Ooops. Way too long. I felt awful about it too. But... she seemed okay.
I've been desperately wanting to go hack at Charlie Elliott since Sharon had mentioned the Wisteria blooming. Of course, I've now missed it. But oh well. Mike and I had lunch at Roosters today so we took the new motorcycle out to explore and headed to Charlie Elliott. It's a dual sport so we could take the dirt roads. And now I know for sure that I am parking the horse trailer in the right spot. So after driving through there a bit, I really really wanted to go trail ride. We got home at 3:30, and... I wasn't quite brave enough to try it on my own... not unless I took Dan and he had already been ridden today, so... I messaged Sharon and turns out... she could go!! Wahooo!
I grabbed Funny who was ready for an adventure and we headed out. It's really only 15 minutes from the house, so... an easy and quick drive. We got there and I groomed her and put her scoot boots on. They fit today! Maybe because of the fresh trim or maybe because I took the fillers out. And bonus.. no rubs even after the longest ride ever! We got tacked up and headed out. I did put on fly spray and put the dragonfly on. Sharon asked if I wanted her extra dragon fly because Baylor is afraid of it. I told her I had one, but... sure.. because I'm sure I would lose it.
So we headed out. Funny was a bit animated at first and spooked at a guy rinsing his face off. I asked him to say hello and then she was like "oh human, got it". Pretty quickly into the trails you have to cross a fairly decent creek. She was okay but wasn't quite sure, so Baylor went first and then she was like "excuse me, out of the way, I was gonna go!". She was marching so Sharon let us lead. She did pretty well and settled quickly. The trail is a 6 mile loop and Sharon thought there was a short cut, so we tried to do that. I'm not sure if we were on the right path for the short cut or not, but we hit a creek and it was pretty steep down to the creek.. more like a drop off... and the ground had eroded between the roots so there was a giant hole full of roots. NOPE! Not doing that! So we turned around and went back. At that point we realized we were about 3 miles in, so... we might as well keep going vs turn around and go back. So we did. We tried a few stints of trot to help speed things up as it was getting past dinner time. Funny did pretty good. She was better in front. She was okay in the back, but choppier in her stride and more hollow and nervous. We tried another time with her in front and she was much smoother. But then... we must have missed a turn because we realized we were lost. Baylor was trying to get us to go the other way too! He's so smart. And such a good Uncle, putting up with Funny and I. She kept pushing him off to the side of the trail and making him walk through the twigs and branches. And gave him the sass face a few times. But.. no kicking. Anyways... when we realized we were lost and turned around, Baylor was in front. And we hit a section full of gnats. They were awful! Suddenly Baylor picked up the trot and the next thing I knew, Funny picked up the trot and then let out a big buck! Enough to send me onto her shoulder a bit and... I thought about trying to save it... I almost could have.. maybe... but I opted to just bail. So I landed on my feet again, reins in hand. Girl!!! You've now spun me off, reared me off, and bucked me off. I honestly think part of it is that stupid No Purpose saddle. And the fact that she's a potato and it just floats around up there. And I can't get the girth tight enough, so I think the saddle slid just enough that I knew I wasn't gonna stick it. Or, maybe... she's just that athletic. But argh. I had to walk a bit til I could find a place to get back on but she let me back on and there was no more shenanigans.
(She was not a fan of the big pipes... and would let Baylor lead.. then was like "Nope... ladies first now")
We got back to the place where we thought the trail was and couldn't decide which way to go. The gnats were awful and we were walking in circles and getting irritated. I was trying to use the GPS to see which way we should go and Sharon was trying to call Jamie to see if she knew... and Funny and Baylor were getting fussy with all the gnats. And Funny shook her dragonfly off a few times. I managed to catch it until I didn't. But at the point... screw it.. Sharon gave me the spare! I didn't feel like getting off and trying to get back on again. Although I should have. We finally figured out which way we were supposed to go and got back on track. But by that point I was feeling bad for her. I did not mean to be riding her that long at all! And you could tell they were getting a little tired. She was zig zagging some and sucking back.. but then when Baylor tried to lead, she would march up past him again. And he was tired too. She did sort of get a second wind and was marching well but poor Baylor was dragging. We did a tiny bit more of trotting... mostly because when Baylor trotted to catch up, she did too.
Sorry girl!!! We ended up doing 8.1 miles and it was 2.5 hrs. Whoops!!
