Okay, I'm so glad I did that!! I was debating whether or not to ride Funny today. I had my lesson on Lyric this morning... and then I had lunch. And then, I decided to go to the Growers Outlet and get plants... and then I debated planting them vs going to ride. But, I decided to go ride. I can plant later or tomorrow. And Funny was in her stall looking at me.. and I already had my boots and breeches on (still from Lyric)... so... we went! I debated going bareback to splash in the lake at Ashland vs Hard Labor.... But I decided on Hard Labor. And I'm so glad I did, because we had a blast!
We got there and I tacked up quick because it was hot and muggy. I decided to try the green trail since Jenny had said it was her favorite. And.. it's 8 miles, but it looked less likely for me to get lost vs trying to do a shorter loop on the 16 mile loop. Plus, the 16 mile loop blue trail had some detours, so... I figured I was safer on the green. And it was so well marked!!! I didn't get lost! Well, okay... almost once.
We started off and got almost to the first mile marker before we trotted any. I wanted her to be warmed up. But then the footing was good so we trotted a tiny bit. I figured that some trotting would help shorten how long it would take us to do 8 miles. We got to the road crossing and she was good and luckily there weren't any cars so we didn't have to wait. We crossed over and headed out. It was so pretty and GREEN! Ha ha. We managed to follow the trail markers and they were nice and had them pretty well noted very frequently and then had the mile markers and even had signs where it wasn't obvious which way to go. And then where there was the crossroads or the loop rejoined, they had signs saying "this way to stable, 1.75 miles" or "to trail, 6.4 miles to stables", which was handy, because then I didn't cut my ride short. But also handy, because I could have made it shorter. 
Anyways... we had a blast. We did some trotting and then she wanted to power trot. Which was fun, because I had no idea where the path went and when it turned or went downhill. We had to walk a good bit because the footing was rocky, rutted out, or just too twisty. But we got to do a ton of trotting and even had some decent canter stretches! That trail is really fun because there was a good bit of fairly straight stretches with good footing that you could canter on. Wheeee!! I was giggling because while there were good stretches, there was also some twists and turns and it's really fun to be cantering or power trotting when you have no idea where the path is going to take you. Funny was having a blast too and was following the trail on her own. I barely had to steer. She chose to canter and trot and I just let her. Mostly. :) SO MUCH FUN!
We had a couple of creek crossings and she didn't want to cross them and tried to turn and go the other way. But once I insisted once or twice, she walked through them fine. Silly girl! And she spooked at a few culverts and pipes and downed trees. Hee hee.. She gave them a wide berth. And two young armadillo's surprised us but she just looked at them. We did have one big issue, which she handled brilliantly! I'm so darn proud of her! There was a creek crossing about 5.5 miles in and the creek is kind of down in a ditch... a fairly steep ditch... maybe 2' deep. The place where it looked like you were supposed to cross was by a tree, but the roots were all exposed where the sand/dirt had been washed out. So.. it looked like a death wish.. like no way could Funny safely navigate that! So we walked along the edge for a few minutes, trying to find a safe place to pass. And.. there really wasn't. I finally found the safest looking place, but there was quite a bit of a drop into the creek, then a slightly more gradual up on the other side. And it was a small creek, but... it was not anything she (nor I) had ever really navigated and there were trees and mud and such. I walked her up to it and squeezed and... darn if she didn't size up the situation and respond like a seasoned trail horse. She sort of hunkered down, and slid her front feet down and then kind of leapt to the other side. I was so impressed! I didn't even have to ask as hard as I asked her to walk through the flat shallow creeks! GOOD PONY!!! Seriously.. I was so proud of her!
(here's the shallow creek crossing she almost spun and ran out of, and then the photo of the area we had to jump across... didn't get a photo of it but I think this was it as we were coming up on it).
We did some more trotting and cantering... and did some walking because it was hot and humid and she was sweating and working hard. Those hills are no joke! The last bit had lots of good canter stretches and she had caught her breath and asked, so I let her canter on! Wheeeeeee! We tried to walk the last mile or so but there was some serious thunder rumbles and I knew there was a slight chance of a storm, so.. we trotted a tiny bit more. But we made it home with no rain! I pulled her bridle off and tied her to the trailer and then hit the unlock button on the truck. It beeped and flashed and Funny jumped in place so hard she almost slid on the pavement. Girl!! Ha ha.. So twitchy!! I got her untacked and hosed her off. I wanted to hose myself off too. Today was hot and humid. The first 90 degree day of the year I think. We loaded up and headed home.
I'm so proud of her! She was so game and brave and we had so much fun. It was so good for my soul to just be running amuck in the woods with no idea where the path was taking us... just trusting my horse to not run me into a tree. hee hee.. I love her so!
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