Charity ride went well

I rode with the "50 miler"  group.   I have learned from the last two years that there is no actual 50 miles of riding.    This year was pretty good.  It was an out and back that felt like it was 25 miles or a bit more and L set a pretty fast pace.   After the first 9 miles or so Tanza decided he didn't need to keep up.   The trail was not marked but soft road shoulder was showing good hoof prints so I figured we'd be fine even if it was a loop trail and I thought they had said it was an out and back so I talked the other straggler whose horse was really not wanting to try to catch up into easing off the pace.

The only bad thing with not keeping up is we ended up having two trains that we had to wait on because we had to cross the tracks.    Tanza was nervous with the first one.  It was coming up behind us so I turned him toward it and then let him do an animated trot the wrong way as the long old train went by for over a minute.   He is a good boy, but when he has nervous energy like that I figure its best to just direct it forward to make sure I don't get up and down or spins that might have me on the ground.

The day got hot and Tanza was feeling hot and tired the last couple of miles back to camp but overall he handled it so well that I think I will do a 50 this weekend instead of 2 LDs.  I am so very blessed to have this horse.   I only felt like I was hot and tired at the ride location but when I got home I was horribly stuffed up.   Took some sudafed and just ate snacky foods and went to bed early rather than cooking for dad or getting any stuff done.

I took mom's Wintec AP saddle, some AP fleece pads and some riding breeches for their silent auction.  The ride organizer bought the breeches at least but I bought some leg quilts because its so hard to find quilts in 12" instead of taller, plus a cute planter for house plant and a leather frame.   The frame is cute but its made with a plastic that is not super clear instead of glass so I will probably try to replace that -- hopefully I don't have that as a "should do this" for years.