Today was windy but the sky was clear, no rain. Heather and Ruth and I made plans to head out of town at 1 pm to ride at Madame Dorian. I left the house early because I needed to go down to Milton-Freewater to fuel up. Halfway down the block I realized I had forgotten both my GPS unit and also a measuring tape. I was worried about the time so I didn't go back for them.
Ruth and Heather beat me to the barn. Heather came up the drive and helped me back up to the trailer. It is tricky with a manual, I would get close and chicken out and hit the clutch and the truck would roll forward. Finally we did line it up and Heather helped to hook it up. All my stuff was still loaded from the ride last weekend so all there was to do was load up the horse. I think Sinwaan likes his new trailer, he doesn't give me any trouble, although he does always want to follow me in. If I try to push him in it doesn't work as well. Something we need to work on (self-loading).
The drive was about 28 miles west and we had to pull a pretty big hill. Ugly truck did well, we maintained about 50 mph going up and kept it there heading down the other side because I didn't want the trailer to get away from me. The rest of the time we traveled at 55-60. I have sure taken for-granted all the times people have done the hauling for me. Many times I had to tell myself to relax and breathe as I caught sight of my white knuckles clinging to the steering wheel. It was my first time hauling out to a ride and it was stressful!!
We arrived without incident and traveled up to the viewing station to park. Ruth commented on how this location was no where near the bathroom. I hadn't even thought of that, so next time I imagine we will park closer to them. We all tacked up and rode the horses at a walk down to the restrooms. Sinwaan was eager to go, I could tell he'd had a bit of a vacation. He had a nice stride and really moved out at the walk.
After the restrooms we found a single track trail and Ruth took the lead, I followed her, and Heather fell in behind. Ruth set a nice pace and we trotted through the sand and the sagebrush. In many areas the wind was not too bad, as the trail followed the base of the dunes and we had a wind break. One portion however put us near the cliff to the water and we could see the white caps on Wallula Lake and suddenly I was stung in the face with blowing sand. Sinwaan shook his head and tried to turn tail to the wind but we pressed onward and were soon out of it. The horses all did well and we reached the end of the trail this time. I have heard that it is 4 or 5 miles from one end to the other. It is still a question since I did not have my GPS to give me the answer.
We had a bit of a rest mid-way and then headed back for the trailers. Sinwaan had a couple moments where he seemed tired so we slowed to a walk in the deeper sand. I did not hook up his HRM today, I probably should have. When the ride was over I closely inspected his leg and the injury from last weekend has scabbed over. It seems a bit thick, probably because of the blood and his winter coat matting a bit. There was a slight crack along one edge but it did not seem to bother him today.
He will have another short vacation & rest, we will ride again on the weekend of the 17th before our next scheduled LD ride on April 24.
He loaded up easily and I drove him on back to the barn. This time the big hill was harder to climb. I found myself slowing down to 45 mph even though the accelerator was floored. I expect more out of such a large engine but Matt has pointed out to me that it is OLD, and does not benefit from newer technology like fuel injection, etc. Even though it is a 454 it is not as powerful as the engine that was in Matt's Camaro. He also told me he thought 45 was too fast for that hill, I guess next time I will know to slow down and down-shift into 2nd to climb it. (Ugly is a 3-spd) Live and learn.
I was pleased to see that Sinwaan had no trouble in the trailer today on either trip, he unloaded at the barn with no injuries, hurray! I borrowed a tape measure to get the size of his legs anyway and ordered him some shipping boots for the next major ride. I thought his front leg was about 17" and his rear 21" but maybe I didn't measure correctly. I ordered him 16" and 18" boots. We'll see how they work. They were on clearance at Dover.
No comments:
Post a Comment