Love my steel magnolia

I didn't even take my camera so I'll have to buy an official ride photo and she hasn't got them online yet so this is another picture-less entry. I'm not a great photographer anyway, but getting up at 4 am and leaving by 5:30 to get to the ride pretty much guaranteed I was not going to think about grabbing extra little things like a camera.

Shade did her 5th 50 of the season in about 6 hours 35 minutes ride time. It was a fast ride, we were about 12 of 18 for finish order but there were quite a few more serious riders at this one. Folks missed some turns early and it took quite a while for all the faster riders to actually pass us. Getting passed gives a boost to the pace for a while.

I had SO much fun that I'm torn about calling this a season or hauling several hours to Utah or New Mexico for a late fall ride. I'll have to see how much conditioning riding I want to do after a bit of recovery and just do some general mulling. But I'll be smiling about this ride for a while.

I forgot a few things, the biggest being sunscreen lotion. Had to leave my l/s shirt on over my tee all day, and thank goodness for my 5" cashel visor. I still got a bit of sunburned face but luckily the metrogel I use anyway is great for sunburns. It was 83 for the high and low humidity so I didn't feel bad. Hot enough for fuzzy Shade to be plenty warm. I went Pbttt to the philosophy that one should keep an even pace all day and let Shade cruise faster in the cool morning, then we took it easy the last half of the ride. It was still warm and my white and blue stripe l/s shirt was filthy so I took it off before heading to the ride supper, then in the shade of the indoor arena and after eating I felt cool so I took a long sleeved tee for my completion award and put it on right away. Found out that pizza is not the best ride meal for me. I loff it, but the tomato paste seemed too acidic, even though I helped myself to some of the salads, and a big piece of cinnamon crumb cake as well.

I had pulled in on the 1 lane road that rims a catch basin for spring run-off. It was plenty dry and solid, we've had dry fall weather but I was not sure of pulling down the bank. Figured I never leave that early so I'd be able to just pull all the way around later but that didn't work out. Other people had driven down the bank after I parked so I tied Shade to a fence JIC and cowboyed up and took the trailer down, then decided it would be easier over all to just pull back up on the road so I did that. Shade hesitated to load as usual and I did not have a stock whip, found that running the lead over a close support and just poking her with my finger was all I needed, really don't need to get extra long lead to go around a forward support or a stick, just need a wee aid to keep her head forward while I come to her mid-section.

I think Grey Moun was quite pleased as he got to eat his head off friday night with Shade, and then V had fed all the horses before I got home, with Grey still in the little pen so he got to eat eat eat again saturday with Shade. I gave the other group a small snack to make sure Sadie wasn't shorted with being in with the two pushy young geldings. Then went to bed early and slept like a rock.