Sunday Ride with Ruth

Ruth picked me up today about 10 am and we headed out to the barn for a ride. It was a gorgeous day, really lovely weather. It was warm but the cool breeze circulating around was delightful.

As I walked into the barn I saw one of Darold's palomino mares tacked up. I wondered what that was about, and soon found out as I was bringing Sinwaan in. A woman named Julie was visiting from Tennessee and was getting ready to ride. She asked if she could join us and I said sure! Darold introduced us and told Julie that I was an endurance rider. Julie replied "well now I really want to ride with you!" I laughed and told her I wasn't sure what pace we would be setting today since I was riding with Ruth and her horse was young.

We headed on up the road and the horses did well together. Sinwaan was very mellow today, happy to be in the company of other equines. We did a lot of walking on the gravel because Darold's mare was barefoot and I wasn't sure how tender she would be. She went right along and gaited faster than our geldings walked.

Topper was acting up a little bit so Ruth chose to keep him to the walk most of the time. We encountered a pickup truck parked long-ways across the dirt road at the junkyard but were able to maneuver around it without much difficulty. I could see some people walking in the distance. We eventually caught up to them at the intersection where we turned around to head back. Julie decided to let her mare out a little to see how she would do and soon lost us as Ruth and I continued walking. Sinwaan had a small spook and I turned and saw a small pickup driving up behind us. Ruth and I got off the path (she dismounted) to let it by and we saw the same people that had been walking away earlier. They drove up to the larger truck blocking the path and jump-started it. By the time we reached them again they had it going and we got off the path again to let them by.

Heading for home back on Elliot, we let the geldings trot and Topper had a bit of a canter. It was starting to get warm now as we had lost our breeze. Julie was already untacked when we arrived back at the barn. I opted not to hose Sinwaan down today as he had hardly broken a sweat.

I am considering riding him again mid-week if I can fit it in before Renegade. Because today was more of an LSD day, I don't think another ride this close would zap too many of his resources.

I was able to try out some new water bottles today that I found at ShopKo. They have a center that can be removed and frozen. I am hoping they will work out well for me on the out-check next weekend.