The day started out colder, with a brisk northeast wind bringing a chill, but after a while, the sun started to warm things up quite nicely. We got the horses in the trailer and headed out to the North Beach Access of the Padre Island National Seashore. We parked by the side of the road, unloaded and saddled the horses in a matter of minutes, and headed south into the No Vehicle area, which was quite warm going with the wind. The beach had widened up again, with the wind blowing against the tide, which was coming in again. Much of the older seaweed had been buried by a new layer of sand, while a fresh swath of seaweed had accumulated at the new tide line. We walked on the beach first, then eventually moved the horses to the water line so that once again, they had their feet in a body of water that makes up a border of America. Now we just have to finish it off in the Great Lakes, which is the plan for this summer! Rode about 4 miles down to the Malaquite Campground, where we borrowed a pan from a woman coming out of the shower to water the horses before heading back north again. By now, the wind had decreased somewhat, so the northbound journey was a bit cooler, but not as bad as we thought it might be. Overall, it was a lovely ride, but honestly, beaches do get a bit boring rather quickly, with little scenery except the variety of junk on the beach. The only thing that keeps it interesting is working with Apollo, getting him to be less reactive to the waves (he always starts out convinced they're going to swallow him up, so he stops or side steps whenever they come near), but eventually he relaxed enough to walk in a straight line, and we even got a bunch of trots and a few brief canters in the water's edge, with water up to his fetlocks at least. In a little less than four hours, we were back at the trailer. On the way home we stopped at a Lowes to pick up two new door handles (the one on the bathroom and closet doors have worn out), and arrived back just in time to get the horses settled in and fed before the sun set. Relaxed the rest of the evening, satisfied with a very nice ride and reaching another landmark in our journey!
