4H/Skyline Drive ride

Betsy called today. Hallaleujia! Did I want to ride? Well I kinda didnt want to due to emotional upset over my "man" wanting to break up with me or something to that affect.

But regardless, Falcon was on the trailer by 4:30 pm and I was on my way to Front Royal to meet Betsy and Christie.

Then Betsy called and said they were running 20 min behind due to realizing that there were wasps in the their trailer with the horses and they had to stop and rememdy that situation.

The 4H center was alive and buzzing with campers, ponies, horses etc. Falcon was interested, but well behaved and more concerned with munching on clover. The boy sure does like to EAT!

Betsy and Chris arrived and were saddled up lickety split. But then Betsy couldnt find her helmet. I had an extra on with cobwebs in the trailer. It fit her, so We took off at a walk and a van pulled through the gate. A little girl hopped out and partially closed the gate, but left it wide enough for us to get through....NICE, except that Falcon decided to SPOOK when he got to the van and hopped sideways which landed us in a BIG ditch with a metal culvert.

Wow, How did either of us survive that one?

Ok, on up the road, to the trail which leads to the top of the ridge. It was slower going because Christies horse is 20+ and not in that good of shape.

At the top, through a subdivision and then the ridge trail that I love. Falcon and I were in the lead and took off at a fast flying trot, then a canter. It was GREATTTTTT!

Then Falcon came to a jarring stop, head up, ears pricked. hhhhhhmmm, I didnt have my glasses on, but then saw a "form" walking towards us. It was a black man with a back pack and he was really hoofing it up the trail towards us. I said hello and when he caught his breath he said that there was a "big ass bear" right around the corner.

So we talked to him for a few min. then took off up the trail and never once saw a bear. But we did see plenty of bear scat.

As we headed down the trail, we all got off and walked to stretch our legs some. Falcon put his head down to grab some grass and stepped on his rein. He yanked his head up and snapped the brass snap in half. GREAT! LESSON LEARNED. Always carry extra snaps!

Not only that the rein was stuck between his SHOE and his HOOF. Now, HOW did THAT happen? So I dug that out and before remounting at the creek, Betsy rooted around in her pack and found an xtra snap so I wouldnt have to tie the rein on.

As we reached the backside of the 4H Center the sun was setting and there was a herd of 25 deer in the soccer field. Quite a sight to be hold as their white tails flashed up and off they took.

My GPS stated that we had gone 7.86 miles with our fastest speed at 12.6 mph and an average of 4.6mph. Not a bad ride. And the only reason we had gone that slow was due to Old Sashshey.

Falcon is back on vacation because his shoes are getting loose and since I am heading for Montana. Falcon will be reshod on July 10 and then we will be putting in the miles getting ready for the Virginia Highlands ride in August.