Just fun

Today, Heather and I met Jennie and two of her boarders at Lower Green Swamp.  As we started our ride I found out that Jennie hadn't been there yet so I was to be the guide.

Unfortunately, things have changed a bit since my last ride out there.  For one, some of the pine trees have come down with a disease, so there were crews (with logging trucks) working in part of the preserve.  It looked like they were culling and removing the diseased trees.  These girls' horses are all in trail training so they wanted to try the creek crossing/bridge trail, of which part has been churned into deep, rutted sand by the trucks.  But, we didn't know that until we were committed.  Oh well.

We got to the creek crossing pretty quickly.  Candy was wearing her Old Mac boots (or some other older type boot with a lot of fabric) so Heather didn't want to go through the water.  We decided before the ride that Ruby would lead the way over the bridge, since Candy would probably follow Ruby through fire.  None of the other riders opted for the water crossing either, which made me wonder if it's because they needed a horse to lead them through as well.  Back to that later.

After the creek, we had the option to go right (our usual direction and now a sand logging road) or left along the creek for a bit.  I wasn't sure at this point where the trucks were going, so we went left.  It wasn't long before Ruby was giving me the 'there's something in the bushes' cue.  Instead of stopping her, I kind of turned over my shoulder and yelled that there was something in the bushes...which scared that something.  And there was lots of crashing through the brush (which made Ruby dance to the right, forward, and finally part of the way back to the other horses), then there was splashing as the group of pigs ran through the creek.  It was LOUD.  One of the girls said something about wild cattle (in her defense, it did sound like huge animals), but a few seconds later a piglet started squealing and squealing.  My guess is that the little guy couldn't get back out of the creek and up the opposite bank.  Did I go to save him?  No.  First, the creek wasn't deep and second, wild pigs have tusks.  I'm not risking myself or my horse.  Besides, I could see the group/herd/whatever you want to call it on the other bank - they weren't leaving him.  But, wow, that piglet was convinced that he was dying.

Ruby was literally shaking, poor thing.  One of the other girls rode on by, so Ruby decided to reclaim the lead and snapped out of it.  As soon as we started moving, I had my all-business mare back. 

Maybe 10 minutes later, the girls decided they wanted to trot.  Ruby started out with the nice little trot we've been working on until she heard the other horses gaining on her.  I'm going to have to start leap-frogging with someone at the trot so that she doesn't think she always has to be in front. But today I let her have her fun and when she wanted to lengthen her stride a bit, I let her.  Honestly, I also wanted to see if any of the other horses could out-trot her.  Maybe they can, but they didn't today :D 

We probably trotted for a good half to three-quarters of a mile, which is when a few in the group asked to stop.  It was good timing because we came to the sand road a little while later.  We opted to go left, which dead-ended at a gate behind which the loggers were working.  By this time, I was wondering if they'd changed the trail since I was last here - I'd been looking for a turn that never appeared.  I asked everyone if they wanted to go off-roading to look for the other little trail, and they were game so we veered off into the undergrowth.

I have never asked Ruby to leave the trail like this, but she did great, especially considering we were tramping through weeds that were horse-shoulder high.  She was smart about it too, looking for clearer areas in the direction I asked her to go.  This was about the time that Jennie started remarking on how much Ruby has changed.  She has, so much.  She just needed the opportunity to show everyone what a great horse she is.  But, this part of our little trek unfortunately ended in a shallow swamp so we made our way back to the road.  If you've never ridden through Florida swamp, suffice to say that it doesn't have to be deep enough for alligators to be dangerous.  Cypress knees, moccasins, and (rarely) quick sand - nope, back to the trail please.

I never did find the turn-off I was looking for but we did find another new-to-me loop that stayed pretty close to the little creek.  We had no more pig encounters and little piggy and his family were long gone by the time we got back to that part of the creek.  As we got closer to the bridge, I let Heather know that I planned to take Ruby through the creek and if Candy needed us, we'd cross the bridge back to her to lead her across.  I doubted she would need it though since Candy has a fantastic sense of direction and always knows when we're heading back to the trailer. 

This creek is down in a little gully, maybe 15-20 feet deep but the water is only about a foot deep and clear.  Ruby led the way but did need some encouragement.  She drank (yay! she doesn't usually drink on trail), then plowed on through.  I looked back to check on Candy and saw the exact moment that she realized Ruby was crossing the creek and started booking across the bridge.  I let Ruby trot up the other side and we continued on our ride.

A few minutes later, I heard a logging truck behind us.  Not knowing how the other horses would handle the truck, I asked everyone if they wanted to trot to get away from the road.  So, we trotted, then stopped when we were at a safe distance so the horses could watch the truck go by.  They handled it okay so we probably could have stopped sooner, oh well.

So that was pretty much it.  We rode almost exactly five miles (would have been further if we'd started earlier).  I thought it was a fantastic ride, including the detour, and am hoping that we can all get together again at some point.