Shade is a rock star 18-19 miles today

Whenever I come home with her after trailering out every equine on the place is calling to her. She really rocked today. We met L and 2 of her buddies at Chatfield. We all went their favorite loop of 5.5 miles. Ones horse was a bit tender footed. Owner skipped shoeing on last farrier visit but has not been working to condition her horses feet to be barefoot. I am too lazy to do the barefoot hoof thing so I just have Shade shod in mid to late spring when I expect to ramp up my riding. And L's ear got hit by a branch. It bled pretty good for a bit and was sore so they made plans to ride tomorrow but I have to work and I wanted to get a good conditioning ride today.

So I took Shade across the road and up Waterton Canyon. She was SOOOOOOO good, I would not have even tried to take her up the canyon alone a few years ago. She even had to go past some BigHorn sheep. Funny, the sheep are so used to people that they were practically getting scritchies but they moved up the hill when Shade went by. I waited until no one was coming down and let Shade go clear to the outside edge of the road. She snorted a bit at the sheep but she was good. She would latch on to bicyclists a little bit after they passed her as we were going up the canyon. We went the full 6 miles +? a bit past the dam and up the colorado trail. I am not sure if 6 miles is to the dam or to where the road part ends and it becomes single track trail. With the distance from the parking lot I'm sure we went at least 18 miles total. What a fantastic mare. I would not have taken her unless she was fine with bikes but she was fine with bike trailers, kiddos on bikes etc too. The only thing she was looked hard at was fishing poles. Lots of anglers hike up the canyon to fish in the river.

The day gave me faith in the country too. I saw so many family groups hiking and biking and everyone was so polite. Not just to the OMG someone on an AYRAB but to everyone in the canyon.

Saturday we went 5 miles riding out from home. I think if injury does not bite this will be the year I do the pioneer ride at Shamrock.