After a great day
exploring the Whiskeytown trails with T and A on Saturday, they made the haul down on Sunday to ride the Lake Oroville trails with me for their first time. Fellow endurance blogger
Mel joined us, too! Riding buddies N and Willow were at the trail head too, but did their own ride.
M and Farley, ready for action
my sweet rides ;)
Tera on Jazz (Morgan) and junior Alex on Nikki (Arabian)
Booty power
M and T stepping out
M is very flexible--she forgot her saddle and just used whatever spare T had along!
"and the fish was thiiiiissssss big!"
great footing on the trails
Farley is so experienced that she self sponges
T and M, finishing the horse camp loop
Scrappy is loving his minimalist mechanical hack and head collar. He hates extra gear on his face so this is the answer of the hour! He will also be on this head collar on his hie-tie which I hope to get installed before our first ride in a few weeks!
We had a few minor rider snafus but the horses overall did great and we got 18 warm miles in. Scrappy shifted steadily between a fearless leader working hard at a 9 mph trot/canter to stay in front of the 3 speedies, and a self possessed caboose, watching the faster horses trot out of sight. He did one fabulous jump sideways when a creepy guy with a bike and trailer appeared and then wordlessly disappeared into the bushes, but who can blame him! That's shady behavior, and Scrappy never approves of that.
"No really, are we there yet guys?"
"
Ahh, we're there!"
What a great weekend of riding with friends. I am more fired up than ever for the start of my 2014 AERC season and wish happy, sound trails to you all!
I love reading your blogs. Also love your photos. I especially love your photo of the horse "sponging" himself in this write up.
ReplyDeleteOh the green. And the friends. And the horses. And the trails. And wow...yeah, I need to move there.
ReplyDeleteWHAT GORGEOUS PHOTOS. Now where I have seen those before? Ah....I crack myself up.
ReplyDeleteJennifer - that's my horse that's self sponging. She figured this trick out in her second season of endurance - she never actually ends up IN the water trough, but manages to nicely cool her entire front quarter. She does it at home in the water trough too - my barn manager loves it because she never has to skim algae from the top of the tank. I actually like it because it keeps her water cool in the summer (tank is on an auto waterer and so by splashing some out in the heat of the day it get's cool water in) AND it gives her a muddy spot to stand in, which in our dry summers a little moisturekeeps her hooves in good shape.
I do let her do it at rides when she's the only horse at the trough but only briefly since I'm cognizant that wasting water (most water on the trails in my area is hauled in) is NO BUENO.
Anyways. Aurora - it was an awesome ride - even more so I think because I *almost* didn't get to go. I was so proud of all the ponies and their riders - that junior did a great job on her mare - and T* was great. She talks as much as I do and I felt once again endurance is definiately where all the people with my personality is.
I think my favorite thing when we go riding is to see what interesting thing you've decided to do with Scrappy's head tack this time..... :)
Green and glorious, with gorgeous horses! What a fun ride. I'd love to come explore up there sometime...with a local guide!
ReplyDeletelet me know when you can ride and let's set something up! :)
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