It Was Worth It!

Waiting for the farrier, that is.  Because today after having 6 days off, my colt did a nice trail ride and was awesome!!!

Michelle and I decided to go up to our local trails for a ride after work today.  I picked her up and we headed north.  By 5:19 we were saddled and on the trail.  We decided to do a bigger loop that we've done before, but frequently don't have time to do after work.

I had a very annoying day at work, but Michelle had a pretty rough day too.  We were both glad to  be out on our horses.

About 20 minutes into the ride we heard voices through the trees.  It was Flo and her friend D!  Flo was on the wonderful Auggie (quickly becoming a fave horse for me and Cartman- and not just because he looks like Hotshot! )

We stopped for a brief visit before deciding we were going to run out of daylight if we didn't hoof it.  Cartman so wanted to turn around and go with Auggie but after a few minutes he settled down and took off in his huge forward walk.

We were able to go first through the small muddy (well dried mud now) patch leading down towards the new creek crossing.  Yeah!  No backing up this time.  Last time we ended up having to follow thru that part of the trail.

We got to the creek, Cartman charged into it, wetted his muzzle and promptly turned his head back for a horse cookie!  Uh oh, I had forgotten to replenish the pack.  I felt a little bad but he wasn't too upset with me.

We then lead up the hill (another first) at a nice calm controlled walk.  Yeah!  It is so nice that he isn't wanting to run uphill- something Dazz and I always fight about. 

We were having such fun and had made up quite a bit of time by doing to several long trot sessions that we decided to try  out a new "unmarked" trail that I'd help start last spring.  It was fun trying to follow the relatively new trail through the underbrush and trees.  I was practicing my skill learned lately on the show "Mantracker". 

This new trail was a lot longer loop than I thought it would be and the sun was getting pretty low when we made it back to the Bottlecap Trail that borders Sherwood Forest.  I definately don't want to be in Sherwood Forest after dark, I can get lost in there during daylight hours!

We did spook up one rather large elk on our way out of the woods.  I only saw its hind end, but it looked enourmous!  Cartman didn't even turn a hair when it blasted past.

All in all a great day of riding, 2hours and 24 minutes!