Requires Trail Variety

TC doesn't have a huge number of opinions. In the arena, anything I want him to do, he's good with. Even if he does the same thing... over and over and over again. I try to keep it interesting for him, but there are days where all we do is walk, trot, and canter on the same figure working on the connection and he's very happy. He likes his job, even if it's kind of boring sometimes. 

I just love this view

In the open, however, that's where he has lots of opinions. I tend to let him go where he wants as we wander around the ranch. He seems to like to see all of the ranch each day, half of it before our ride and half of it afterwards. He sometimes doesn't want to go down toward the riding school, he will turn early and head out to the arena or back home sooner. If you insist he go somewhere though, he's fine with it! He just very clearly has his preferences. 

On the trails, he's always been pretty game no matter what, but now that this year I'm prioritizing trail riding him, it's clear that he's getting bored. 

The trail facility I normally go to, which is only a 15 minute haul, has one really convenient loop, it takes us almost exactly 1 hour and 35 minutes every time. It's the easiest, shortest way to get lots of climbing in. I haul over there, do the loop, and haul back and it takes just barely over 2 hours. That's really convenient when I have meetings or lessons that squash my day. 

It's a lot of the same, sorry TC

TC doesn't understand that I have to get back by a certain time a lot of the time we trail ride. At first he was fine with doing the same loop, we did it one way, then the other way, then back the original way. We have branched out and gone on other loops and I do have it in my calendar to get out to some other facilities. Actually, last Saturday I had it in my calendar to go somewhere else, but I got a call from our realtor as I was hauling out and had to unload him and ride him at home so I could go see a house. That meant that I had to trail ride on Monday, and that means the short loop at the trail facility nearby to minimize the time. 

When we got out on the trails, TC was excited. The last trail ride we did, I let him just kind of pick his way out and then turned around half way through the time I gave us to be out there. He hates out and backs so he was bummed when he turned around, but I think he had fun anyway and maybe thought he'd get to pick again. No, sorry pony. 

Poor TC was annoyed the moment he knew where we were going. The short loop AGAIN? I took the pep out of his step, poor pony. He still seemed to be happy but he did stop several times to look back at me, he kept walking off the trail randomly, and he tried to greet every cow he saw. 

Excuse me, I require new trails, thank you

So I think I'll try to give him more variety in his trail riding. Unfortunately for him, he will have to suffer on the short loop sometimes when I'm in a hurry, but hopefully I can keep it interesting enough on the other weeks to keep him happy. Fingers crossed, but next weekend I have a tentative Saturday off where I can haul him further away and we can go somewhere new! 

WW: Climbing

 Not the kind you do at a bouldering gym, although it's been almost a year since I went to mine and that makes me a little sad. I'm talking about the kind you do on your horse! 

I snuck out on the trails very early a couple weeks ago and TC and I climbed quite a bit for a horse who hasn't been doing much climbing recently. He felt great out there, quite strong, and he was a really good boy despite a lot of activity. 

I also took him out this last weekend and did the entire short loop for the first time this year! It was a bit windy but he was perfect. What a good boy. 

It was actually pretty cold (for us), like 45*

Love that the green grass is coming in

He's the most bombproof creature

The lighting wasn't the best lol oh well

Best trail horse ever

It was so bright! 

Can't wait to go back out!

Mental Breather

On Sunday, I turned notifications off of my phone, went for a trail ride, signed up for a clinic, and emailed my vet. 

I've had a really bad three months or so. I don't want to go too deep into it, but between not sleeping normally for three months, moving, my SO's immigration, juggling two jobs that I feel constantly terrible at, and you know, a global pandemic, among MANY other things that I just don't want to go into, I've been NOT OKAY for a while now. Couple that with the atmospheric river, TC's NQR-ness on his left stifle that is juuuuust NQR to concern me but not enough to warrant a major vet visit or time off of work (since work makes it better), and my trainer search, just uughhhh. 

This pony makes everything better

On Sunday I woke up at 4am and tried so hard to go back to sleep for HOURS until the SO woke up and just looked at me and I started crying uncontrollably, you know, like you do. I eventually stopped and am feeling better today so no worries. 

Not wanting to completely torment the SO by moping around the house all day, I got in the car and went to the barn. I turned my phone notifications off (I actually turned them off Saturday night) and listened to a book by my favorite (music) artist and some happy music while I drove down to the barn. I wasn't sure what to do, but trail riding always helps so I decided to go out to the park where we could at least walk around the bottom loop. 

He is not clean right now lol

TC must have known I wasn't all there, because he was SUCH a good boy. He unloaded and hung out quietly by the trailer while I tacked up (and gave him lots of cookies) and then quietly walked on a loose rein the entire time.

We went the opposite direction this time, same direction as the pedestrians. I just wanted to go the other way, I don't know, I figured it was good to change things up. TC wasn't excited about that, turns out he LOVES greeting everyone and by walking the same way as everyone, he couldn't talk to anyone. Poor guy! 

The only times he did anything other than walk quietly were when he saw a horse trotting down the road and suddenly got it in his head that he too should trot down the road (lol no, sorry TC) and when he was not paying attention and two skateboarders raced by him from behind. Luckily I turned him around and another skateboarder came by and he relaxed about it. I think it just caught him off guard. After that he had no issues with skateboarders. 

But other than that, we saw the norm: dogs barking, cyclists, joggers, kids on trikes and scooters, baby carriages/wagons/etc, and even a shetland pony giving a pony ride. He is SUCH a good trail horse, so easy to relax on out there. And he clearly loves it too, he felt amazing on Monday for our ride. Even though we can't climb hills out there in the winter, we will definitely be going and doing the bottom loop at least once a week from now on. 

Best trail pony

I got back to the barn and just kind of hung out there for a while after feeding TC and putting his blanket back on. I checked Facebook because although my notifications were off, I did still let myself on social media. I saw a clinic with someone I've been curious about happening in May and it was surprisingly affordable because they were going to take video and use the it in some educational videos. 

I decided on a whim to reserve two spots in it. TC is super interesting and at a good level for stuff like that and I need some help with collection from someone who isn't going to cram his neck in and have me kick him so figured this would be good. And I still have plenty of time to give away my spots if I eventually regret my choice. I'm not quite sure how I feel about having my lessons on an educational video... but we'll see how I feel as we get closer.  

I love him

I was sitting there thinking about this clinic and about championships and about all the things I really want to do with TC this year that aren't even dressage related. I want to do some working equitation clinics and maybe a show, I want to trail ride and do a trail trials if I can. I want to take him to the beach and hopefully take him to this facility with obstacles and go swimming. I also want to take him to the horse park a few times and trail ride and play in the water complex. I dunno, I want to have fun with my horse this year and do a bunch of stuff with him! 

He's been so amazing for my health this year and I want to make sure that he's healthy too. So, I decided to take the money that I had saved for my new horse and invest it into my current horse. The SO told me the other day to stop living in the future with this new horse and live in the now, I think he meant to stop worrying about not being able to afford two horses, but I took that to mean "don't sacrifice the horse you have now for a horse who might not even exist yet" and came to that conclusion.

It's time to get a look at that stifle via ultrasound and/or x-ray. If nothing shows up, I know I will have just "wasted" a bunch of money (I don't consider money spent on peace of mind wasted though), but it'll at least let me know that there's nothing actually wrong and that we just need to keep on keeping on and climb more hills. If something is up, I want to know. If he needs an injection, so be it. It might not be a bad idea to inject him for this year, the year that I'm hoping to get the piaffe and canter pirouette on him. Make sure he's comfortable doing the things I want to do and especially the things he wants to do (like trail riding and swimming and knocking over obstacles at working equitation, he also loves dressage too). 

Looking at cows

Sunday ended up being a pretty good day. I got home and the SO handed me a video game and told me that I needed to have more self care time. Tonight it's Monday night as I'm writing this and I'm going to get off the computer, turn off my notifications until tomorrow morning and sit with him while watching New Girl and playing my game. Then I'm going to bed early and hoping that I can sleep through the night with no nightmares! It's a tough time but we'll get through it. 

Another Trail Ride and Brainstorming a Schedule

On Saturday, I headed down to the barn feeling a little burnt out just from the general shit that is going on in this country piled on top of the global pandemic, our move, TC's stifle, and knowing that I was on my last two days of my three week break from my normal job. 

I don't know why, but I had a major desire to not be at the barn the moment I got there (it was crowded and I didn't have my headphones, sometimes you just want to be antisocial), so I called the hotline that you can call to see the status of the trails and told myself that if the hills were open, I'd go there instead. Sure enough, the hills were open so I ran into the barn, grabbed TC's tack, threw it in my trailer, ran down to TC's paddock, grabbed him, threw him in the trailer and we were on our way to the trail facility within fifteen minutes of my arrival. 

Favorite place

It was our second time in four days being out there, so TC was much more relaxed but did get very excited as we walked to the gate. He aggressively poked the first gate and it opened a tiny amount. Big enough for him to fit through but not comfortably so he flung himself through it as I was trying to grab it and actually open it like we normally do. He was just too enthused to bother waiting for me and seemed to laugh maniacally as I brought him back to walk. 

Everyone and their mother was out there because it was a weekend but once we got up the first hill, people were peeling off to go on other trails and we were alone. 

TC felt strong up the first hill, which was all I was planning on doing our first time climbing in 6 months, so we continued on the flatlands to the next hill. After we climbed that hill, I had him turn around and come back down. He struggled a little bit on the downhill, and by struggled I mean that he wanted to just let gravity take him down the hill. That's typical of his first trail ride after a while so I didn't think much of it. 

Happiest pony in the hills!

I got back to the barn and told myself that until the rain started again, I'd take TC on the trails twice a week, one weekend day and one weekday. And in general, I think we need more trail rides, both for his physical fitness and for my mental health! 

I think I get too into the dressage and don't really structure my weeks to help him out. I was asked about TC's schedule on instagram recently and I felt guilty saying that he didn't really have one. So I think I'm going to try to put him on a real schedule this year. Including one full day off, which is necessary for me to do my real job! 

Here's my thinking: 

Monday: dressage

Tuesday: stretchy day in the equibands 

Wednesday: dressage/lesson with Tracey (she comes every other week)

Thursday: trail ride 

Friday: day off

Saturday: dressage

Sunday: cavalletti

Obviously that is subject to change for a lot of reasons! If it's raining, I'll be moving his day off to Thursday because the arena has a weird schedule on Thursdays. If I'm teaching a clinic on the weekend, I'll probably move his day off to either Thursday and Sunday if it's a Sunday clinic or just to Saturday if it's a Saturday clinic. If I have a crazy number of meetings, I'll have to change it up too. 

So really I should just say that I want to do three dedicated hard dressage day, one day where we do cavalletti, one day where we do some work on the basics in the equibands, and one day where we trail ride. 

I love the views from up here

We'll see what we can figure out. My priority for this year is to work on the basics so that we can make a move up to Fourth level by October/November and score well at Championships in September at Third level. I don't think we need as much dedicated dressage work as much as he needs some postural work and strength building with trails, cavallettis, and basics days with the equiband. 

Back on the Trails with Everyone Else

TC and I have been taking it easy this week getting him feeling better with that damn stifle. 

As I wrote a couple posts ago, he took some off steps on Sunday afternoon and then was fine after he jumped around like an idiot on the longe line as I tried to get video of it. 

On Monday and Tuesday, we just did some lightish trot work with his stifle exercises (reining back, walking up and down the mound, walking over poles, etc). He felt good, a bit weak on it, but sound and happy to do his work. 

Loving the green grass coming in!

Come Wednesday, I took him out on the trails! I drove by the trail facility on my way to the barn and saw signs that said the hills were closed to bikes and equestrians, but the nice thing about this facility is that their big bottom loop doesn't close ever. It's a paved trail with gravel on both sides so it attracts a lot of kids learning to ride bikes and people with strollers, but it's what we had. It's on a very slight slope, which isn't exactly what we need but I figured was better than nothing. 

We arrived and TC was WILD. He was the only horse there except some miniature horses who were on a walk (omg so cute) so he screamed bloody murder at them until they went out of sight. Right as he was screaming, we got stopped by a park ranger who just wanted to make sure we knew not to go up into the hills. I confirmed and then she asked how many hands tall he was. I laughed and said he was 16.2h but he gets taller when he is on the trail. 

I tacked him up as he danced around and then he stood quietly as I got on him. As usual for the first trail ride of the season, he was a ball of tension. Now, had the hills been open, he would have pranced out to the first gate, been polite about opening it, pranced up the first hill, then realized that prancing up hills sucks and then he'd relax and we'd have a fabulous ride. 

It's so beautiful out there

But there were no hills to convince him to not be an idiot and there were children running up behind him, which normally wouldn't bother him but definitely set him off a bit. I hopped off and we did some ground work until he felt more relaxed, then I got back on and he was perfect for the rest of the ride!

We decided to go against the direction most people were going just so we weren't snuck up upon because I was listening to an audiobook. This meant we saw a lot of people!

We passed some joggers and a couple of bikes, then a pair of hikers (walkers?) were sitting on a bench and as I walked by they told me that my horse was beautiful. I said thanks, and then one added that she loved my position. At this moment, TC decided to bunch up into a small ball because he saw some cows and he loves cows, so I couldn't stop to chat, but I thanked her and we kept walking along. 

It's a good trail

The next excitement was a tiny child on a motorized scooter. TC has never seen scooters so he stared intently at it, but the kid did get off and let us pass. I thanked the kid and told TC it was okay, from then on he was fine with scooters! Good pony. The kid's little brother (I think) came running as fast as his tiny little kid legs could carry him (so not very fast but very chaotic) while screaming for his brother to slow down. 

We were then passed by no less than five tiny children flying down the road on scooters. Then by two cyclists, three dogs being walked, and two strollers. The only thing TC got funny about was two cows galivanting around in the hills above us. He ignored everything else going on and stuck his ears in my nostrils to get a good look at the cows. 

The funniest/saddest moment (which I can say because no children were harmed in this incident) was when a kid lost control of his bike after telling his mom to let go. He ended up careening down the road  straight at TC while his mom ran to catch him. She reached him and grabbed the handlebars to try to stop the bike but it toppled over and he fell off the bike. By this point they were maybe 15 feet away from us. TC didn't think this was anything out of the ordinary and he marched on as the kid got up and yelled at his mom. 

Good boy

After that, we were passed by a bunch of other people but TC obviously handled it all just fine. We made it back to the trailer and he'd even broken a little bit of a sweat, so that was good. He hesitated to load but then did go into the trailer. I promised him we'd be back soon! 

I rode him the next day and he felt even better than he had felt earlier in the week. We even cantered a bit. Nothing fancy, just a lot of trot poles and work on light contact in working gaits to help get his strength back. I'm hoping that by middle of next week, he'll be back to full work. I'm still debating getting my vet involved just to check on it, but either way, I'm happy he's feeling better! 

I think we'll head out again to do this ride this weekend. Then next week it should dry out enough for us to be able to climb some real hills! All this week and weekend it's sunny and in the high 60s/low 70s so fingers crossed the trails open again. We definitely need the climbing! And honestly after this week, I need the relaxation that only trail riding can bring me.

WW: On the Trails Again

Last weekend we hit the trails! I didn't take tons of pictures but it was such a good time. I really love this horse.

Heading for my favorite tree

Looking down on the valley

This place has such incredible views

Best trail horse ever

The valley

Bombproof Trail Horse

This last weekend, I took TC out on the trails! The trails have not been shut off to anyone at this point. They are really wide and open, there are signs up all over the place with instructions. In addition, Santa Clara County is doing ridiculously well. Our local ERs are nowhere near capacity and I'm sure everyone heard about the results from the Stanford antibody study. So, all this, in addition to TC being totally bombproof on the trails, made me feel comfortable heading out there.

And let me tell you, TC's bombproof nature was put to the test out there! As I drove in, I saw four horse trailers and probably a hundred cars. No joke, the parking lot was packed. That's what I get for going on a weekend. But TC handled all the people really well.

Still love this tree

We just did our normal trail and within the first twenty minutes, we saw probably forty people. I had to stop a few mountain bikers to let them know what "yield to horses" means (it does not, in fact, mean go as fast as you can by the horse), and I tried to get the attention of one jogger and ask her to please walk when she goes by the horse, but she was ignoring me.

Meanwhile, TC thought it was just great that so many people were on the trail, he wanted to say hi to everyone and find out who had treats for him. None of them, TC.

What my horse had to put up with made me feel like his true calling was being a bombproof trail horse, rather than a dressage horse who likes to trail ride. Two bikes came absolutely whizzing down a steep hill and darted between us and a hiker, getting *way* too close. TC just stepped sideways and gave them room.

Then we saw a child, who was very excited about the horse, so he SCREAMED (relatable) and started RUNNING toward us. I had to yell at him to walk, but TC was visibly disappointed when the kid stopped and waited for his mom.

Best bridge crosser

Next up was a man who was just... wandering off the trail for some reason. At first, TC snorted at him, then he saw a dog up ahead and decided the man in the bushes was no big deal, TC likes dogs. The woman with the dog was crouched down taking a selfie with the dog (relatable x2), then saw us and jumped up to get out of our way. Thanks, human, for JUMPING up out of a crouched position in front of my flight animal. TC startled a little, then continued making a beeline for the dog (also relatable).

Then we came around a corner to a whole family taking a break under a tree. Two children were climbing in the tree and one child was beating the ever loving SHIT out of the tree with a branch. No shits were given by the horse, who was hoping we'd stop to hang out with these people.

Our next encounter was a kid who was afraid of us and darted by us behind their parent. Then we saw several more bikes, who had polite riders who all got off their bikes when I asked them to (it was a narrower trail than before). I explained how to deal with horses on the trail and then thanked them for listening.

We passed a TON of hikers, some of which gave us a lot of room, others gave us less room, but everyone was friendly and seemed to be having a good time, so that's good.

Love how green it is out there!

All in all, we probably passed about a hundred people. I tend to go out on the trails to be alone and relax, listen to a book or some music. This was not that. It was still a blast, but more because my life is now so boring that anything but sitting at home is fun. But also because TC was a good boy for all of that craziness!

I think I'll go back out on a weekday to avoid the masses, but it was so much fun to get some fresh air and a change of scenery. I feel really lucky to have such a great trail horse who makes me feel so safe out there.

Two Gray Weirdos Hit the Trail

As of writing this (Friday afternoon), we are officially on lock down, mostly. My full time job is all remote and I've stopped doing everything except riding and teaching and running only the most essential of errands.

The most essential errand

Boyfriend and I stocked up on food for a few weeks and have hunkered down. He's probably more stressed than I am just because he doesn't get to leave the house every day and go to the barn like I do. The barn has been such a nice place to be at, with it feeling basically completely normal and me begin able to go in the middle of the day because my job is now fully remote.

One of the things that I immediately wanted to do with more free time was go on a trail ride with Kate and her new horse! TC hasn't been ridden much with friends on the trail since he was a baby being babysat, and it's something that I've wanted to start doing more regularly. But I had no idea what he'd be like! Kate is the perfect balance of ballsy and tactful, so she was going to handle her shit well if TC didn't.

But I had nothing to worry about, TC was absolutely foot perfect and we had SO MUCH FUN! We will definitely be trail riding every chance we can get.

TC looking sleepy

When we got there, we headed straight out to the smaller loop, the one I typically do alone. TC met BGT (Kate's new horse is unnamed, go help her name him on her blog!) and immediately wanted to bite him and BGT didn't care about TC very much. BGT decided to prance for the first bit of the trail and we laughed because he isn't all that fit so he'd tire himself out pretty quickly.

It was like TC when he was a baby, nonstop prancing until he exhausted himself. TC would sulk after that though (mom why do we have to climb the hillllll I have no energy because I made bad life choices). Sure enough, when we started climbing, BGT decided to walk.

The whole trail was completely uneventful, although BGT did get animated any time he had to cross anything that he thought looked weird, like the bridge (he led over it!) and some rocks. I a bit thought that TC would kind of default to whatever BGT wanted to do because he's a submissive little weirdo that just wants his friends to think he's cool. No worries though, even when BGT was spooking at cows and darting off the path, TC just looked at him like he was the weirdo and marched confidently by.

TC, could you look any less like a dressage horse?

They were so cute together too, they had a lot of banter between them. When TC was behind, all he wanted to do was chew on BGT's butt, which, when he'd go for it, we'd see BGT TOTALLY egging him on with his mischievous facial expression. When BGT was behind, all he wanted to do was shove his face up TC's butt, which TC took as a sign that he wanted to play, so he'd walk slower and slower and slower, wedging BGT's face even further up his butt and TC's head would get higher and higher as he glanced back at him like YOU LIKE BUTTS? ME TOO!

My favorite part by far was when they saw a bird. TC saw the bird and I felt him get all high-electron-y for a second and I touched one rein and he settled, because TC is a good boy and doesn't attack birds anymore. But then there goes BGT dragging Kate toward the bird with his neck arched, ready to attack. I think that's when they realized they were bros for life.

Bonding over their mutual hatred of birds

It was SUCH a fun day! I'm so looking forward to the next one. In a time when we're all so unsure of everything, it was great to get away from it all and enjoy the great outdoors on our amazing gray ponies.

Valentine's Day on the Trails

On Friday I went on a trail ride! My trailer is going in at the end of the month for a check up, so I'm only hauling short distances until then just to be safe. Luckily for me, my favorite trail facility is about fifteen minutes down the road from my barn.

TC is the best trail horse, so we had an absolute blast. We saw hikers, bikes, cows, strollers, dogs, and even a little kid on a little motorized bike. The only thing he spooked at was a new bench on the trail. And with some coaxing, he walked up to it and sniffed it, then was fine.

At the trailer afterwards (he wouldn't put up
with me taking pictures before the ride, he was
very eager)

Happy pony

It looks colder in the pictures than it was, it was nice and warm

Most terrifying bench

Love this picture

Cows!

First Trail Ride of the Decade

This last weekend I decided to grab TC and head out to the trails. I didn't know how the footing would be, but I figured I'd just wander as long as the footing was good and then call it a day and head home.

I got to the barn and moved my rig around, packed it up and then loaded TC into it. TC hadn't traveled since November, so I had to load him like a normal horse as his self loading button broke. Once he was in, I got back in the truck and... nothing. My battery was dead. Not sure how it started in the first place. But it didn't start the second time.

Love this view!

Luckily, I have a battery pack in my car because my car randomly decides to drain its battery and the last time that happened, I got stuck at the airport until 1am waiting for boyfriend to come rescue me. I decided to try to jump the truck (much bigger than my tiny car) with it and... IT WORKED! I love that battery pack! It charges via USB and it's now jumped my car once and my truck once. Yay!

So with the horse very angry at me for being such a shit vehicle owner, we headed out to the trails.

I got there and realized that I hadn't set up a trail bridle. I want to buy a halter-bridle and put his KK Ultra on there because I have good brakes in that... my horse is weird. Anyway, I arrived with my nathe, which I have questionable brakes in and my double bridle, which he's worn once.

What a good boy

Enough prancy bullshit while I was tacking him up and I decided that it was a good day to have him carry the double around. He wasn't a fan of it going in his mouth because he's had some soft rubber in his mouth and now I shoved two heavy metal bits in there. But he settled down and relaxed (and I had good brakes that I never needed to use).

He handled the ride really well, even with a whole bunch of people around and no horses on the trails. There were lots of bikes and a dog that was jumping up and down barking at us. TC didn't care. The only thing he really looked at was a few cows down below him, though it felt like he wanted to go see them but couldn't figure out how to gt down to them.

We made it about a quarter of the way up our normal loop before things got squishy and I turned around. It wasn't bad, but I'd also started to run out of phone battery so I wanted to be able to text someone if I got stranded.

He saw some people, he loves people

Right as we got back to the trailer, like maybe 200 feet away, a tiny child saw us. She screamed, ran over to a patch of grass, snatched at it, then ran up to TC with a handful and asked if she could give it to him. TC may be kid friendly, but I am not, so I told her that some horses aren't friendly (as TC tried to gently walk toward her) and that she needs to be more careful. I asked her to go back to her parent and stand there.

As much as TC would love to be the sort of horse who everyone comes up to on the trail, I will never be the kind of rider who wants to teach people about horses when I'm out trail riding. I just want to ride. Maybe being an aunt will soften me up a bit, just a few more weeks.

Hills do a pony good, he felt so solid on them, he's getting
very strong

We finally made it back to the trailer and my truck DID start this time around!

It was a short trail ride and I a little bit paid for not tiring him out the next day as he came out like a fire breathing dragon again. But it was fun to get out there even for a short time! Can't wait to start trail riding more regularly, I think I've worked out how I can trail ride before work...

The Longer Loop

This weekend was a long weekend, so while I spent the actual weekend part of the weekend away, I spent Monday with TC! 

After riding a client's horse, I zipped over to my barn and tossed TC in the trailer. I was debating where to go, but ended up at my favorite trail facility anyway.

The views were insane

About a third of the way up the awful hill

At the top of the ridge! You can see over to the reservoir on
the other side

Trees at the top of the ridge

I was determined to do something different though, so we went on our longest trail ride yet. And about half way through, we determined that we are not long-trail-ride kind of people.

There was a giant hill right at the beginning to climb, it felt like it was never ending. By the time we were up that, my left hip was absolutely done with riding horses and my horse was absolutely done with doing anything but standing still. And we were only a couple miles in. So we stood still for a while before slowly (very slowly) meandering back the rest of the like, five miles.

But it was a really nice time even if my left hip and my horse weren't having it. I got to listen to my favorite podcast (which I save for trail rides) and enjoy the amazing views. TC got some good hill work and some time outside the arena.

My left hip is fine by the way, I think this goes back to when I pissed it off jumping off of TC at the beach. I keep randomly feeling it in high volume deadlifts and if I'm in the tack for too long. I'm keeping an eye on it but it's good to know what irritates it.

At least there was some shade at the top

Such a good pony

Hanging out in the shade with a good view

The creek is green in the summer but everything else is dead

Once again, have to say how impressed I am with the horse. He doesn't care about bikes, cows, or hikers. He cares enough about other horses to scream at them but not enough to do anything else. He... he does seem to care a lot about large rocks, but there were only two of them and he merely slid sideways off the path to give them the hairy eyeball.

When we got back to the barn, he got a quick bath and actually seemed to enjoy me washing his face for once. My rule is that since he will be white, he needs to be a good boy about getting his face washed. Sorry pony!