Evening Rides

As the days grow noticeably shorter, Ian and I have been getting in a few evening rides on Mister and AhD. I haven't had many photo ops, but here are a couple. Sometimes we need to load our horses up with bug spray and a nice hemlock twig for good measure against the deeer flies. On our last couple of rides, we have about an hour until dark overtakes us, and we have taken a really nice loop that takes up every bit of that hour. Here is one of the streams we cross on this trail.It is always beautiful and clear and usually quite shallow. AhD never fails to stop as we cross, and he either drinks or splashes. Sometimes he does both. Ian's riding skills are improving, which means I am more comfortable with trotting and cantering our horses. Tonight, as we made the turn to go home and trotted fast up a fairly short and steep hill, Mister and Ian had the gall to pass us - at the canter! Well, AhD did not take kindly to that and gave a small crow hop and a kick or two. I spoke sharply to him but inside I was laughing at his "don't you DARE pass ME!" attitude. After that, we stayed in the lead on the narrow, winding trail up the hill towards home, cantering most of the way. AhD's canter has improved quite a bit with practice, and Ian's fearlessness is rubbing off on me or something, because I am definitely getting back some of my taste for speed. FUN!

Speaking of fun,my niece Layla must have inherited the horse lovers gene from my side of the family, because her face is the definition of fun as she sits on Mister. AhD's face is the definition of Jealous. He just HAD to get in on it, and he didn't like it whenever it was Layla's turn to sit on Mister instead of him. Layla said, "He has wild hair!" as she patted his face.

Looking forward to hearing from my fellow RACers about your latest escapades! -Susan and AhD