Trail Ride with Friends

We had a trail ride with our friends Tom and Dolly over the weekend. They own a few acres near a lake not far from our house. Their neighbors, who are also friends of ours with horses, have acreage out there too. So between the two households there are some great riding trails. They can also get to the park with the horse trails from their house without having to trailer their horses. This is the same park we are now cut off from via our abandoned railroad line. They showed us how to get to the park from their place. It was a really nice ride. Everything is green and leafy, and the flowering trees smell so nice......

We also rode to the lake near their home. With all the rain and the water from all that snow that melted, the lake is really high now. There are small fishing cabins, now abandoned and unused, that are pretty flooded. I thought they looked very cool, so I took a picture.

Their horses are geldings, and as it turns out, Zora was in estrus (I don't think full-in -- most likey just beginning or just ending). When we got back to their place, she just kept flirting with those boy horses!!! They knew something was going on, but of course they didn't really understand completely! It was too funny watching them.

It was a really neat ride -- it is always fun to go to trails you have never been on before. It was not without incident though. None of our horses are really used to riding with others. Tom's horse kicked back at Zora at one point (she is a tailgater) and got John on the shin -- OUCH!! (Actually, it has not caused him very much pain.) And I think our girls with their "spirited" walks and the urge to lope made Tom's horse nervous -- his horse acted up a time or two, and he had to work to regain control. I felt real bad about that. Seems like Tennessee Walkers and Quarter Horses do not have the same trail-riding agenda. Divna had a mini-meltdown one time when one of their horses got between her and Zora. God forbid that she should not be within sneezing distance of Zora at any time in her entire life!! And God forbid another horse besides her will be within sneezing distance of Zora. At one point, John took Zora ahead to let her "stretch her legs" as he puts it (code for "run like a bat out of hell"), and Divna had a medium-meltdown. But I was able to keep her calm -- I think it is good for both of us to have those kind of experiences though. I hope Tom & Dolly feel it is good to have those kind of experiences, too -- I would love to ride their trails again!