At one point during today’s mostly successful trail ride, I had to take off my jacket as I was so hot. In November! I say mostly successful due to the fact that my Nemesis Hill stuck again. There’s this one hill at Battle Ground Lake State Park that is perfect for a good long canter up, and I’ve only gotten up it one time with Tarma where something didn’t go sideways, such as a broken stirrup leather…or today, a lost new boot. I’m trying Flex boots for her hind feet, and one of them just decided to stay on the trail while we kept going. Weird.

Besides the boot fiasco, we did a solid 6.5 miles, mostly on a loose rein. The start was a tad rocky, not due to saddle fit (I finally have it right again!) but rather race brain. Tarma wanted to be in front of the group, but we let a friend when was ponying go first and she wasn’t thrilled. Instead of tiring my arms out holding her back, I made her turn around and walk back to another friend, who gave her a treat each time and then we walked forward again. It only took three or four times and she learned to just walk.

After we closed the park down, we huddled in my truck and ate pizza while the horses chilled in their respective trailers (Huge shout out to Sabrina for letting me borrow her trailer until my new one is ready!!!!) Upon arriving home Tarma rolled five times, poor itchy lady (we’re planning to trace clip the ponies soon). I spent a few minutes hanging out with her post roll, I was trying to itch her neck and she would take a step back, so I would stop and she’d step forward again. Finally I figured out she wanted me to itch her face, which resulted in huge yawns. I stayed until I saw her tank up with a huge drink (I fed her wet LMF at the trailer) before heading home well satisfied for the day (and to put laundry away like I promised my husband!)