Hey Darlin'!
What a fun day today! Flash and I did 23 miles today, some of it at a wonderful high speed. It seems I finally got my horse back! It started with a leisurely morning, having been instructed to not leave camp until 10:30 so as not to get in the way of the other competing riders, so I had Flash saddled and ready to go by that time. I gotta say, Flash was a different horse today. He was frisky and energetic and wanted to be in with the groups of horses that were riding by. He obviously though he was part of the race! So glad to have my speed demon back! I was told to take the shortcut on the bike path, so I was at the French Broad River (FBR) bridge in less than two miles. Apparently a lot of the 50's hadn't gone though yet, so I sat and chatted with Steve and Cam, who were spotters there, taking numbers as the riders went in and out of the west side until all but a few had gone through. Since my job was drag, I probably should have waited, but I figured I would be going slower and the rest would pass me. As it turned out, there were only three, and they did pass me about halfway through the ten mile loop, so I followed along, staying far enough behind to stay out of their way. The orange trail was first, and it was just lovely. We passed a lot of the farm animals, as this part of the estate is dedicated to that, with beautiful black cows and lots of sheep being guarded by Great Pyrenees. There was a sign for pigs, but I didn't see any. The weather was perfect, a bit on the warm side but gorgeous as far as I was concerned. Flash was brilliant, we did run across sections of gravel, but he didn't have any trouble powering through it, and there was mostly enough room along the side of those roads to avoid it. He kept up well, and we arrived back over the bridge very shortly after the last riders did. Just as we were on the last approach, a couple of riders that were on their third loop, the blue trail, turned up right in front of us, and Flash decided he needed to catch them, and he leapt forward and began to race with them in earnest. He's so competitive! We stayed with those long legged trotters all the way to the bridge. Once I arrived back at the spotter site, I made the decision that I would go ahead and drag the third loop, as some of the riders were already over there, and I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity and ride the blue trail while I had the chance, so I waited with Steve and Cam. As it turned out, there was a little miscommunication, and we waited about 15-20 minutes longer than necessary, as there were three riders who weren't coming that we were expecting. It was nearly 5:30 by this time, so I hopped on Flash and we headed out, trying to catch up with the last rider in true drag fashion. We never did quite catch up, but we came close! Flash clocked 6.8-7.0 mph the ENTIRE blue trail, PLUS the shortcut trail all the way back to camp! That was over seven miles! I finally brought him to a walk the last hundred yards or so, just to cool him down, but he was raring to go! So nice to have my REAL horse back! He performed brilliantly, I'm so proud of him! We arrived back at the trailer right at 7:00, I fed him, then jumped in the truck to get down to the awards ceremony. I was a little late, but it was all good. The trail gals I've been working with were very complimentary with their appreciation for all the work I did, especially sending them pindrops with any problem areas, they were able to find them easily. They gave me a bottle of wine and a nice snack bag for Flash, and were thrilled to hear that Flash was back to his old self today, they were worried about him being sad and depressed, but I let them know he seemed to be fully recovered because he thought he was in the ride! Finally got back to the trailer with some pizza Rachel had brought out to us at the spotter site, and settled down for a short evening. Can't wait to take my shower and get to bed! Feeling very satisfied, though, it was such a fun day. I'm going to have a leisurely morning and get out whenever I feel like it, since it's less than three hours of driving on freeway tomorrow. Looking forward to crashing when I get back to Linda's, though, I need a day off! Love you, sweetheart! Good night!
Speak Your Mind