We picked up Nicole and Arabee at a little after 8:00 in the morning. Nicole's farm house is lovely and little kids don't come any prettier than her's. Couldn't believe how much Cora has grown since I last saw her. That child has a mile wide smile :)
We got to Clark's day parking area and got first pick on a parking spot. I was armed with a map, and verbal directions given to me by David Monroe (thanks David you saved the day, your really did). Map in hand I promptly made a wrong turn when the trail came to a "Y", quickly figured it out when we came to a paved road and a cemetary that I had never seen before. I told Nicole we were going to have to back track and figure out where I'd gone wrong. Little does Nicole know that I'm seriously directionally challenged, and I'm running scenerios through my head...considering how horse steaks taste if it all goes dreadfully wrong and we wander aimlessly until the next snow! We backtracked about a mile, and found the Y and corrected the turn and we were good to go from that point on. I was very relieved to see those giant rocks on the hill to confirm to me that we were on the right trail.
The girls did great together. Phebes stride is a little longer than Arabees so I led for awhile, but then thought it would be good for Phebes to follow, just because...she tried to bit Arabee on the butt, but I stopped that, then all was well other than occasional mare ears from my girl. Arabee is a delightfully sweet in your pocket kind of arabian. Before we knew it we'd found Flatrock road and were headed back to the day parking. Phebes was at pulse criteria (58), I grabbed the hand held and check Arabee and she was already down to (50)! The girls shared some hay, and neither one would drink from the water bucket. Arabee drank pretty well on the trail today, and Phebes who has been drinking water all winter refused water on this very warm sunny day. She took maybe a couple swallows out there. I'd given her a 1/4 dose of e-lytes (Johnna that is my vernacular for electrolytes it types quicker) in gatoraid pre-ride. Next time I'll give a 1/2 dose and see if it will stimulate her urge for water a little better.
Next week we will shoot for 15 miles.
It was a beautiful place to ride, and Nicole is good company to keep, so just an all around WONDERFUL spring day. ~E.G.
E.G~lol! Duh.. I shoulda figured that one out!! Truth ? there actually is a brand of electrolytes called e-lytes... so I am told..
ReplyDeletespent a few minutes checking out google maps, and I am pretty sure we came out at the Mountain Grove Cemetary.
ReplyDeleteI have been spending way too much time looking at the Horse trails map at Clark and google maps this morning...I will be having to RUSH to make it to church on time! But I have an idea of what we maybe oughta try next week, especially if Friday DOES have the away vet check like it did last year.
Maybe I'll give you a call later this afternoon?
(p.s. - I had a GREAT time too! I was going to post my version of the story before I read yours, but got wrapped up in the map thing and now am out of time! thanks for a fun day!)
I'm glad you had a great ride. The weather turned out to be beautiful! Sounds like you are on your way to being ready for Chicken Chase.
ReplyDeleteI discovered Friday night that Doc has a mild case of scratches and his hind legs were really stocked up, so we wouldn't have been able to go anyway. I spent quite a bit of time Fri night, scraping mud off his legs. Then put him in the round pen for the night where it was dry so the rest of the mud could dry off. Then yesterday, I washed off his legs, let them dry off, clipped off all the hair, and washed them down in Tea-Clenz.
But I did ride him lightly Fri & Sat and he was just full of himself. So if laid back, lazy ole Doc is full of himself, I can't imagine what the horses with higher energy levels are like. He even bucked a little with me on both rides. Of course, on Fri night, it was dark and there were several of us riding when one of the young girls decided to go on an all out gallop with her horse and whizzed by Doc. That sure got him stirred up a little. :-)
I was also glad to see that after cleaning him up on Sat and riding for about an hour that the swelling in his hind legs went down significantly.
Can't wait to get out on the trails!
Nicole,
ReplyDeleteDavid said that cemetary was on Pixley Knob road, which is the first road left off of the highway when driving to B.Wilson's place. Only we would have been maybe 5 miles farther south?
Johnna,
the electrolytes I'm using are the Endura-max that has the calcium, sodium, magnesium balanced. I may change my carrier for it back to yogurt. She didn't like yogurt but it hangs in her mouth a little better. Then follow it with a rinse of her favorite good stuff.
Lida,
Sorry to hear that Doc has scratches. I'd almost rather fight RABIES. That crud is so difficult to get gone. It took me FOUR MONTHS. Everytime it rains out here I get almost phobic she's going to get it again. We are going to weed kill our front little pasture to get rid of all the clover. The horses won't be able to be on it this year as we'll have to reseed it to grass. I think both horses here are sensitve to the clover, and that was what started our episode here was when they got turned out onto that pasture. Hope to see you at either a ride or on the trail sometime this summer.
~E.G.