Riding with Sandy and the Gang Day 2

Sandy sent me a message this morning to see if I wanted to ride with them again. I guess Lily and I weren't too obnoxious yesterday that they were willing to have me along once again. I was happy to go out with them again so I hopped in the truck and as I was pulling out of the driveway, I discovered that my little mouse friend was still in residence in my truck as it did a few panicked laps around the floor of my truck again. I'm going to have to do something about this......

When I got to the barn, I grabbed Lily's halter and stepped out into the pasture. All 3 equines were munching hay at the feeder. I called to Lily and her head popped up, she saw me at the barn and came right over to me. This was a good sign. She must have enjoyed herself yesterday also to be so willing to go with me again. she loaded pretty well this morning. Today was warm again but not as humid as yesterday. There were very few flies at all out on the trails.The group was already saddled up when I got there so I quickly saddled up Lily. She was quiet this morning so it didn't take me long. Today we rode to Garden of the Gods. We stopped for a while at Buzzard's Roost. We had lunch at Garden of the Gods. Lily was more settled today and a pure pleasure to ride. I kept her behind other horses today and she did well slowing her pace and not crowding up on the horse in front of her. I had to check her back occasionally but not a whole lot. Lily only had one very brief naughty moment and that was near the end of the ride. I asked her to go down a different trail than the others were taking. She though we were separating from her new buddies and she popped up in front and threw a little buck to register her protest. I gave her a boot in the side and pushed her forward with a stern "QUIT" and she moved down the trail as I asked. She didn't make too much fuss about loading to come home either so a very good day!

Riding with Sandy and the Gang

My friend Sandy was down to High Knob for a long weekend with some friends. She invited me to go riding with them and I was delight to take up the offer. We had planned to ride out at 9:00 am but the weather was not looking good this morning so the ride was put off until 10:00 am. I was happy for the delay as I'd been a bit slow getting around this morning. As I was pulling out of the yard, a mouse popped out from under the truck seat and did several panicked laps around the floor of the truck! ACK! When I got to the barn, I left both truck doors open in hopes my little hitch hiker would hop out. I gave Marie a dose of banamine and checked her eye as she has managed to scratch it yet again. It was looking a bit better this morning. I got Lily and quickly groomed her. She jumped right into the trailer this morning. When I got to High Knob, the group was nearly ready to head out so I quickly saddled up Lily, who was quiet and cooperative and mounted up. We then ended up waiting a short time for something, and Lily was a bit impatient go get moving. But, she was not being all that bad about it either. Just a bit fidgety. It was warm today and a bit humid. Lily didn't seem to mind though. We headed out to Twin Towers but somehow missed it. We had a stop on the way to Buzzards Roost for 2 riders to switch tack and horses. That is where Lily decided to show off an impressive side pass down a hill over a small live tree and a small dead one sticking up in a rather pointy fashion and about belly height to her. Thankfully it broke off when she went over it and it didn't seem to phase her.

We stopped for a break at Buzzards Roost, then rode up to the top. From there we headed over to the Tee Pee and then through Rice Hollow. I love that trail! We stopped for lunch at .. I think it was Whiskey Cave. I tied Lily to a fairly small tree and then realized it was dead. As she was vigorously rubbing on it, I had visions of it breaking off and her running off through the forest dragging a dead tree. I am surprised at the lack of flies when out riding. There were a few big horse flies plaguing Lily when she was tied up a few times but only a few. I didn't see any deer fly today. Sandy and Terri headed back to camp part way through the ride. Terri felt that the horse she was riding was struggling a bit with the heat and didn't want to take any chances with him. So good to ride with people that put their horses well being first.

At one of the high line areas we rode into, there were 38 horses that I could count. Though it was tough getting a good count as groups were riding and and riding out constantly. We stopped there briefly. As we were riding out of there, we ran into Anthony and Cathy and their family heading in. Just after we left them, we found a horn bag laying on the trail. We picked it up and there was a cell phone in it so we knew someone would be seriously unhappy at losing the bag. We figured the best thing to do was turn it in at the office at High Knob camp. But, not much more than 1/2 mile down the trail we came across the owner of the bag back tracking to find it. 

We were out for 4 hrs. today and did 9 miles. We kept the pace easy and took plenty of breaks. Lily wanted to move along faster but did very well at handling the slower pace. I did lead for awhile with her and she did great with that too. Lily was, however, a bit of a snot about loading for the trip home. Guess she wanted to stay with her new friends.

Good Mares and New Friends

Today was just an absolutely lovely day. Mid 70's, sunny, light breeze, no humidity and no bugs. A perfect day to take out Marie. I didn't have any real destination in mind other than to stick to the trails with the easier grades and less rocks for Marie. We headed out by Black's Cabin and crossed Black Ridge Rd. and headed down 184. I took several trails going south and rode to Elbow Tree. From there I crossed back over Black Ridge Rd. and rode to Initial Tree. Just a little way before getting there I caught up with 2 other riders. A woman out with her young granddaughter. I rode in to Initial Tree with them. We tied the horses to the high lines and took a long break there. I had a good time chatting with the woman and her granddaughter. Both were very nice. She has a permanent camp at Double M so we exchanged numbers so we could get together to ride sometime. I rode back on 185 along the creek. We did 9 miles and were out for 4.5 hrs.

As always it was a wonderful and relaxing ride with my good old girl Marie.

High Country Trail

Went out for a very nice ride with Delbert today. Another lovely day. We rode down to the creek and up the long hill that connects into 185, the High Country trail and went back 185 the lower trail. We did 5.5 miles and were out a couple hours.

Husband Ride

My friend Kathy was at High Knob camp this weekend.I contacted her this morning about riding with her and she said that her husband Ron had come to camp with her and he had agreed to go riding this morning with her. So, she was planning a shorter ride as Ron doesn't ride very often. So, I asked Fred if he would be interested in going riding with us. Much to my surprise and delight, he agreed to go. So, Marie got the honor of lugging him around It was great getting both my equine kids out and to spend time with friends and my husband. It was a really nice day and we had a nice ride. We rode for about 1.5 hrs. We dropped our husbands off and Kathy and I went back out again with Cathy and Anthony for a longer ride.

Chocolate... or Lucy

Went out with Delbert and Ruth today. It was such a perfect day. Delbert has a new mare that arrived at the farm yesterday. It is a mare he previously owned. A mare he bred for. She is a lovely mare and did wonderful today on our ride. Her name was Chocolate when Del and Ruth owned her previously. When she was sold, she was renamed Lucy. Delbet hasn't decided which name he's going to use.

I rode Lily today and she was a very good girl. We led most of the ride with Delbet taking the lead at the end of the ride. 

Mother's Day Ride

It was a beautiful day today. It was in the low 80's but low humidity so very comfortable. Today I joined up with Cathy and Anthony again. Lily was a bit fussy about loading into the trailer but only fussed for a few minutes. She was pretty good about being saddled up. I led her down to Anthony's as I figured they likely weren't ready yet. I was right so I tied Lily to Anthony's trailer and sat down to relax for a bit. It wasn't long before they were ready and we headed out. It was just the three of us today. We rode out the back of the camp and went south and then east on a trail I don't think I've been on before. We were heading to Double M Campground and meeting some of his family for lunch there. Lily was very good today other than stumbling and doing a face plant once. We rode through to Initial Tree and stopped to take a break there. Then on to Double M. We rode 9.48 miles from High Knob to Double M.

I'd had Anthony call Fred to see if he wanted to join us. Fred hadn't answered so Anthony left a message. When we got to Double M, Fred was there and I was pleased he'd come to join us. Cathy and I gave Fred quite the show as Anthony rode off to talk with someone as we were crossing the parking area and neither Lily or Cathy's mule LuLu wanted to be separated from Anthony's mule. We had all we could do to get either mule to walk to the hitching rails and I managed to get a horrid cramp in my leg from trying to get Lily to go! BRAT! Fred thought it was pretty funny. Anthony's mom and dad were coming as well as his daughter, son-in-law and their two young girls. So, we had quite a group for lunch! Any time with Anthony and Cathy's family is a good time. I think we were at Double M. for nearly 2 hrs. Lily wasn't overly impressed at being tied to the hitching rail that long but she wasn't bad either. Just a little fidgety.

We took a different route back to High Knob. Lily got sticky feet at a couple intersections on the trail that she knew led back home but again, didn't make any big fuss. We stopped for a break at NoNo Rock. I was playing around with Lily but not really asking her to do any big jumps. Anthony said he could show me an easy way to get Lily to go up on one of the rocks so I handed Lily over to him. Lily gave him a run for his money but he did get her to put two front feet up on a rock. We then rode back to camp. We rode 9.01 miles on the way back for a total of 9.49 miles. Lily loaded right into the trailer for the ride home.