Headed out a bit earlier today after getting a bunch of work and phone calls done. Brother in ICU is doing better, still on a ventilator, but that’s supposed to be coming later off today. On the trail by 11:15, taking some secondary trails that aren’t marked on the map, beginning with leaving the horse camp to the north, then west, which was essentially a perimeter trail and a firebreak. It was a wide swath of grass that was pretty badly torn up by the wild pigs in a lot of places. We headed south on the first main trail, which soon ran us right into the main trail again. We took that west some more, then north again at an intersection that had a big X marking the spot, as if it had been a makeshift helipad of sorts. It’s also where the bike trail joins the horse trail. Took that back to the firebreak, headed west again until we came across another trail heading south, but this one was SO much better. It headed into what is truly the first tropical forest we’ve seen yet. Lots of palm trees among some scattered old live oak and magnolia, along with lots of scrub palms on the ground. It felt really magical there, like an enchanted forest, and it obviously hadn’t been traveled anywhere near as much as the rest of the trails we had seen, though there were some signs of a few horse passings. That meandered around a bit, which was a nice change from all the straight lines we’d been doing, until it finally met up with the main trail again. We turned around at that point, though, because we had seen another trail head off to the northeast, so we backtracked to there. Along the way, we not only came across lots of pig sign, we came across lots of pigs as well. Though the horses did a lot of snorting and whirling and sometimes just froze in place, they were a bit less reluctant to move forward when asked, as if they were starting to get used to the pigs. At one point, I swear, Apollo was actually strutting at the fact he managed to get the pigs to run away from him, as if to say, "I’m the Man!" At any rate, we made progress getting over the pig phobia they’ve had, which will be helpful as time goes on, since there’s obviously a major pig infestation going on in south Florida these days. We also saw a couple of white tail deer, and they, too, caused only a small start from the horses before they moved on. Good to see them getting used to wildlife around them! Got back early, as we want them to get used to being ridden every day, but not for hours and hours every day, at least until they’re better conditioned. Rinsed them off, which was pretty pointless as they both rolled in the sand within a few minutes of that exercise. Fortunately it rained later on in the evening, and that rinsed them off again. Had a quiet evening, then heard that my brother was off the ventilator and doing better shortly before heading off to bed.
Headed out a bit earlier today after getting a bunch of work and phone calls done. Brother in ICU is doing better, still on a ventilator, but that’s supposed to be coming later off today. On the trail by 11:15, taking some secondary trails that aren’t marked on the map, beginning with leaving the horse camp to the north, then west, which was essentially a perimeter trail and a firebreak. It was a wide swath of grass that was pretty badly torn up by the wild pigs in a lot of places. We headed south on the first main trail, which soon ran us right into the main trail again. We took that west some more, then north again at an intersection that had a big X marking the spot, as if it had been a makeshift helipad of sorts. It’s also where the bike trail joins the horse trail. Took that back to the firebreak, headed west again until we came across another trail heading south, but this one was SO much better. It headed into what is truly the first tropical forest we’ve seen yet. Lots of palm trees among some scattered old live oak and magnolia, along with lots of scrub palms on the ground. It felt really magical there, like an enchanted forest, and it obviously hadn’t been traveled anywhere near as much as the rest of the trails we had seen, though there were some signs of a few horse passings. That meandered around a bit, which was a nice change from all the straight lines we’d been doing, until it finally met up with the main trail again. We turned around at that point, though, because we had seen another trail head off to the northeast, so we backtracked to there. Along the way, we not only came across lots of pig sign, we came across lots of pigs as well. Though the horses did a lot of snorting and whirling and sometimes just froze in place, they were a bit less reluctant to move forward when asked, as if they were starting to get used to the pigs. At one point, I swear, Apollo was actually strutting at the fact he managed to get the pigs to run away from him, as if to say, "I’m the Man!" At any rate, we made progress getting over the pig phobia they’ve had, which will be helpful as time goes on, since there’s obviously a major pig infestation going on in south Florida these days. We also saw a couple of white tail deer, and they, too, caused only a small start from the horses before they moved on. Good to see them getting used to wildlife around them! Got back early, as we want them to get used to being ridden every day, but not for hours and hours every day, at least until they’re better conditioned. Rinsed them off, which was pretty pointless as they both rolled in the sand within a few minutes of that exercise. Fortunately it rained later on in the evening, and that rinsed them off again. Had a quiet evening, then heard that my brother was off the ventilator and doing better shortly before heading off to bed.
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