Thursday, November 21, 2013

Thursday, Nov. 21, 2013 - Yet Another Fabulous Ride at LBJ




With a slight chance of rain forecast, we headed out for another ride in warm temps, our last for a while, as there's a cold front coming in later today. Had to pull out our ponchos at one point, though it was only for a brief shower or two, better dry than wet! Today we headed out on Trail #4 again, and of course, Apollo was very unenthusiastic, as he hates taking the same trail twice. Once we got the intersection and headed up 4B, however, he woke back up again a little bit. We wanted a ride about the same 6-7 miles in length, so I worked out that if we took 4 to 4B, then looped back to the same #4 rather than continue toward Trail #2, it would be about 7 miles, and it worked out well. Passed a dead fox in the trail, and a dead cow in the bordering pasture, so I guess the carnivores in the forest are happy today. Wide trails intermingled with narrow woodsy trails made this another great ride. When we hit the big field on the home stretch, Apollo decided he wanted to gallop, so off he took, whipping around curves and off the trail across the open field. I was doing fine until he decided to slow down long enough to kick up his back heels, doing a little rodeo move on me. I managed to stay on okay, but it always make my heart pound a bit faster not knowing what he's going to do at moments like that. Never a dull moment! We got back to camp safely, got everyone up away, blanketed up the horses even though it was still quite warm out, we knew the temps would be dropping fast once the storm came in. And come in it did! Thunder and lightning, temps dropping 20 degrees in less than an hour, and one strike of lightning so close we think it was right in the campground! Glad we're on rubber wheels! We kept waiting to hear if a tree fell down as a result, but it never did. Wasn't about to go out and look, it was cold, blustery and pretty ugly. There were several campers in tents here, and I felt sorry for them, it was a pretty miserable evening. We were tucked up nicely in our little bungalow, but we had to run the generator all evening just to keep the heat going, amazing what a difference a few hours make! The horses seemed fine, even with the close lightning strike, but I'm sure they were glad to have those warm blankets on now! Going to bed to cuddle with Hubby and Billy (the little dog, before you get any crazy ideas!), to ward off the nasty weather!


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