Finally back in the saddle

Well it has been over a week since I have ridden my fine horse. I was feeling much better today and had made plans to try a new ride with Kittee and Dale. I showed up about 8:30 am and tacked up and once again they were waiting on me. I was having too much fun running my mouth telling stories about last weekend's ride and not tacking up fast enough.

I had gone through my tack trunk from Kim last night and re-found some more treasures. My old riding crop, a pair of reins with a "popper," and endurance saddle pad with pockets, and a rump rug. So I brought home the blanket and rug and old rope halter and put them through the wash. This morning the blanket still wasn't completely dry so I used my usual english white pad. I don't have any d-rings off the back of my saddle so I am not quite sure how I will ever attach a rump rug back there but at least now I know for sure it is ready to take with me to the ride.

We headed out probably shortly after 9 AM. At least that was the plan, I never did look at the clock.

We rode up the road to Lincton Mtn Rd and headed on up. Dale on Misty and Kittee on Nugget. Today (which I knew in advance) was an LSD day. And no...I wasn't tripping. In the endurance circles LSD is also known as Long Slow Distance. The loop we rode was 10 miles and we did it pretty much entirely at a walk.

What a gorgeous day! High of 85 and such a breeze! Many times I lifted up my free arm to air out my armpit. I had flashbacks to The Titantic movie when Leonardo says "I'm the king of the world!" Well it was moments like that, looking out across the hills and valleys FULL of majestic colors. What a gift.

Going up the mountain the horses were oh so tired and oh so lazy and oh such fakers. We took a short side trail to see if there would be a way to get around the rockiest part of the road by cutting through a field. That turned out to be a lost cause as the trail we followed took us out through more fences and farther away from the road. But it was a fun distraction. As soon as we turned onto that trail (which was sort of aimed in the direction of home) Sinwaan suddenly woke up and lengthened his stride and soon took the lead and was very excited to be moving right along. This extra trail maybe added a 1/2 mi to our ride.

I did not see any wildlife today other than normal birds, and LOTS of hoppers (Grasshoppers), and there were also wasps out in force, Sinwaan probably has a headache now from all the tossing he did every time he saw one in his sights. He could headbang with the best of them, I am sure of it now.

When we turned from Lincton Mtn Road onto Kinnear Rd (approx 5 mi up) the horses really picked it up. Suddenly they were all awake and raring to go. Sinwaan again took the lead and the other two horses had to trot every so often to catch up with his long stride. Kinnear is a very nice road, as far as gravel roads go, not as rough as the rest of Lincton Mtn, and mostly level. There is a slight grade up and down both at parts, but a person could probably canter the whole thing if they were so inclined. There also is a grandious view from that road, and no large trees or cliffs from which cougars could pounce upon ye.

At one point Dale came trotting up and passed me so we all trotted for awhile and soon Sinwaan passed them again and we went on like this for a while and it was great to be airing out my drawers. I did not realize how hard it is to ride a horse at a walk for six miles. My breeches weren't fitting right, they felt like they were rubbing and I wished very much that I had put on some of the Chamois Butt'r that I had recently gotten. Today would have been the perfect test of that...oh well! My left ankle also kept getting stiff on me and I dropped the stirrup a few times on purpose to stretch. I never do that.

So I think the trotting got to be a little much for Dale and we all slowed down to our walk again and let Dale take the lead so Misty could set the pace. She moved out since she sensed she was headed for home. Then we started hearing gunshots. Lots of them. As we came up near the turn off to Cache Hollow Rd and the way home we caught a glimpse of a man with his rifle at a white pickup truck firing at targets. We stopped then and let the horses munch some wheat at roadside. Then I heard a chopper and within seconds a helicopter came flying directly above us. It was sure a lot going on! Kittee asked me then if I had a whistle to try and get the gunman's attention. I did indeed, thanks to my trusty friend Lara looking out for me in her travels to Wal-Mart for great finds. I blew it lightly at first to accustom Sinwaan to the sound of it and then really blew it hard twice to get the guys attention. Well needless to say, all that accomplished was upsetting my poor horse who by now surely has a ringing headache from the headbanging and now whistleblowing in his ear. He should do just fine when I take him to the next rock concert!

Well there was silence for a little while and I figured the guy must be reloading. We rode up then to try and get to him before he starting shooting again. That didn't work and all the noise was upsetting the horses. We did a short jog towards him and Sinwaan was getting irritable. He was very good though, I was impressed with how well he handled it knowing he doesn't like that sound. We were all yelling at the top of our lungs "Shooter!" "Stop shooting!" "Hey!" None of that did any good but finally he turned enough to see Kittee about 50' away from him waving her arms in the air like a line service worker at an airport. He gave us this look of just total disgust and put his gun down and walked around the other side of his truck. Then he goes over to a plastic bag that he had on the sideview mirror and starts rumaging through it which of course made the horses even more edgy. At that point I dismounted since just ahead of us was THE HILL (very steep and very rocky) and Sinwaan was starting to dance around a little and I had lost a stirrup. Not on purpose this time.

We walked them all down THE HILL and to the point that is 2 mi from home. While Dale was trying to line Misty up with the bank so he could have an advantage to getting back in the saddle, Misty swung her butt around and backed up, just about pinning Kittee (who was on the ground helping) between the two horses. That was a little scary but she was fine. We found a different bank for Dale to use.

Walking home was just great. The horses were all eager to go but well behaved and Sinwaan gave me no trouble at all. I could tell he really wanted to just run but he was quite polite and followed Misty along as I asked. What a good horse.

It was really an awesome ride today, the weather couldn't have been better, we had a few exciting moments, got to see some new trails and landscapes, and it was a nice way for me to ease back into the saddle after being sickly. I even learned some things today about my wardrobe and tack.

I did end up using the new reins by the way, with the popper. I am not entirely sure what to do with the popper end, exactly, part of the time it was in my way. I looped it around my front pack, and that worked until I needed it to fight off wasps, then it was a little awkward trying to unloop it as fast as I'd like to have had it. Then I figured out I could just toss it up over my shoulder and that worked the best until we starting trotting and then of course it fell off. At that point I just grabbed it up and looped it up with the rest of the reins in my hands. I am wishing I never spent the money on that darn crop, esp now that I found my old one, now I have two I won't use...maybe someone will take pity and buy one from me. I do like using the popper a lot better. It works for all kinds of things but especially good as bee repelent.

Sinwaan had his usual appetite on the trail and at one point snatched up a tumbleweed (mustard) and carried it along in front of him until he broke off part of it by stepping on it. Silly horse. When we got back to the barn I offered him some water in my new RED collapsible bag that I carried along with us. Well I am a little miffed that it is too small of an opening for him to get his whole mouth in it, at least if he wants to open it once he gets it in there, but by sticking his tounge in he can (and does) lick the water out of it. So I will take that with us in case he has trouble drinking from any of the sources on our LD ride. I had carried some carrots with us today also and he got little pieces of those from time to time. I didn't carry my sponge today but it does fit in my collapsible bag so next time I ride with Lara I will take it and learn how to attach it to my already-overladen front pack section. Darn missing rear d-rings!

I suppose I could always screw some in. I am just not that motivated.