Lovely, lovely

We have been having all the fun lately. Lovely weather. Sunshine, but lots of thunderstorms and rain too. Not our normal springtime weather but still mostly quite nice. And I do love a good storm.

Juniper went for her first hike out on the trail. I chose a spot with easy, open trails where I don't usually see anyone or hear any guns or anything. This time though, a family was walking by on the county road below us, with really loud kids, and Juniper was sure they were following us and definitely going to eat us up.

We saw a porcupine waddling into the brush. Super cute! After that she started to relax a bit. Up on top we saw some deer run off. I tried to get a good pic with the wildflowers.  She was still watching for deer.

Toward the end of the hike she started to relax and get more curious about her surroundings, smelling things and occasionally tasting them. That made me happy. I was afraid she wasn't going to come down off high alert.  I really should have brought another equine along. But I didn't have another person available.

The next day I decided to try Scout out with a new rider. Heather from work has been riding all her life but not exactly a horseman. I was pretty sure it would go well or I wouldn't have tried it of course. I figured if he was too naughty we could turn it into a hike. He was perfect! 

We rode to the top of a little mountain and back, and as we were unsaddling we heard wolves howling in the distance! How cool is that!

I finally got my friend Cindee out on the trail again. She rode her good horse, Trixie. When she told me she hasn't done anything at all with her this spring I was a little unsure what to expect, but Trixie was a good girl. If ever I was looking for a Morgan horse, I'd want one with her breeding.

We rode along the Palouse river on the Colfax trail. It's beautiful. There are stretches with pine trees, and I love the rocks covered with swallow's nests.

The river is right on the other side of the trail, running deep and muddy right now.

We rode up above for a view of the river. Sawyer just looked and looked. It was really cute.

Heather and I did another after work ride on Friday. We had a couple of minor mishaps that could have been worse.  Scout's saddle rolled as she was mounting up and she ended up going thud on the ground practically underneath him. I was picturing shod hooves jumping away and hurting her, but no, he just stood there like this sort of thing happens every day. No concern at all. Like, not even curiosity. It was kinda funny. Luckily she landed in soft forest duff and just got back on.

Huckleberry got to go with us. He was soooo happy!

On the way back we went through a ditch/hump combo meant to keep trucks out, and Scout must have tried to jump the ditch, landed on his knees on the hump, and gave Heather quite the ride. What a dork.

Yesterday I got to ride with my husband! Imagine that. We went way into the deep, dark woods. Normally we don't see anyone out there but since it's memorial day weekend we saw 3-4 groups on atv's. They were all really respectful, and there was plenty of room to get off the trail before they came around the corner.

 We didn't make it as far as we wanted to. The trails were so greasy and slick it was a bit scary sometimes. These shoes are nowhere near as good as barefoot, but even then we would have had trouble. One spot where I was walking, I fell and was lucky I was able to get back up at all. I had absolutely no purchase. I grabbed a tree and managed to get my knee on the side of the trail. That's about where we turned back. :)

My boys are pretty cute.

I just put down my reins at the end and figured Sawyer would park at the trailer, but he passed it and kept going up the road! I guess he's turning into an adventurer.

We're planning on going out again today. Probably somewhere flat and easy. Lovely day for it!