Labor Day Ride

Yesterday, I stayed home to catch up on some yard work. So, today it was play time!! It was a hot day but the humidity wasn't unbearable so I figured I'd head out and play it by ear on how long I rode. When I got to the barn Lily was no where in sight. I stood at the stall door and called and pretty soon she came strolling in and stuck her head in the halter. I just love Lily's willingness to be with me. Lily is so good now about being tacked up. She stands so quiet and relaxed. Before mounting up, we practiced our in hand trot out again. Today she did it as soon as I asked. I was SO pleased with her. I mounted up and she left the barn nice and quiet today.

I decided to measure mileage on the trails today so planned to stick right with the marked Forest Service trail. I had my GPS, pen and paper to take notes and was ready to record some information. I took the north trail to Black's Cabin. There weren't any riders there today but Sally's crew was hanging out by the fence.

 We went out to Black Ridge Rd. and took Trail 184 to 185 to 184 to 005 into Initial Tree. There were quite a few riders there. I followed on group out of Initial Tree on trail 150. They were moving kind of slow so they let me pass them when they found a spot to move off the trail to let me by. I rode to the Memorial high line and lost my pen some where. So, now, all bets were off on staying on marked trail and I decided to do some exploring.

I followed 150 for quite a while then headed west on an unmarked trail over some rocks and eventually came to Circle Rock.

From Circle Rock I followed 180 to River to River, went west to the cabin and took the cut over trail to 146 went by the trail to Hurricane Bluff and rode to the Little Tee Pee. From there I went down the big hill that comes out on 180 at the Red Horseshoe high line. From there I stayed on the west side of the creek until I came to 185 the High Country Trail. I kept to the west side of the creek until I was almost home. The trail crosses the creek twice. At the first crossing, Lily always wants to walk up the creek to the next crossing. It's a fun spot to ride in the creek so I let her.

We ride 12 miles and it was a wonderful ride. When I got back to the barn I practiced side passing in the yard then did another trot out in hand. Lily trotted right away. She is such a good girl! After I took her tack off I hosed her down to cool her off then let her out in the pasture so she could do what all mules love to do best, take a good roll in the dirt!