Dead Horse Canyon Day 2

 Today Amy and I decided to ride with Ross Bird who was taking out a smaller group. Bonnie decided to take a day off from riding and Donna was going to stay close to camp as she had her eye on a mule that was going to be in the sale on Thursday. Ross was going to ponying his little mule Ruthie as he is working on getting her broke to ride. He and Suzanne are hoping to find a new home for her. Amy is quite smitten with Ruthie....... I can see the writing on the wall here.

 I wanted to stay with a smaller group as I discovered that Lily had a rub under her tail from her crupper. First time that has ever happened. I sure didn't want to put the crupper back on her and make it worse so I went over to  Tucker Tack 's trailer and purchased a britchen for Lily. She has never worn a britchen for riding. I have put a harness on her before but just for ground driving so she's never had pressure on it. I asked at least a half dozen people if they would like to ride Lily first with the britchen on but didn't get any takers...... cowards.....Well, there was nothing to do but climb aboard and hope for the best. I really didn't want to provide the group with a rodeo performance. Much to my relief, Lily had no reaction to wearing the britchen at all. Phew!

We rode the top of Hurricane Bluff, went to the Teepee, out by Lost Lake and stopped for a short break at Sand Cave. Amy climbed to the top of Sand Cave to get some pictures. There is a stuffed horse in a tree on the top of the cave. Amy got on Ruthie at Sand Cave just to sit on her. Ruthie didn't seem to care at all. We then rode into Dead Horse Canyon and did the tough climb out. That climb is a bit of an adrenaline rush. This was the first time I've ridden Lily up the canyon. She did a great job. It was chilly when we started out this morning but warmed up to T-shirt weather by the time we were headed back. A lovely day and a wonderful ride.