Woke up early even without the alarm this morning, though Hubby was a bit later than me. I had the horses fed and watered, their highline area mucked out, the dogs walked, and even took an extra walk down to the end of the horse camp just to see what it looked like before Hubby even got out of bed. There’s no one here but us, the place is empty, but there are a lot of signs this is a busy place. Sometimes we go to a horse camp and it doesn’t look like there’s been a horse in there for months, even years! But here, there was obviously a lot of activity over the weekend, at least a half dozen sites still had garbage in the trash cans scattered generously around the campground. After breakfast, we met the rec tech Ranger who was testing the water and doing other chores, then we saddled up and headed out on the White Trail, the shortest (just under 4 miles) just to give the horses a chance to stretch their legs. They were in the trailer a long time yesterday, so we didn’t want to wear them out too much today, and, weather permitting, we’re planning on taking them on a 16 mile trail tomorrow. Anyway, I had reconnoitered the area earlier when I had gone out to find a cell phone signal (the only drawback here), and we headed straight out the White Trail from the campground. The trails were VERY well marked, I never had to look at my trail map once, which always makes for a much more enjoyable experience (getting lost is always stressful), and the trail was marvelous! Lots of variety, deciduous mixed with an occasional pine forest area, good footing of mostly hard dirt, very few wet spots, even some great straightaways for fantastic canters! Couldn’t have asked for more! There were some stones on the trail occasionally, so we’ll likely put boots on the horses tomorrow just to be safe, but really, very few stony areas to bother a barefoot horse. What a great ride! And even though it was mid afternoon, the temps were quite nice in the forest, with plenty of shade to keep the heat from getting too bad. It only took us a little over an hour, but it was fantastic! When we got back, we spent a little time doing some hoof trimming (the warm weather really makes their fee grow fast), then we settled in for the rest of the day, though I took one more trip out to check my email, this time finding a signal much closer, thanks to the ranger’s suggestion about where to go. A lovely relaxing evening.
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