~Susan and Ah-D in Maine~Beautiful Fall weather on Sunday. Wild wind caused many of those (finally) gorgeous leaves bit the dust. They are now scattered on the ground, creating that beautiful carpet and starting to release that wonderfully earthy fall scent.
Ah-D was pretty wild himself, excited to be out with Grace and Aaralyn. I chose those two dogs because they are fit and ready, even three-footed little Aaralyn, who was yelping with excitement to go. We crossed the road and headed towards the sandpit, but I could hear four-wheelers and gunshots coming from that direction. Ah-D was not keen to head towards those sounds and became tense and flicked his ears nervously. I assured him that I was most certainly NOT heading near the target shooting, and then we bushwhacked through to the power line instead. 
The wind whipped through the open area, fresh and clean. Ah-D let me know that he was on high-test and ready to run, so I had to take my foot off of the pedal and took it down a notch. The ground on the power line is notoriously uneven and rocky, with unexpected pitfalls. Ah-D listened to me and behaved, going only as fast as I was asking, and he offered no spooks.
We stopped by the neighbor's pond for a while. Grace and Aaralyn took a dip.Back at the house, I grazed my good boy on the lawn while I played with the timer on my camera.
I still felt like riding and had plenty of time before my self-determined 6:00 cutoff time, so back out we went to the trails behind our land. This time, Ah-D was like a lazy old man! He was pretty comical. He was full of ideas of where he thought we should go, and it wasn’t on the marked trail! I humored him, and we goofed around in the woods for a while, exploring along a stone wall.
Thanks for coming along on this ride, fellow RACers. Today is Deb’s birthday. Deb, hope you got out over the weekend for a couple of great rides, too!
As always fantastic pictures, Susan :) Beautiful Ah-D :) Congrats to Deb as well! I honestly envy you for the nature you have there. We had millions of hikers, hight speed mountain bikers yelling around, nordic walkers, joggers, mushroom seekers in the deep forest (Hey, they don't belong there! Said Lela), free running barking dogs etc around lately ! However, the good thing is the horses get used to it! The bad thing is that you need to be prepared for everything anytime :))
ReplyDeleteI hear you on the wind, we are really tired of it here. It took all our pretty fall colors off already too. Looks like you had a wonderful ride with your dogs. One day I tell myself I will have a place where we can explore like that and still ride home again. We are hoping here that we won't be getting the snow they are talking about next week. Loving everyday wind or no wind without it.
ReplyDeleteNow Susan,
ReplyDeleteYou have all of the red fall colors on Ah-D. So you and he will carry then through the winter and into the spring!
Nice ride, nice countryside but best of all, GOOD PARTNERSHIP. That is the best gift.
Penny, I close this note with a very big smile. Again, give Ah-D a scratch for me. Tell him he has a fan club in the far northern reaches of Idaho.
Yes Caren, I really am blessed with an AWESOME horse and AWESOME places to ride right out of the barn door. Dana, I have not heard that 4-letter S word in the Maine forecast yet. I was thinking 'Bright Colors' when I saddled Ah-D up, Penny, and I will give him a nice scritch from you. Did you notice the length of baling twine I have hanging from my saddle? Handy, like Duct tape!
ReplyDeletegreat idea with the baling twine! We have a bale of it in the barn that we keep for temporary tying of gates etc. It's almost as good as duct tape! Have you seen all the cool new colours and patterns for duct tape?! Anyway, awesome pics. You have a great mount in AhD and it's nice to see how much you've progressed in a year!! Hooray!!!
ReplyDeletep.s. you're still going down next month :)