Tuesday, September 11, 2012 - FINALLY! A Ride Day in Massachusetts

Still can’t hear very well, but feel better otherwise, so we decided we’d run out of time and just had to ride today. Saddled the horses up and headed out on one of the trailheads from the campground, though it wasn’t marked on any of the maps we had download from the internet or picked up at the office. The trail was mostly sand and dirt footing, which was nice, and the trees were mostly scrub pines, typical of areas near the beach, but the trail was quite narrow, and there were lots of very thick shrubbery and short trees crowding the trail, so the horses kept getting poked in the belly and their legs kept getting brushed by the shrubs, so it wasn’t an entirely comfortable ride. But we were happy to be out, and the horses seemed glad to be on the trail again, too. Apollo barreled along without hesitation, intent on getting through the brush, and to my addled mind, seemed to be walking faster and seemed taller than I remembered. That’s what comes from not riding for a month! Finally, we came out onto a sandy stretch that I identified as the gas line, which we discovered was also technically considered the bridle path. We crossed over it to a dirt road, which was a long straightaway, and started to trot and canter for a bit. Suddenly Hubby pulled up and said he thought Clio was limping, so we did a few test trots, and sure enough, she was favoring her back left leg. We decided not to press our luck, so based on my GPS, we took the most direct line back to the campground, which meant cutting through another camping area, then following the road. Fortunately, we had made a big loop, so we were only about a half mile away from the campground, and Clio seemed fine at the walk, so we just took our time getting back. Once there, Hubby put liniment all along her leg, and some wound salve on what seemed to be a little abrasion above her back heel. We weren’t sure what the cause was, so we were trying to cover all our bases! She also looked like she might have a bruise on her thigh, as if she had been kicked by a horse with shoes, which was highly possible at the horse farm, but only time will tell. Anyway, at least we got our ride in, and we can check Massachusetts off our list!