Hidden Falls

They were so hidden that we never found them...

Actually I avoided them...and the people and enjoyed more remote trails in the park.
I planned ahead a few days before and got a park pass that is required on the weekends and holidays.

Then I took my horse trailer to get air in the tires.  They were down 30lbs.  Shows how much I use my trailer...NOT...
The darn air pump only let me fill them to just under 55 psi.  They need 65.  Oh well,  light load, drive slow, 55 will have to be for now.  I wasn't going to cancel myself!

IT was a spectacular day!  Nevel made life easy by walking right onto the trailer and delving into some fresh hay.

Swaths of Poppies

 Lupines and various other flowers enrobed the hillsides.

And plenty of trails to choose from.

Nevel stood nicely to have his Cavallos put on.  But did not stand nicely to be mounted.

He was quite a pill really and kept hollering for a young and brash bay Arabian that had parked next to us and was difficult to handle as his owner and another gray arab went up the trail.

Crop in hand and plenty of circling I managed to finally get on...

and had to rest for 5 min!  he literally wore me out with his yanking around and hollering.

This pic a bit blurry with Nevel Hollering for a now non-existent bay.

 Fluffy blue clouds, green grass, a 67 degree breeze and gazillions of flowers.  YES it was GLORIOUS.

Not too far down a trail we met the HORSE EATING BRIDGE with running water under it.

Nevel had caught sight of the Bay by this time and was aiming to catch up...until he saw the bridge...

Then it was ALL over for HIM!...he Jammed on the brakes, shivered and whirled.

It took all I could muster to get this tank turned around.   

He whirled, he backed, whirled, backed at least 15 feet up trail before I got him turned around again.

I got off and walked him across the bridge...we turned around and did it again...and again...

at the second bridge which is the above pictured, he was alert but managed to sniff the bridge with me on his back...then daintily crossed.

By the third bridge he was cautious but crossed without nudging.

The return trip...that first bridge he was frightened of...he tried to whirl again from the other side...but he made it and we both lived!

I planned on going 15 miles but the boots aren't broken in well enough and he started limping on gravel.  He ended up with pretty pink, but no blistered skin from the boot.  So we did 10 miles and called it a day.

 He was quite happy to see the trailer (middle one is mine)








However decided that munching lush grass

 and watching an endurance horse condition was more fun then going home.

 Rover in the Clover

 POPPIES !!!!!!

More Clover and yellow flowers.

When I finally tore him away from the grass he walked to the trailer, looked at me and said:
"My trailer?  yep! LETS GO HOME."  He hopped aboard and home we went.  What a good boy!

The Other One

That Eye is CREEPING ME OUT!

No Live Pics of Persee today
But the Niece sent me a photo of the Model of him that she is
Working on. : P

It felt like 13

But it was only 5!

I was HOPING for 13...does that count?
Our last ride was 10 and 13 is certainly doable...

UNLESS...you have a golden pony that sees emerald green
and doesn't want to venture further than the closest mouthful
of green grass!
LOOK TO THE LEFT!

                                         LOOK TO THE RIGHT!

Grass! Grass! Grass!  EMERALD GREEN FRESSSSSHHHH GRASSSSSSSSS!

I encouraged him onward and he snuck gobbles of grass.  It was slow going...2.8mph at one point.
He was spooking too!  Birds were flitting every where and making big rustling noises in the bush.

We met up with a youngin' on a dirt bike (who was looking DOWN at the ground and not AHEAD at the trail!
Nevel Froze
I yelled and waved my arms
Thankfully said "youngin'" looked up and stopped in time.  No accidents and he was very apologetic.
I was just thankful I wasn't on flighty Persee.

The trail was an active creek at times and huge puddles with Tadpoles often.  No pictures here!
Nevel doesn't stop for pictures-only grass eating!

We crossed paths with a lady wandering down the trail and Nevel was certain there must be another horse somewhere so he started whinnying...no answers though.

We reached a bluff on a trail I had never been on before but the view was spectacular tho distant.

Nevel decided this must be the turn around point for home.  Unfortunately, I dropped my camera and had to dismount to save it!  So I snapped a few more photos.

"ROCKS AREN'T GOOD TO EAT MOM!"

"Ok, Lets look at Lupines and Multi-Million dollar houses on hills then!"

No Nevel, but it makes it easier to MOUNT YOU if you would only stand still.  We had a bit of a fight with him being sent in circles.

Finally I took advantage of him when he stole a snip of greenery and was back on board.

Nevel likes to FLY home, no matter how slow he went out.  He tried bolting 3 different times to see if he could get home faster!

BAD NEVEL!

He managed some 10 & 11 mph trots and I would have liked to sustain that except the  hock sucking mud kept causing us slow downs.

Back to lush green and attempts to eat though and we averaged 4.8mph for the ride.

Gorgeous day

Ornery Horse-Still a Fun Ride

Safe Back at the barn

Flax/Banana/Mint homemade horsey treats

A good way to spend a Saturday!