Midweek rides

These midweek rides were just me and Zoe.  Wednesday was interesting because it was our first ride after the rains.  The trails were nice.  It was nice to have some puddles to work with.  Zoe walks thru them just fine.  She didn't care about the tree we walked thru on the trotting trail.

        Finally got a picture of this...thank you trail cleaning angels!

What made this ride interesting was on the way back.  As we were walking back, on the road, corner of Lomida and Auburn Folsom we met Sky and Skippy going out.  (I have leased Skippy out on a per ride basis only to 1 person).  Skippy and Zoe are mother and daughter and pasture mates.  We stopped to talk a few minutes then each party proceeded to their destinations.  As we continued our walk home Zoe kept looking back in the direction Skippy was going.  She even called out to her twice.  We were able to keep walking home.  I think this was a good place for this to happen seeing we were so close to home.  Apparently Skippy called out one time, but that was it.  When we got back to the barn, Zoe would call out every once in a while.  Finally she stopped.  She wasn't frantic, dancing, or extremely emotional...she just would call out once in a while.  Having these 2 horses pass each other on the trail has only happened 1 other time that I can remember.  It was about 5 years ago, my trainer was riding Zoe back to the barn and I was riding Skippy out to the trail...we passed each other on Lomida.  It wasn't a big deal back then.  I would say Zoe did pretty good, she didn't get frantic and would still listen to my directions.

I just barely beat the rain on Thursday's ride.  I like having the weather on my phone.  I can check it to see if rain is close and today it was close.  So I wore my oil skin coat on the ride and of course it didn't rain on my ride.  When I got back to the barn and took it off...then it rained.  I love the way the rain moves the dirt around on the trail.  The colors are amazing, this picture doesn't do it justice but it's a try.

We had a deer jump out in front of us.  I like how Zoe isn't afraid of them since they do this frequently.  She just slowed down, lifted her head and stared at it.  I made her stop and look at it for a while.  She seems to do better with moving objects if she can study them for a moment.
This time Skippy was at the barn when we got back.  Zoe called out and Skippy answered and all was good.  I got all 3 horses tied to the arena fence when it started raining so we moved to the barn.  It stopped after they ate their supplements and I ate my lunch.  So back out they went.

       2 happy horses

When I take Zoe out Skippy gets the rest of the food.  She gets to munch without the Zoepig scarfing down the food.  Zoe could easily eat too much.  When we get back Skippy has eaten most of the rest of it and there is just a few nibbles left-of course they need to check it out.