Awesome Trail Ride

We took Otoelene on her first trail ride today,  just the second time we've hauled her somewhere to ride off of the farm.  It was with the 4-H group.  There were 2  actual 4-Her's, 2 that will be old enough next year, one very young rider and 8 adults.  

 Otoelene did great.  I was going to ride Thumper.  We had just had shoes reset on Wednesday.  I went out Saturday after the show to ride him before the trail ride and he was already missing a shoe.  Luckily, we had decided to put shoes on Otoelene for the first time so she was ready to ride.  The trails are very rocky around here and barefoot riding is not recommended.

 There were two big water crossings.

 She went right across, no problem.

 She was really relaxed in the big open pasture area.  J rode Jessica with no problems either but she does prefer going in front.

 E rode Hank.  She complained about his bouncy walk.  I offered to switch multiple times but she refused.  Otoelene really isn't that much smaller, we're just downhill.

 Otoelene thought the trail was a smorgasbord.  She wanted to taste everything.

E won't touch Otoelene but I turned around and there she was on a different 2 year old.  She has been talking about wanting a different western pleasure horse to show and I think she likes this one.  I still don't see what's wrong with Otoelene though.  Oh, and the weather was nice, overcast with a light breeze.  The horses hardly sweated at all.