Mustang Saga

It's been a busy weekend.  Last week I had some kind of stomach/head cold type thing, and my ears finally stopped ringing yesterday.  So I spent most of the day looking at hay and a trailer for a possible trade.  But neither was what I wanted.  Then my sister asked if I wanted to do an evening ride.

I feel bad because our ride last night was too much for Tonka.  I should have ridden about half as far.  He didn't tie up terribly but he had some symptoms I haven't seen since the warm weather started.  He'll be okay with time though, and we did find a beautiful loop to ride.

My sister and I explored some trails we haven't been on before.  I wish I had checked them out years ago, it was beautiful!  And not challenging in the least which is something my horse needs sometimes.

Blue and Huck got to come since I was pretty sure we weren't going to run into any strangers and neither of the horses are all that spooky about dogs.  They had a blast.

  

This picture came out weird.  Everything is swirly but the trees on the side look normal. 
That's Tonka's eye peeking out from under the boughs.

(Tonka doesn't always keep his head up like this,
but he had things he needed to see.)

As we followed the road toward some meadows and yet another creek, we heard a wolf howl to the south.  I've never heard a wolf before, other than in recordings, but this wasn't a coyote, there were no houses for miles, and there are wolves in that area.  I was interested to see that the horses weren't the least bit worried, other than stopping to listen, and the dogs didn't care either.  It was fairly distant though.  The dogs do pay attention to coyotes close by so I assume they would with a wolf as well.  When we got back to the trailers, the howl was coming from the north.  So either it went around us or its buddies were out there calling.

As the light faded we found ourselves closing a loop back to the trailers, walking through a big beautiful meadow bordered by thick, dark forest. 

Turns out there was a creek between us an the trailers.  No problem, normally, but the banks were steep and deep and the bushes were thick.  It took some searching and the light was going fast but we found a crossing that was only a little complicated by a dead branch at rider level.  After that I got worried about getting caught up in wire in the darkness when I saw an old fence post lying in the grass.  I used my own legs to feel around and didn't find any wire and we got back to the road safely.

Here are some pictures I took out in the same area a few days back when the sun was still out.  We want to go camping out there soon.

This is José, my sister's new chihuahua puppy.  He's so tiny at 2 1/2 pounds, but he's getting pretty good at getting around even when the going is rough.  Isn't he cute?

 I love this picture of the creek.

 
I knew Tonka wasn't going to be up to a ride with my friend Melissa after last night, so this morning I loaded Scout up and took him out.  He was a very good boy.  I didn't take pictures, but it was a good ride with beautiful views of the mountains.  I spent a lot of time just looking at the scenery.  He's really a good colt, just plugging along while I daydream.  He still spooks at dogs though, even when they're just obediently following along.  I hope he gets over that with more experience.  Melissa's horse was wonderful.  She hadn't been ridden in 9 months and she was so happy to be out, and as well-behaved as if she'd been ridden regularly.  Those kinds of horses sure are nice.

Now I've had my recovery nap and coffee, and I better get back to real life.  Hope you all had an excellent weekend!