around 17 miles this weekend

Saturday rode about 10.5 miles in the heat with quite a bit of trot and canter.   Sadie acted a bit tired and definitely hungry before being done.

Sunday went on a slow trail ride at North Table Mountain open space.   We were on quite a bit of technical trail just picking through the rock at a walk.  My best guess from the map is it was only 6.8 miles even though we were riding for 2.5 hours.   Sadie would not pass Grey Moun and pick up the pace at the start but she was willing to trot and canter the last mile or so so I hope she is ready for real LD ride on Friday.    I'm pretty sure that a 2nd day would be too much with it being a mountain ride and her having no base yet.  I feel like such a wimp/screw up for not having gotten her conditioned better by August 1st but it is what it is.

 She is calmer than Grey and Shade about bikes, backing out of the trailer etc even with her limited life exposure so if she is only ever up to LDs that is what we will do.  I am the real anchor,  I've toyed with buying another horse but I don't feel like I am in shape to ride more.    If I get stronger and she does not I think I'll try to network harder for pickup rides before jumping into buying a 5th horse.   The sensible thing if the only goal was riding more miles would be to trade or sell Lady and try to find a retirement place for Shade and/or Grey Moun but I want to know they are all well cared for and I'm egotistical enough to think my care is better than 95% of what is out there although I know I don't provide the very best care.

Sunday we had a group of 5 riders.  I invited dad (expected him to not want to come because he has  had zero interest in coming when I've ridden with DL and Rbefore but I asked because his saddle was still in my big trailer and he accepted)  I guess he had visions of babysitting amateur riders on just boring flat trails before actually riding with the twins in WY but now knows they like to ride and don't whine or need horses led or anything.

 So I hauled Razz for Dad, Sadie for me of course,  Grey Moun for J and their mom DL rode Lady (she has a bad back so gaited horse that is not going to jump is better for her)   I had dad pull my little trailer and we fetched Mason the 5 miles from his place with that which worked out really well as the ranch owner was hosting a shooting event so there were a lot of extra cars parked around.    They fed dad some supper when he hauled Mason home and he probably visited and talked guns/shooting with them.

It was fun watching J ride Grey Moun.  Grey of course took the lead a fair amount and was looking and listening hard for deer or other possibly hazards but was fine with having Lady lead some later on.  J rode him well,  held him up a couple times early in the ride when DL wanted to ride ahead to take pics, picked the directions to go and so on.  J did grab the saddle pommel to aid with posting Grey's bouncy and sometimes big trot but overall he has a good natural seat and he doesn't get nervous.   I think R would have been happier if we had taken a less technical route, she lives to trot and mostly to canter but she was a good sport about the exploring  trails aspect.   She loves her big guy even though he is the most work to ride.