Five Miles

Ruby and I went to Marshall Hampton today for a trail ride.  The weather was perfect, sunny and in the seventies with a nice breeze.  I wanted to do about five miles, with some trotting if Ruby was up to it.

When we arrived there were no other horse trailers, but there was a city truck with an empty trailer.  I couldn't hear the mower so we entered the woods.  Ruby was iffy a few times, blowing at nothing, sure something was in the bushes.  I love that we are at the point where I can tell when Ruby knows something is in the bushes verses when she thinks something might be there.  Of the few places we normally ride, she has the hardest time here.  First, the trailhead makes her feel very claustrophobic.  We ride through an open field, then through a (dark) hole in the trees into the woods.  She doesn't see a trailhead, she sees a cougar ambush in the making.  She is getting better about things like this but it's still a work in progress for us.  

We made our way through the first wooded area without incidence and turned left to go around the little lake.  We still had a few minor problems.  She would stop and stare intently at bushes for a few seconds every hundred feet or so.  Then we came to a part of the trail covered with sugar sand.  She was crossing fine until she realized how soft it was, then she actually tried to turn back for the trailer, crazy mare.  By this time, I could hear and see the mower - halfway around the lake, headed away from us with the added bonus of clearing out any critters before we got there. 

It took Ruby about a mile to settle into the ride.  We caught mower guy as the trail split - he kept going around the lake while I asked Ruby to go down an embankment to the other loop.  She wasn't being dangerous but she did not want to go down that short, steep hill so I found a go-around.

The second loop is when Ruby really started to get into the ride.  Several parts of the trail were under water.  She hates getting her feet wet but by the fourth or fifth crossing, she was all business.  Besides water, there were also a few places with slick, black mud.  She would very carefully pick her way through.  When the trail allowed it, we trotted. 

Beautiful trail

This time with Ruby ears - notice her left ear 'WHAT are you doing?  Can we go???'

We have trotted on trails before, but it was usually to outrun biting flies and we were always with someone else (who was usually falling behind).  This time it was just us and Ruby was really enjoying herself.  We would trot along, with me in two-point, until we came to a blind curve or the footing got bad.  Then we'd walk a while until the trail got nice again.  Ruby never did her zoomy trot but we were moving along at a pretty good clip; then when we would drop to a walk, she'd walk very slowly.  She wasn't getting winded, so I began to wonder if someone needed to pee...

It wasn't long before we were back at the lake, from there we walked back to the trailer.  She peed within minutes of being tied to the trailer, silly mare.  This is easily the longest ride we've done alone - I think our max before was 1.5 miles or so.  Screen shots from Endomondo and Strava follow:

Blogger won't let me line them up side by side, sorry folks. Anyway, you can see that they don't match up - even the times.  I turned them on within seconds of each other, so I have no idea what's up with that.  Strava shows our fastest speed as 12.3 mph, Endomondo says 11.3.  They even have different distances, though they are close.  Hmmm. 

In other news, looks like Ruby and I (finally) hit the 100 trail miles mark - as of today, according to Strava, we are at 101.4 miles.  It blows my mind that it took me months to put 100 trail miles on my mare, when there are people doing it in less than 24 hours.  Just wow. 

And in yet other news:

Bazinga!  I ordered this vest and reflective leg wraps last week after my almost fiasco with the dog and van.  One can only hope it will make a difference.