Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2019 – First Ride in Goethe Forest Since 2012

Got a much better night sleep despite a few interruptions (Hubby got stuck in his chair because I inadvertently turned off the inverter, thus the power to his recliner), but otherwise woke up fresh, which felt like the first time in ages. Hubby felt a little better, but not good enough to ride, but since Flash is now entered in the endurance race, I have to get him fit enough, with no time to spare. I saddled him up and headed out by 10:30, with the intention of following the green trail as much as I could, but got turned around several times due to poor markings on the trails, as usual. We kept going, though, since this was more about mileage, speed and timing than trail accuracy today. We passed several areas undergoing a prescribed burn, so a little smoke was wafting about, but not much. There was more water on the trail than I expected, quite a few areas had ankle and even knee-deep puddles, but there wasn’t as much deep sand as I remember. The forest service has been doing some trail repair, which was appreciated, but some areas had huge tire tracks that could sure use some smoothing! Flash behaved himself for the first half mile while he got warmed up, then he wanted to just go, go, go. I held him back at first, just because I wasn’t ready to go headlong onto unknown trails, and at one point we had a problem with a feral pig that came out of the woods and headed up the road away from us, and Flash decided he was having none of that (even though he’s never shown any fear when we’ve passed obvious pig sign in the past), and I was having a little fight with him about it when a couple of other riders happen to come by. I explained about the pig, so they took the lead and Flash followed right along past the whole problem area. Then I had to hold him back to keep him from following the other horses, which was a little more of a struggle, but eventually we got right back on track and he behaved himself well. By then I let him go whatever speed he wanted, and he chose a canter, which he did non-stop for a couple of miles, then slowed down to a largo, and eventually, at about 8.2 miles, he finally decided to walk for a bit to get his breathe back. What a horse! He only walked for a short while before picking it back up again, too. We ran into those other two riders again, just at an intersection where I was having trouble figuring out how to get back on the green trail, and they helped me out, giving me simple directions which took me right where I wanted to go, for the most part. Eventually, we headed back toward camp, with a quick detour to do a loop on the blue trail just north of camp just to explore the possibilities of riding to the Equestrian Center where the race is to begin, of which there appeared to be several, though further exploration will have to come on another day. We got back to camp just in time to see a great red wagon with a two-horse hitch with palominos about ready to head up the trail. The teamster asked me about the trails, so I handed him my map, which he promised to return when he came back (which he did, of course!). There was also a half dozen other trailers in camp by then, all day riders, in various states of saddling. I gave Flash a rinse and hooked him back up on the highline, collected everything for Hubby’s dialysis, and spent the afternoon catching up on computer work and phone calls before finally settling down for the evening. Once again, the forecast calls for temps cold enough to warrant winter blankets on the horses, and it looks like Hubby finally cleared out most of the phlegm he’s been coughing up for days, but decided to sleep in his recliner another night, so as not to take any chances of having to climb down later in the middle of the night. Settled down for the evening, another great day on the trails! No pix today, though, Flash just wasn’t inclined to slow down long enough for me to take any!