Woohoo! We did it! Riyah and I did a 20 mile training ride today in glorious sunny weather. Maybe the horses thought it was hot, but I was so happy to be in the sun! MJ came down to ride with me, bringing her young mare, SueLynn. Our two girls got along great.

We rode the same trails I did on Tuesday, only we started a mile from Sharon's and rode the ten miles to the creek in Goshen Canyon (which Riyah had no problem with, of course!) then after a 15 min break to let them graze, we headed back, taking the lower hills trail back to the trailers. Neither horse drank at the creek. I think the bugs (gnats) were bothering Riyah, but on the way back over the hills she drank at almost every puddle in the road. Pass up clean flowing creek water for old muddy puddle water?? Huh? Maybe she learned a lesson.

We rode slowly--trotting the uphills and walking the downs mostly. We averaged 6 mile per hour moving speed, but we stopped a lot on the way back to let them graze or drink from the puddles, so overall we averaged about 5 mph. The ride took 4 hours.

All my tack worked well; it was the longest ride in this Aussie saddle for me--I was quite comfortable, and it kept me tight through a couple of big spooks! Both horses had jumpy moments, but we survived them all. Riyah had a couple of head-tossing-opinion-pushing-moments as well, but she ended up seeing things my way and settled back down to business.

I did finally have a boot pop off---she spooked right out of it, and I don't even know what she was spooking at! She just suddenly jumped sideways and did a quick twist to stop and stare at who knows what, and I looked down to see that she had lost a boot. Of course it was still around her pastern, so I just jumped off and put it back on. No other problem in the whole 20 miles, including creek crossing, mud, and multiple steep hills. The boots shouldn't fit, but I'm thinking it's not about size, but maybe hoof shape and the horse's way of going. The picture shows the gap in the toe is pretty big. The gaiters are finally shot though--time to replace them for sure. (Keno has used these boots for a year before Riyah stole them from him!)

The other pics show the horses back at the trailer eating and resting before we loaded up to head home. Riyah was tired and very hungry!

I am really proud of this girl! She is doing so well for her level of training and after so short a time under saddle. At home I brushed her down, cold hosed her legs for ten minutes, and gave her beet pulp, grain, and all the hay she wants. She earned it. Color Country is in one week. We are going to do it!