Sunday, April 10, 2016

Pair

I did a pair of rides this weekend: one at the Teller trail and the other at Barr Lake. K is in Florida on vacation so it was J and I hauling out.

On Saturday, we hauled to LM's place where Satori is stabled. The Teller Trail is directly across the street and then the East Boulder Creek Trail heads north from the barn. The northern trail was the first trail ride we did with K and Eddy, and it would have been fun to do it again, however the bridge has fallen apart due to the torrential rains in 2013. Instead, we did the south trail.

 It was a nice relaxing ride.

 Dictated by the almost three year old, who was not interested in riding.

 Ashke loved the flag, once he got to sniff it.

 I really love Boulder and wish we could live there.
However, that would require winning the lottery.

 The trail on the south side is very flat.

The trail winds around a couple of lakes.
We saw pelicans.



 The grass is getting very green.

 Ashke was very relaxed.


 Ashke and Satori seem to like each other.

Headed back

We did a brief canter and some trotting before he lost his mind.

At which point, we began to do square turns and some 10 m circles until he found his mind again. Once we were back at the barn, the humans ate lunch while the horses chilled, then LM and I rode in the arena. We have hopes of doing a ride for the Mane Event at the expo next year. After we messed around with that for a while, Satori was done. I demonstrated the exercise of spiraling in and out in both directions for J and LM.

It really doesn't look like much, but I know what it feels like.



It was a nice day and a good ride.

On Sunday, J and I did Barr Lake. She fished and I rode. 

We pulled in and set up Ashke with food while I ate lunch. Then we headed for the trail. There is a bridge that you have to walk over to get to the trail around Barr Lake and there were two women there that were struggling with their three horses. (The woman on the Rocky Mountain horse was very nice. The other woman with two horses was kind of a snot.) The buckskin mare did not want to cross. I crossed and then turned around and went back to offer help. The woman on the RM horse ponied the white horse across, while the woman tried to get the buckskin to step on the bridge. I offered to wave the dressage whip she had at the mare's hindend to try to help encourage her onto the bridge. Finally, she stepped onto the bridge surface and then walked across. I was worried because it looked like a potential fuck-bucket. I crossed, mounted and headed counter clockwise around the lake, chasing J, while they went the other direction. I didn't see them again. I hope they did the circuit okay, since the trains were running every twenty minutes or so today. I heard or saw seven trains go by in the less than three hours we were there.

When we turned to follow J, Ashke stepped out in a solid, ground eating trot right up until he caught up to her. Then he slowed to a walk and walked right next to her, bumping her with his nose. We left her at the fishing hole and headed north. Ashke stepped out pretty nicely, offering the occasional canter in spots, but that was fairly short lived, since he kept spooking at stuff. And I was struggling with abdominal pain (thought for a while that it was another kidney stone) and what felt like a stitch in my side that eventually worked itself out. We rode out along one of the canals for a mile or so and then turned back to tour the hunting blinds. There was a very nice path of crusher fine that Ashke cantered the length of, plus some nice grassy spots we cantered as well. We turned back when we reached the railroad tracks and Ashke was very happy to be headed back. 

We found J and walked with her back to the trailer. Ashke kept bumping her with his nose. Again. 

J didn't catch anything. Ashke and I did close to nine miles in just under two hours. Not bad for what felt like a very relaxed and easy ride. Last one for at least a week, possibly two.


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