit, before going back to rocky creek bed. So, it was as enjoyable as it could be (always being on my horse is enjoyable!), but the trail detracted from that enjoyment. We got back to camp about 4:30, I put him on the highline and gave him a flake of hay, then I took some pictures of the damage on the trailer so I could email them to the repair place I found, changed my clothes and headed up the my hot spot again, sent the pix off, then headed down to pick up some hay. I had found a woman selling hay that’s only about 13 minutes from here! I think that’s the shortest trip for hay I’ve ever taken! She was advertising 1st cut, but they were bringing in 3rd cut, so she let me have that for the same price. There’s no alfalfa in this, just orchard, clover and fescue, but it’s so fresh I think the horses won’t have a problem with it. I’ve got to get them off the alfalfa, though the last batch, with 70% alfalfa didn’t seem to bother them as much as the 100% did, but I’d rather get them back to regular hay as we move out of alfalfa country. Got back in no time, fed the horses, had dinner, and settled down for the evening, feeling like I had a really productive day! Time for shower and bed now, so good night, my love!

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