New Year's Day Ride

For several years, the Paso Fino folks have gotten together for a New Year's Day ride. I'm not sure how many I have missed over the years, but this year when I got the invitation I said 'YES!'. The plan was to meet at Willamette Mission State Park which is pretty central for all of us. I got up at 7:00 AM to clean out the van and trailer (the van was filled with my tack room stuff and the trailer was filled with straw from last weeks 4 tons of hay/straw adventure). My mom and sister were in town so I loaded up Precious and Tesoro and asked Bruce to bring an extra horse. After planning, loading, etc., we got on the road and arrived 3 minutes early-an amazing feat for me, especially with dear mom in tow- at Willamette Mission an hour + drive from Eugene.

It was closed. Yep, closed. Due to high water. Bummer. Note to self, call next time!

Bruce and Betty arrived just a few moments after us, so we turned around and headed to their ranch.

With 56 beautiful acres in the foothills of Mt. Hood, Reed's Ranch is home to a swift stream, several Paso Finos, many many trails and of course, Bruce and Betty. As we arrived the rain let up and we got the horses going. Tesoro had to be the lead man and he was ready to go. I held him back, but even at his walk he left the rest of the horses in a corto behind him. The couple of times I let him fly, it was pretty darn fun.

After we got back I took Precious out for a short spin around the trails to prove to her that she can do it by herself (and that she must do it by herself).

We put coolers on the horses, gave them some hay and headed down to Bruce and Betty's house for sandwiches, some yummy crunch cheesey things, cookies and a coke (for me). We had a lovely visit, I helped Betty a little with her computer and we got back on the road for the 2 1/2 hour drive back to Eugene.

It wasn't what we had planned, but it was a lovely day with horses, family and friends. Can you ask for a better way to start the year?