The weather here has not made up it's mind. One day, snow, sleet and wind. The next, sunshine, warmth and flowers. I think I'll take the second! On those nasty, wet days, I have a hard time getting my butt into the saddle, much less doing farm maintenance. The past few days have been a wonder of work - riding for hours, cleaning mud from paddocks, planning all those barn chores that need to be done and did I mention riding?
Our first ride was cancelled, due to no fault of the organizer, so we're now pointed at the Milwaukee Railroad Ride on April 25th. I think the horses are ready, as we went out Monday for a nice, long ride and both were raring to go (and at least Galen was pretty insistent about it). I'm kind of wondering if a 25 will be enough for him, or if we'll be doing a horse race. He did seem to think that galloping would be way more fun than our trotting. That's all well and good until the trail peters out or the trees close in.
Monica Bretherton and I took Galen and Ari up to Mann Road in Sultan and we couldn't have asked for better weather. It must have been 70 degrees with sunshine. The trails themselves were very good, with only an occasional patch of mud. We did have one little scare, when we were going past a huge deadfall and the horses thought there was something scary. Being big, strong women, we said "No problem", but then the crashing in the woods started...something big and slow and heavy was moving around, probably doing it's version of singing at the top of it's lungs. We hurried past, hoping to find a different trail to come back on. Nope. Had to go past the crashing again. I think all of us (crashing animal included) breathed a sigh of relief after that. I really do need to learn some new songs, as singing campfire songs gets a bit redundant after a while.
We saw a lovely, emerald green pond, probably a beaver pond, across the road at one point. Galen said he WASN'T going in that (no such idea, as I could see submerged logs). Ari thought the whole thing was a good place to stop for a minute and relax. Galen thought we should gallop on to the next scenic view.
We did get the boys sweating a bit this time, but they had good heartrates back at the trailer and would have been very happy to continue on, so I think our conditioning is doing fine.
I'm really looking forward to the ride on the 25th , and I'm hoping I won't spend the entire ride thinking about bigger bits and martingales for my galloping boy!
Cathy
Our first ride was cancelled, due to no fault of the organizer, so we're now pointed at the Milwaukee Railroad Ride on April 25th. I think the horses are ready, as we went out Monday for a nice, long ride and both were raring to go (and at least Galen was pretty insistent about it). I'm kind of wondering if a 25 will be enough for him, or if we'll be doing a horse race. He did seem to think that galloping would be way more fun than our trotting. That's all well and good until the trail peters out or the trees close in.
Monica Bretherton and I took Galen and Ari up to Mann Road in Sultan and we couldn't have asked for better weather. It must have been 70 degrees with sunshine. The trails themselves were very good, with only an occasional patch of mud. We did have one little scare, when we were going past a huge deadfall and the horses thought there was something scary. Being big, strong women, we said "No problem", but then the crashing in the woods started...something big and slow and heavy was moving around, probably doing it's version of singing at the top of it's lungs. We hurried past, hoping to find a different trail to come back on. Nope. Had to go past the crashing again. I think all of us (crashing animal included) breathed a sigh of relief after that. I really do need to learn some new songs, as singing campfire songs gets a bit redundant after a while.
We saw a lovely, emerald green pond, probably a beaver pond, across the road at one point. Galen said he WASN'T going in that (no such idea, as I could see submerged logs). Ari thought the whole thing was a good place to stop for a minute and relax. Galen thought we should gallop on to the next scenic view.
We did get the boys sweating a bit this time, but they had good heartrates back at the trailer and would have been very happy to continue on, so I think our conditioning is doing fine.
I'm really looking forward to the ride on the 25th , and I'm hoping I won't spend the entire ride thinking about bigger bits and martingales for my galloping boy!
Cathy
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