Riding with some New Friends :-)

I rode with some new friends today, it was a blast! They are the pair I mentioned in my Endurance Riders Rock post, a mother and daughter who have been involved in endurance for years (since the 80s, in the mom's case). I had heard their last name in the past and knew they were endurance riders but just happened to meet the mom, L, at the feed store a few weeks ago and the daughter, M, and I had been chatting on Facebook thanks to mutual friends in the last few months. C was supposed to join us but couldn't due to a problem with her horse trailer--the freakin' wind gusted and bent the hinges of her trailer door when she got back from our last ride!--so it was just the three of us.

We started at the usual parking place at the Lake but after a stop at the water trough we branched off from the horse camp loop to another spot which is actually on private property (they have permission to ride there).

M & L on their steeds at the loop water trough

M was nice enough to take my camera for a while and take some photos of me and miss D, which was awesome!

Talking with my hands..

Crossing the road to get to the big hill

Good ponies

Turned out the steep dirt driveway we ended up charging up--it's a long, gnarly-steep hill--was the driveway to a house my husband and I had worked on a few years back. So I kinda sorta knew where we were most of the time. The hill was really fun to trot/canter up, my right hind Easyboot did pop off but the gaiter held it on and I popped it right back on with no trouble.

And away we go up the hill! See L's horse in the upper right corner zooming away?

The hill is really rocky in spots and you kind of have to steer your way from good footing to good footing, that plus the uphill charge somehow got the boot off. Luckily M noticed right away and told me. I've noticed the V spread on my hind Gloves aren't the best, but when I put power straps on them before I couldn't even get the darn things on at all..so maybe I just need to put them back on and try it at home to see if they'll go on now with the straps for a snugger fit after a few months of healthy hoof growth. That's the third time the right hind glove has popped off but been held on by the gaiter, so I'm thinking it could fit better. We'll see.

After the big hill we tried another trail but found it blocked by trees before long. Where is your saddle chainsaw when you need it?!

 M checking out the obstacle

After we deemed the obstacle too big to get around, we decided to turn around and head back. The hill had been a good solid cardio charge for all the horses and the day was pretty chilly so we didn't want to push our luck. We got back to the horse camp loop safely and stopped at the trough again before trotting on to finish the loop.

 Heading back

It was a lot of fun getting to ride and chat with L and M today, I look forward to more time spent on the trails with them! We ended up riding a leisurely 9 miles in 2 hrs 40, plus that big hill. It's really chilly today so I busted out Desire's new cooler for the first time when we got back to the trailers: