Barefooting It

My friends Leesa and Linda came over to ride with Cierra and I today. It was a nice day. A bit humid and foggy when we started out and we could see some very ominous dark clouds to the north of us.  But, it stayed fine here and the sun was shining by the time we got back. I tied Lily to my trailer to groom and tack her up. She stands so well alone when she knows there are other horses around. She did manage to dump my saddle on the ground due to moving around when I was trying to put it on. Naughty girl! Not really her fault though. She was showing some signs of a bit of soreness in her shoulders from the saddle so has gotten a little fussy about me putting it on her. The saddle is a bit too wide for her and I've added a front raiser pad which has made a BIG difference in how she is going out on the trail. But she is still anticipating discomfort I think. I'll still be keeping a very watchful eye on how things go. She's such a good girl under saddle and I don't want to do anything to ruin that.

Cierra had lost a hoof boot when she rode a couple days ago so we made plans to ride out in search of the boot. Lily took the lead today with no attitude at all. Telling me the slight attitude I was getting the past few rides from home had more to do with saddle discomfort than her "testing" me. While she's bound to do a bit of that just because she is so new to riding, I'm not going to assume anything with her. She's also so much happier with the bit I'm using on her now. I've switched to a Phelam from the longer shanked bit I started her with. Lily has a very soft mouth and doesn't need much. I had Lily's shoes pulled yesterday so it would be our first ride totally barefoot. She has been missing her front shoes for a few weeks and seemed to have no trouble so I decided to try her completely barefoot. She has nice feet. Lily and Leesa's gelding, Billy Bob took turns leading throughout the ride. Lily cruised right over all the rock, and there were a lot, with no trouble at all. She watched where she placed her feet but no "ouchie" steps. We found Cierra's boot before we'd gone more than a mile so that opened up opportunities of where we could ride. I decided to take them around the traditional Tarr's Mill loop. I have not done that yet this year. When we got to the mill site water crossing, I was in the lead with Lily and she went right across with no hesitation. It's all slab rock on the other side and turned out to be very slippery for bare feet! She did some fancy footwork trying to stay upright to better footing. She did manage it thankfully. The plan was to ride the pipeline from Tarr's Mill to the trail that goes out to Lewis Hill. It had rained hard last night and there is a lot of clay on the pipeline with some steep climbs and descents. It was kind of slippery so after the first hill, I took the old trail out to the Lewis Hill Rd. connector trail that we used to use before the pipeline was put in.

We got in a bit of trotting where we could but only in short spurts between rocky or slippery clay sections. We got out to Lewis Hill and crossed to the trail that goes to the Starbird Corner Rd. That trail has been widened out into a regular dirt road for quite a ways. Looks like someone is going to put in some houses. As we came out to the Starbird Corner Rd. There was a LARGE trash container pick up truck right there picking up a container. It was very loud. The horses and Lily were all good about it. We headed down that road, which is tar most of the way, and as we were nearing the end of the tar section, and had just come around a corner, we heard the truck coming down the road kind of fast, and it was LOUD! He did slow down when he came around the corner and saw us but it was kind of too late for by then. Linda, Leesa and I had made it to a driveway and stopped there. Cierra on Tink had been a little behind us so the truck passed her before she got to the driveway. Tink wasn't too impressed with it but she is such a good girl and didn't do anything. Billy Bob, Gus and Lily were good when it passed us too. Then, we had to pass the truck again right where the road turns to dirt as he was picking up a container there. All equines were good. Lily did eyeball it pretty hard but made no fuss. The rest of the ride home was uneventful and it was a good ride for everyone. We were out for just about 3 hrs. and rode 9 miles. My camera is broken so I didn't get any pictures. Linda took my mare Marie home with her today. She is going to lease her for a while.