Memorial Day

Memorial Day weekend is here. But, it's not a long weekend for me. I had to work Saturday and was just too tired Sunday to do much of anything. But by today, I was ready to ride. I was invited to ride with Loretta and two of her friends that were staying at Double M Camp. It was quite hot and humid today so we were riding out fairly early. We decided to meet at 8:30 am. So, I got to the barn early to feed and tack Lily up. I was going to ride to Double M by way of Thacker Hollow Rd. I messaged Loretta as I was leaving and got a reply just as I got to the end of Cedar Bluff Lane. They were riding my way so we decided to meet at T-lick. Going up the big hill on Black Ridge, 3 or 4 deer crossed the road and that kind of boogered Lily. She didn't do anything crazy but didn't want to walk by where the deer crossed the road. It didn't take long to get her moving though. When I got to T-lick, there were a group of riders there that I passed. I waited for a few minutes then decided to ride down the trail towards Double M. I passed a few more riders going down to the creek. I waited a few minutes there and continued on towards the camp and soon met up with Loretta and here friends.We discussed where we wanted to ride and decided to strike out for Garden of the Gods. It would be a long ride but we had time to do it. We decided the quickest way to get there would be to go straight down Black Ridge Rd. to the Indian Paint wall by Karber's Ridge and ride into Initial Tree heading for High Knob and the R2R trail. It was a hot day and fairly humid so as we were riding, we decided that Garden of the Gods would not be a great idea for today. Less shady trails and very little water along the way. So, we decided to ride out to Rice Hollow instead.

 We had fun riding in the rocks at Cowboy's Hideout. And Rice Hollow is always beautiful. We circled back and rode to High Knob Campground. We stopped there and were happy to catch JoJo in the office so were able to buy ice creams. Actually, frozen fruit bars that were quite delicious. We rode through camp and rode out the back trail heading for the R2R trail. Through this section, it was noticed that Loretta's horse had a lump on his front leg on the inside just below the knee. And, he was slightly lame. Not bad but just a little off. Loretta did not want to ride him all the way back to camp like that so she called a friend of ours that lives along the R2R trail where it crosses Karber's ridge Rd. Our friend could trailer the three of them back to Double M. Campground. When we got out to Black Ridge Rd. (Sparks Hill Rd. on that end of it) I headed the 3 miles back alone. Lily made no fuss at all about leaving the other horses and mule. She was good all the way home. We did 25 miles today.

Note: Loretta took her horse to the vet the next day and he had a hairline fracture. The prognosis is good for a full recovery.