Bound and determined to ride these trails today, I loaded up on
ibuprofen, put on a girdle to keep the inflammation of my hip in, and
slowly but surely saddled the horses and went out for a ride. I
switched back to my regular saddle with extra padding, just in case I
needed a horn to grab on to today, though I'm still so sore I doubt that
would have helped anyway. Fingers crossed, we headed back up the trail
we started out on Friday, this time becoming quickly accustomed to the
very easy trail markings that we weren't sure about the other day.
We're so used to poorly marked trails that this was a real pleasure,
every intersection well marked, and unmistakably in tune with the map.
Wow! You'd be surprised how rarely THAT happens! I can probably count
on one hand the number of times the map and the trails have matched in
the four and a half years we've been on the road full-time! The footing
was excellent for the entire trail, with only a very occasional muddy
section, obviously just the remnants of a long-standing puddle, but very
small areas at worst. Some of the best footing we've ever seen,
actually, so this park goes to near the top of the list. We took a very
leisurely 2-hour ride, which covered a pretty large swath of the park,
though the way the trails loop around each other, it would take a week
of more of solid riding just to cover them all. Apollo, for the most
part, behaved himself, though I did have to check him once when he
started to gallop up a small hill, as he was getting ready to pop again.
It was a fantastic ride, and we're a bit sorry we have to leave
tomorrow, and might have even considered staying except tomorrow's the
only sunny day forecast until Friday, and with 4th of July on Thursday,
we want to be in someplace as early as possible this week so we can get a
good spot. Started packing up when we got back, and got to bed early,
even though it's only about a three hour drive, we have to stop to pick
up some more of this nice hay for Clio and to shop before we get there,
and we want to arrive early enough to find a good site.
Bound and determined to ride these trails today, I loaded up on
ibuprofen, put on a girdle to keep the inflammation of my hip in, and
slowly but surely saddled the horses and went out for a ride. I
switched back to my regular saddle with extra padding, just in case I
needed a horn to grab on to today, though I'm still so sore I doubt that
would have helped anyway. Fingers crossed, we headed back up the trail
we started out on Friday, this time becoming quickly accustomed to the
very easy trail markings that we weren't sure about the other day.
We're so used to poorly marked trails that this was a real pleasure,
every intersection well marked, and unmistakably in tune with the map.
Wow! You'd be surprised how rarely THAT happens! I can probably count
on one hand the number of times the map and the trails have matched in
the four and a half years we've been on the road full-time! The footing
was excellent for the entire trail, with only a very occasional muddy
section, obviously just the remnants of a long-standing puddle, but very
small areas at worst. Some of the best footing we've ever seen,
actually, so this park goes to near the top of the list. We took a very
leisurely 2-hour ride, which covered a pretty large swath of the park,
though the way the trails loop around each other, it would take a week
of more of solid riding just to cover them all. Apollo, for the most
part, behaved himself, though I did have to check him once when he
started to gallop up a small hill, as he was getting ready to pop again.
It was a fantastic ride, and we're a bit sorry we have to leave
tomorrow, and might have even considered staying except tomorrow's the
only sunny day forecast until Friday, and with 4th of July on Thursday,
we want to be in someplace as early as possible this week so we can get a
good spot. Started packing up when we got back, and got to bed early,
even though it's only about a three hour drive, we have to stop to pick
up some more of this nice hay for Clio and to shop before we get there,
and we want to arrive early enough to find a good site.
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