Lily's First Speed Ride

I rode with my neighbor Sally today. I've been wanting to get out and start working Lily at a faster pace. I had no idea how she would handle it. She has a lot of "go" and I was worried she would get a bit too excited and competitive with whoever I might be riding with. Sally rode her older mare, Dancer. Older does not mean slower that is for sure! That mare can fly! We headed to Double M and stopped there for a quick restroom break. Lily was handling the speed extremely well. She did not get overexcited. She could not quite keep up with Dancer but did very well and moved along nice and steady. From Double M. we went a short distance down Thacker Hollow Rd. to the tote road that goes to Pounds Hollow. The road was busy with Trailers leaving the campground. Sally got ahead of me as Lily slowed down being a bit concerned about the traffic. She was a good girl though and didn't make any unwanted moves, just hesitated a bit. Once the trailers got by, she realized her "buddy" had already turned the corner onto the tote road and she surged forward in a big trot. Then we came to the bridge. It's wide and looks the same as the road but when her feet hit that bridge she put on the brakes big time! She locked right up and nearly sat down and slid almost into the middle of the bridge. She thought for a second and decided since she was that far across, she might as well finish crossing and off we went.

From the Pounds Hollow tote road, we took a trail to the left up a steep hill with a switchback. We got caught behind a group of slow riders. We wouldn't have cared but Sally's horse and two dogs got into some bees. So, we took off through the woods to get out of there and around the slow group. I was lucky that lily did not get stung. Though Lily did run Sally's poor dog Carley down when she stopped right in front of us to bite at the bees. Thankfully, horse and dogs were all fine. We headed south and crossed Karber's ridge and rode down to the stone cabin. New trails to me. Lily was doing great and keeping up the pace far better than I expected. She was calm and steady. We stopped at the high line areas above Pounds Hollow to let Lily and Dancer take a breather. By the time we were coming back by Double M Campground again on the way back, Lily was starting to get tired. And with good reason. I have never ridden her past a walk for more than a minute or so at a time and that rarely. I was impressed with how long and willingly she kept up the fast pace. We took it a bit easier the last few miles though we did have a nice gallop up the Black's Cabin road. It was a wonderful ride and I was so impressed with how well Lily handled it.