Horse Heaven

The weather yesterday was perfect for a trail ride.  V was off to the Regional Track meet.  She had qualified in the 2 mile. (she got 10th at regionals), and E had spent the night at a friends house so that just left me and J. 

 J called his dad to invite him and he said he'd be right over.

 It was his first ride back on Lady since returning from the winter in Florida.  He's 77 by the way.

This spring we read where there was going to be a controlled burn on the trail. We could see the smoke from our house.  They burned a lot of the undergrowth on parts of the trail where we rode.

 This kind of thing really bothers me.  I hate seeing the discarded beer cans.  J says he doesn't see the point in drinking and riding.  To quote J, "You can't enjoy either one."

 The rhododendrons  were blooming.

 We had a short lunch break.

 Then back on  the trail.  J is still bragging on how well Jessica did.  I see another endurance ride in his future.  Hank got a little funny acting after lunch.  At first I thought it was the saddle bags.  But after transferring them to Lady he still seemed jumpy.  Then I realized he knew this trail so well he wanted to speed up to get back to the trailer.  The trail is an 8 mile loop, up the mountain, over the top, down the other side then along a gravel road back to the start.  It took 3 hours at a comfortable walk.  I can do it in one when we were training for the endurance ride.

The mountain laurel  was in full bloom too.