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[RC] Missed another ride, dang it... - Chris PausI was scheduled to go do an endurance ride with Star in St. Louis, but the ride gods are against me this year. 4th ride in our area this year and something came up again that I couldn't go.. The Hilton on Wheels has a bad smell of gasoline up in the driver's area..ugh.. Couldn't fathom driving 5 hours smelling that! Then my mother let me know that my brother and his wife are visiting from Portland OR and we were to have a family dinner last night (thanks for the advance notice).. . So, instead of Star and St. Louis, a friend and I took horses to a nearby park for a charity trail ride. I took Ali, my young mare. We camped out in my friend's nice new LQ trailer. It was Ali's first experience at being tied all night. She did just fine, except for the obligatory bucket rattling at 6 a.m., LOL... The trail ride was to raise money for Meals on Wheels. The owner of Ali's sire is one of the organizers. He was thrilled to see Ali there and really showed her off to his friends. There were 41 riders.. the biggest group Ali has ridden with. She handled the activity fine. Her only problem was that she just couldn't figure out why we were going so darned slow! She has a nice easy, but fast walk like Star. The leader of the ride was on a QH. It drove Ali nuts, LOL... She finally settled in, but we walked passed other horses at every opportunity. It took us 2.5 hours to go 10 miles! Ali found a nice dark and handsome TWH gelding who went about her pace and she really liked riding with him. We had lots of creek crossings to do and even a shallow stream crossing. I'm so glad we've been practicing these! She did them well.. CW, the stallion owner, said, "Look at that Nafis daughter cross that water." Our only "problem" was my yellow raincoat... She was fine with me wearing it, and fine when I took it off and tied it around my waist. But when I got cold and wanted it back on, she was sure there was a flapping monster on her back. She did quite a spin spook. A cowboy behind us told me, "you get 50 points for riding that" LOL... About a quarter mile from camp, my friend and I got ahead of the other riders and let Frisky and Ali go. They were SO HAPPY to be ahead of the stock horses, LOL... Ali has such a magnificent canter.. a dream to sit but we've got to work on her long trot. My friend's horse has an awesome trot. He's so fun to watch. Ali got lots of atta girls for her good day and we got lots of compliments for her being such a good girl on trail. People were surprised she's such a greenie. My friend won a bottle of mane and tail conditioner and I won a sack of feed. The ride was over just in time.. It started pouring rain as we were eating hot dogs and doing the raffle thing... Anyway, despite missing the Roller Coaster ride, it was a very good day, topped off by a fabulous meal at my mom's house and a nice visit with my brother whom I get to see about once or twice a year. chris ===== "A good horse makes short miles," George Eliot Chris and Star BayRab Acres http://pages.prodigy.net/paus ============================================================ The two best drugs to have in your kit are Tincture of Time and a Dose of Common Sense. These two will carry you through 99.999% of the problems associated with horses and endurance competition. ~ Robert Morris ridecamp.net information: http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/ ============================================================
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