A great horse day

Yesterday was a great horse day. I loaded up Precious and we hauled about 70 miles north to Willamette Mission State Park. Willamette Mission is a great ride because it is pretty flat terrain, great for beginners (and mellow riders like me) but still lots of opportunity for speed if that is your thing. They also have horse corrals for camping and when I lived in Portland I would go there all the time.

Joining me for the ride were Bruce and Betty Reed and Mariann Deering along with her friend Mike.

Bruce and Betty had been taking care of Zapa for me, ponying him on the trails of their beautiful 55 acre ranch in Colton, Oregon and they brought him along so he could come home. On the ride we had 5 riders under saddle and one ponied horse. Marianne and Mike were traveling at a quicker clip than Bruce, Betty and I, but we would all catch up and chat throughout the ride. At the end of the ride Marianne let me ride her Trote y galope mare Sissy. I have some video and will post about Trote y galope horses soon. It was a kick. Thanks Marianne!

I grabbed some lunch, then headed home to the barn where I met a potential horse helper.

After that I was unloading stuff from the trailer and decided to organize a little more now that I have three horses to take care of again (it has been 18 months). I unloaded a bunch of stuff from the trailer-which had not been touched since mid August, recycled the several empty bottles of cowboy magic, cleaned out my brush caddy (which was full of hair-GROSS). I also cleaned up the stalls so the looked sparkly new. Nesting, I would call it, since winter is about to settle in here (the blankets are being repaired as I type).

I then saddled up Fella and took him for a ride. Fella is really starting to give to the bit, and (thankfully) starting to gait. He is also discovering that he has lots of speed at that gait so a couple of times I just held on (well, not literally). I have the sounding board set up in the arena so I actually got to hear him gait over that. Pretty cool. The sounding board is used in Paso Fino shows to help judges and audience hear the cadence of the footfall.

When I packed up and headed home it was 8:30, 12 hours after I picked Precious up in the morning. Uriah’s band Javelina had a gig at the Black Forest that night and I was WIPED OUT when we got there. I saw the drummers sister there (she is a dressage rider) and told her about my day (and how tired I was). She said it best “That sounds like a pretty good way to spend a day”. It was an understatement, it was a GREAT way to spend a day.