RIDE DAY! YEAHHHHHHH!!!!

6 a.m.! FINALLY the night was OVER! Time for another long walk to the porta-potty...
The horses had consumed a good bit of hay in the night and Shana had gotten them fresh water, lugging it from the water tank a good bit away, I think, not realizing that I had a 25 gallon tank and hose in the tack room on the trailer.

We had a healthy breakfast of cereal with blueberries, strawberries and banana's.
Truthfully, I was not hungry, but knew I HAD to eat. Suddenly it seemed like it was 7 and time to start tacking up.

I grabbed icy bottles of water and gatorade and stuffed them in to my saddle packs...one last nervous trip to the port-a-potty and it was time to mount up.

MAN that time went way too fast. Falcon was feeling frisky and did not want to wait for Shana to mount Red. He was difficult to control as he started backing or getting light on his front feet...no way buddy....WALK~!

We walked the horses down to the Trot Out, but they werent ready for us to go. I could feel Falcon getting nervous under me and he refused to stand still. I asked Shana to move on and get out of the gathering crowd of horses.

So we walked the horses toward the base camp check in. When we turned around, I peered over the trucks and cars and saw helmets bobbing up the trail and knew that the trail was open.

I approached the Trot Out and called out my letters. ALL of the other horses were GONE! The vet motioned me on and said that the trail was open! YEAHHHHHHH!

Shana and Red were close behind and I let them pass us at some point. They took off at a very fast trot and the emotion welled up within me. WE HAD STARTED! WE HAD STARTED OUR VERY FIRST RIDE!

We were close behind a pair of other riders, trotting and cantering along the cool shady jeep trail above the New River. Soon one of the riders moved on ahead, while the other pulled off and let us pass.

Oh what a RIDE! and fairly fast. Soon we crossed a creek and headed up up up a narrow trail with sharp switchbacks. But the horses charged up that while we tried to avoid having our knees whacked.

The trail turned into double track again and flew by. We came to a meadow and paused for a breather and to let the horses munch on some grass. Then we were off again, cantering, cantering....oh what a wonderful ride.