To Avery Pond and beyond...

Thursday we (Zoe, Sky and riders) went to Avery Pond.  I haven't been there in a few years.  I've heard about the "new" trail, the "new" bridges...and they were great, nice improvement.  Zoe did great getting there.  After Rattlesnake we put Sky in the lead since Zoe hadn't been to Avery Pond yet.  We stopped at the bridge with the water trough.  Zoe did drink...it took her a few minutes, but she did take in a good amount of water.  It was about 90 degrees that day, warm but not too hot.  It's nice to know that she will drink from a "strange" place.  After the drink I put Zoe in the lead to the picnic tables we used to stop at.  Everything was just as I remembered it.  Moving forward Zoe had some trepidation, but we worked thru it and she was fine.  We had a good rest at the picnic tables.

           I got treats at this place...not too bad

           I got treats too 

          Part of Avery Pond

Then we walked to a place I remembered further up the trail-White Water.  But there was no rushing water anywhere.  We walked past the turbines of the Newcastle powerhouse, there was no noise.  I'll have to ask someone about the changes at that place.  We went up the trail until we could get a picture of the river flowing into Folsom Lake.

 The horses did great on the way back too.  The time going back always seems faster than the time getting to the destination...true this time too.    Going to have to do this ride more often.

Weekend rides with great weather

This weekend we had beautiful weather to go for rides.  It was around 80 and had a cool southern breeze.
Saturday Dune, Sky and Zoe went to Granite Bay.  The special thing about this ride was that we worked on going past the metal fence pole.  She doesn't like going past that pole and I usually get off and walk if I'm by myself.  Today we got a chance to work on it.  Sky went first, Zoe followed.  We came back with Zoe first and we went by it.  Then we turned around put Zoe first and went by it again.  She did it each time...don't think she was comfortable about it, but that's the way it goes.  She will do it better each time we go.  Sky also got a chance to work on the area where he has problems-a dry creek bed this time of the year.  I think he had more problems with that area when there is water flowing thru the creek.  Same thing...Zoe lead, Sky followed.  Then we went back and forth with Sky in the lead and he did fine.   We did some loping on the way back.

   I tried to get all 3 of them to look over the hitching rails at the same time...but no.  So we have pictures of them 2 by 2.

Sunday Jim and I went out for a short ride to Inspiration Pt.  Again a really nice weather day for a ride. This time we loped up the PGE road with Zoe in the lead and we must have gone a bit faster this time because Skippy actually loped to keep up with us.  Zoe's lope is a nice rocking chair lope and she can be pretty slow at it...so slow that usually Skippy just does her extended trot to keep up.   But not the case this time.

Sunrise ride

Today's ride was a treat.  I don't normally ride on Fridays...I watch my grandson, Zeke.  But today Zeke's mom didn't need me until later this morning so I got to do something I've always wanted to do...go for a sunrise ride.  I've wanted to do this kind of ride as close to the first day of summer as I could get.  So today we are a few days off, but it worked.  I expected it to be hotter but we are currently having an unusual cool spell...it was in the low 50's this am.  I needed someone to go out with me as I might meet mt. lions or bears so the company would be good, safety in numbers.  D and Sky went out with me.

           Sun coming up just as we went out

I thought the horses might try to "snatch and grab" something to eat out on the trail, but they were fine.
Zoe was fine...stopped to look at some deer as we crossed the dry creek bed.  She lead the first half of the ride.  When we dropped down into the second meadow I saw something big, round and dark colored run behind a tree that was off to the left in the meadow.  By the time we got to a better observation point there was nothing there.  I thought about it afterwards...probably a bear.  It was the wrong color for a deer or mt. lion.  Wrong shape for a large bird and it also moved more on the ground-a bird would have been up away from the ground more.  A turkey when it spreads its feathers has a large round shape but doesn't move THAT fast with its feather spread out.  A large dog would probably not be running away from us and besides it was too round for a dog.  It was too large for a bobcat-besides the wrong color.  Wrong color for a coyote.  I think the only choice left was a bear.  Zoe noticed but didn't care.  Sky noticed and cared...kept looking in that direction.  D didn't see anything.  I wasn't too worried because whatever it was was moving away from us, apparently more scared of us than we were scared of it.

  We enjoyed the colors-they seemed different in this light

                             Sun just coming over the trees
         

  It was windy this morning so the lake was not smooth

                         Evidence I was there

                        I usually don't see my shadow this long

                           D and Sky

Someday we are going to do this again and see if we can convince others to go with us.  I think we could have started out 1/2 hour earlier and it would have been fine.  Maybe we could go out to breakfast afterwards.

Trying to be flexible

Ever have one of those days that doesn't go quite like you planned?  Well that happened to me today.  Mom came to get me, brushed me, saddled me, set her thing called a GPS (what's a GPS?...I'll have to ask her someday) and out the gate we went.  Sometimes I know exactly where we are going on our excursions.  Today we went up the hard road, cut to the left on the gravel road.  Every time we do this she says something about seeing Dune, Major or Cisco.  Today we did see Dune.  She gets off and walks the hard road again and today she walked me thru the blackberry vines.   The vines were very long and sticking out into the trail.  She moved them just for me-wasn't that nice (I guess she moved them for her too).  She got back on and we headed for the dirt trail that goes to the right-towards home.   She did take that trail.  I sometimes get kind of nervous going around the corners next to the water.  Mom says I'll be fine...but you never know-something might be lurking just around the corner.  We were fine this time.  Mom said we were going on the Lake Forest Trail-again towards home...good choice.  She says something about barking dogs but I've never seen barking dogs on this trail.  We get to the forest and EVERYONE knows you are supposed to go right towards home.  But do we go right????  NO.  This was not in my plan...but I humored her.  I tried alot of questioning postures and movements like slowing down (maybe she forgot to go right), moving my right ear to the right, like I'm paying attention to something to the RIGHT.  But she didn't get it.  So off we went.  Oh well.  Up the hill we went.  She said something about seeing downtown Sacramento.  I'll have to ask her what a downtown is.  As we were going down the other side of the hill (by the way she keeps saying where there's an up there's a down...duh) we saw a deer hopping away from us.  I wonder what is so scary about us.  I like to stand and watch them but they are usually running away from us.  Don't tell Mom, but I think they run because of Mom...she does smell different.  When we  get to the bottom we take a small trail to the left and go back in the same direction, only this time we are on the back side of the ridge.  AND we end up in the SAME PLACE where I told her to turn right-only now it's a left.  Anyway she finally gets the message and goes towards home.   Phew.  We take the small trail that ends up where the trailers park.  There was only 1 trailer there today.  Then we went home.  A wash off with water, grass to munch on with my pasture mate.  I guess the day turned out okay.     

Just riding

All the wedding and reception activities are done.  Today was just a day to ride.  Phew!  Zoe and I didn't go anywhere special.  We did a 5.31 mile loop.  It sure felt good to go out and just think about riding.  I find that I sometimes think about things other than riding when I'm riding...not good.  My mind needs to be on what I'm doing at the moment with my horse.  Today was so nice to just ride.  We worked on extending the trot, not eating, remembering to remain soft to the bit.

And when we got back, I gave her a bath.  I remember a time when bath time was an ordeal.  Back then I had to have a "magic stick" with me so that when she decided to move into me she "ran" into the stick.  No "magic stick" is needed anymore.  She loves to wiggle her muzzle over the end of the hose, getting water in her mouth.  I'm sure that when I put her back she eventually rolled and got herself all dusty again.  But for a few moments she was shiny and pretty.