A Day of Firsts

Me and Ruby, Michelle and Guapo, Heather and Candy

Long story (kinda) short, Heather and I followed Michelle and Lee, and their Paso boys, to a relatively new trail in Plant City.  We had a blast!  Ruby led the way over a bridge (our first), we crossed a shallow river (another first), and I came off of Ruby during the ride (the last first).  Ruby was leading when we came up on an oak tree.  It was obvious from her behavior that something was in the brush under the tree, so we let the Pasos pass us, then we followed.  Ruby and I saw the deer at the same time - when it turned to look at us, Ruby started skipping to the left.  I was thrown off balance a bit, and near the end I was laying on her neck...which caused her to spook again.  Perhaps she thought the deer was part cougar and had landed on her? I'll never know.  Anyways, at that point, she began a reining spin to the right throwing me to the left.  I was still hanging on but realized that I wasn't going to be able to right myself, and she couldn't step on me as she was running the other way (and me hanging on was now what was causing this!), so I let go.  She trotted off a little ways, thought about going back to the trailer, but then walked back to the group, phew!  We spent the next 30 minutes or so pulling burrs from the girth and the saddle pad, then went on our merry way.  I didn't hit the ground hard but I may have pulled something in my right leg.  Heather had mounted a camera on her helmet, but apparently didn't get most of the action because she had her own hands full at the time.  Ah well, I would like to analyze to see what caused me to lose my balance so badly but it is not to be this time...and hopefully there won't be a next! 

We ended up riding 9.2 miles, moving time 2 hours, 36 minutes, average speed 3.6 mph.  She does not get tired, though I do, wow!  Our fastest speed was 8.5 mph...this was way after the deer incident so had to be one of her short trotting bursts?  Can't wait to see how she does as we get more miles under our belt.  Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/120888430

One of the few times Ruby wasn't in the lead - we'd just turned around.