Lovely Ride at the Watershed

Yesterday, Monica, Julie and I loaded up our horses and headed for the Redmond Watershed.  We went to meet some friends there and made an early start to miss all the hikers/bikers/strollers etc that would come out in the afternoon of this gorgeous day.

We met up with our friends and started out, but as our whole idea was to have a relaxing ride, we soon peeled off. 

We weren't looking for a long ride, as my ankle is still a problem and Julie needed to get back home.  We put in around 1 1/2 hours of riding, walking and trotting and the horses were relaxed and happy (and so were we!)  The light was fabulous - huge sunbeams coming through the trees and fog.  It was rather cathedral like. 

We made it back to the trailer and I just had to take a photo of the horses steaming gently in the sunshine.  They weren't really hot (in fact, Danny had only the tiniest bit of sweat under the saddle, but because it was still chilly, they were steaming through their coolers.  I'm kind of proud of this photo, especially as I took it on my smartphone.

                                               Monica and Danny and Julie and Andy

A nice lady took some photos of the three of us together, but I must say, I like this one the best.

It was a great start for conditioning for next year's rides!  I might not be riding much distance, but dang it, I'm going to the rides!