Blaze Rides Again

You may have noticed that lately I've spent a lot of time jigging and wigging my way through 50s on Desire and working my greenies on lunge lines and now--huzzah!--in the round pen. Where, you may wonder, does that leave my main man Blaze? Loafing mostly, doing the odd ride here and there from home when I need to unwind from dealing with the other horses, but admittedly not getting a lot of trail time. So when my riding buddy C got in touch to get together for a lake ride I figured Blaze was due for a cruise--and this time I brought his saddle pad!

We met at the lake at 9 and since it was pretty cool and grey this morning we decided to head up over the ridge to the visitor center and beyond, but at a mellow pace. Blaze hadn't seen C's gelding Sonny in a while, here they are saying hullo:

When I put the splint boots on Blaze's hind legs he did the horsey goose step for a good 20 steps and gave me a real laugh. We headed out and had a really mellow, fun ride, just chatting away with only 2 sustained trots the whole time, which was just fine for Blaze and good practice being mellow for Sonny, who has come an awesomely long way brain-wise since I started riding with them last year. He is a leggy natural athlete but needed some miles and LSD to get his brain together; he was so quiet and relaxed on the trail today, C has really done a great job with him. He'll be doing his debut 50 at Cache Creek next month and I have total faith in the pair.

By the time we turned around at just over 6 miles out the sun had come out and it had warmed up quite a bit. Blaze grazed and had a few sips of water along the way, and even peed and pooped out on the trail, which was great. He generally doesn't do much of any of the above on rides at the lake, no matter the distance, and since he hasn't been out a whole lot it was nice to see him taking care of himself. He was in great shape end of last summer and has been out enough that I knew he could handle today, but it always eases the mind to see positive signs like eating, pooping, etc.

Heading back up the ridge behind C:

A nice day over the dam:

Aww, he's such a stinkin cutie:

We cruised back into the parking lot at 12.6 miles in 4 1/2 hours, so yes, you could say we were taking our time, hah! It was a great ride though, so good to be out on the trail with C again, and exciting to see how far her gelding has come mentally. And of course happy to have my boy out again. See, he survived:

Nice even sweat marks from the saddle and the Epics stayed on fine, though the gaiter is tearing off one and should probably be addressed..eventually.


I think my mom left her cold with me, I had a blast on the ride today but since getting home and sitting down I'm feeling less and less lively..well the 2 days of forecast showers/rain starting tomorrow is just in time for me to be sick and healthy again real quick-like, right?!