Weekend Fun

Finally it was the weekend! Yeah!!

Friday was a bit rough, when I went over to Safeway to get a Starbucks and the ingredients for the soup I was taking to the Clinic potluck my car died :(

My car has been fabulously dependable for the last 6 years... but there I was stranded.  I called my friend Mary K. (that I do the runs with) and she came over and got me. 

Then I had to arrange to have the car towed to the shop.  Believe it or not, I have never had a car towed (intentionally anyway) in my life!  Todd met the driver and gave him the keys, so that I could stay at work and try to get some stuff completed.

It was after 6pm when I finally got home and was pretty late by the time I actually got to preparing the Roasted Winter Vegetable soup I had volunteered to take for the Saturday lunch. 

Saturday morning was easy though, I got up and got ready and picked Michelle up at 7:30.  One good thing about waking up at 4:10 am during the week???  7:30 feels like sleeping in.

We made it up to Griffinwood in just over an hour and spent a fun day listening to Dr. Susan Garlinghouse.  I had heard several of her lectures at convention one year and so enjoy them.  It was really awesome to have her come to the NW and  I hope the new riders realized how lucky they are to have access to such a phenomenal horseman, vet, speaker, and Endurance rider!

It was a great clinic, although a little more basic than I had anticipated.  I particularly enjoyed the lecture on Metabolics and picked up some new information that I can apply to our rides this year.

We watched a demonstration on Equine Massage that was really cool.  I think Cartman would love it.

By the time we got done it was freezing!  We stopped by Starbucks and grabbed a hot coffee before heading home to Castle Rock.

Sunday was another gorgeous day!  It was a bit foggy early in the am, so I took the opportunity to get all the house cleaning and laundry done.

By 10 am I was outside trying to get Cartman cleaned up for a ride. 

I tried some of the massage on C. after I got him groomed.  He stood patiently and I actually got a yawn and some lip smacking with the massage on the scapula area!

I think I will add Equine Massage to my list of things to learn more about.

We headed down to the Cooks Ferry Trail about 1pm.  I had just gotten C tacked and I was heading out when Michelle and Cinnamon pulled into the parking lot.  I took C for a 1.5 mile spin in the sand while Michelle got tacked up.

Cartman and Cinnamon had never met before so we let them walk together a bit but kept a safe distance between the two.

 

 

Cartman was fascinated by Cinn. and kept trying to touch her nose.

They seem very compatible!  Their walk speed is comparable as was the trot.  We rode about 3 miles down the trail and then Michelle moved Cinnamon to the front.  I kept Cartman back a bit, so as not to crowd her.  Cartman started getting his snotty-tude on at this point.

This time I was in a better area for schooling, so I pulled him around and gave him a few boots with my foot.  He was able to maintain his composure (a bit) and we made it to the end of the path.  I told Michelle he was being naughty and that we were going to have a little attitude adjustment off in the sand!

I took C up to the top of the dredge spoils and we trotted and cantered about 1.5 miles.  When I pulled him up he was breathing pretty hard.  We spotted M. and Cinn. and headed back over to walk behind them again.  This time C was a little better and we headed back on the trail again.

We again tried the -follow and let your buddy go on routine- and he was pretty good.  As soon as he started getting  into a snit I pulled him around and made him trot and canter the other direction. 

I think we'll be doing some schooling on this this spring.

About 1/2 way back to the trailers we spotted a white Dodge behind us... it was Todd and the dogs!  We were curious how Cinn. would react to having Buddy with us, so I called out to him and he came running like a rocket!

Despite Buddy going right behind her back legs (Will he ever learn?????) Cinn was a rockstar with the dogs.  They went about a mile with us and then Todd picked them up while we headed back to the trailers.

It was a great day to ride :)  C and I ended up getting in 7.7 miles.