I chickened out of riding Friday and Saturday due to the first soaking rain of the season rolling in. The big, welcome storm showing itself with big winds, thunder and a bit of lightening. A huge relief for the smoke and the fires, but not conducive to a calm ride. The storm blew itself out by this morning, so I took a chance and headed out to the barn.
Tarma agreed to be haltered after racing past me back to the gate, after I hiked all the way to the back of the pasture to see if she wanted to go on an adventure. She almost fell asleep while I was booting her up, and loaded more or less like normal. I tried telling her during our ride that she has less than ten trips in this trailer until her much upgraded ride arrives, but I’m not sure she followed my logic.
The equestrian parking lot was empty of all but one other rig, and I only saw two others while we were there. I lucked out and rode between showers, only getting a bit damp as we were leaving. I was aiming for a shorter, slightly easier ride than the 1200 foot climb we did last weekend, so we managed three smaller loops around McIver. They are working on one section of trail, so we got to ride the detour past the dam overlook, which I wasn’t even aware of!
I adore riding a mare that can trot and canter on a loose rein and doesn’t get too hot or spooky and prancy. The first time I asked for second gear she was a bit uncertain, for good reason: we had to walk after about 20 feet while some folks leashed up their dog and we could get past them (he behaved, but it’s never a good idea to trot by a loose strange dog). After that we had the road above the river to ourselves again, so we trotted and cantered back and forth a bit, always perfectly controlled. The weak spot is me, pretty sure my seat while we cantered would give my trainer a headache!
Once we were almost back to the trailer, and I’m pretty sure Tarma saw it, but she pulled a 180 and headed back down the trail, away from the parking lot! I would have let her keep going, but the rain was coming in and I wanted to call it while we were successful. Another solid day with my beautiful, spicy chocolate mare!
On the loose 