WOW!! What a fantastically fun ride! Riyah and I rode our ten mile (mostly solo) ride from Goshen Canyon all the way back to Sharon's house--exactly 10.0 miles. I drove to Sharon's house, picked her up, and then drove up the Goshen Canyon road. I parked and Sharon watched us get across the creek and onto the trail. (It did take 10-15 minutes to get Riyah to approach the creek bank. The crossing is about 20 feet wide, smooth sand bottom, slow water about a foot deep. Very inviting. Riyah didn't think so! Lots of backing up, trying to turn around, etc. but eventually with lots of encouragement she got to the very edge, let out a huge sigh, and walked across like she's done it every single day of her life. Go figure!)

Once we were across, Sharon drove my outfit back to her place, loaded a horse into her trailer and drove out across the cattle guard a mile and a half away. She mounted up and headed north to meet me as I headed south.

As soon as we were across the creek, Riyah was all business. It was a good thing, too, because we were suddenly facing a huge, rocky, steep hill that was really a mountain! She pushed her way strongly right to the top. We found ourselves on a dirt road heading south as we meandered through the open hills. The view was wonderful. Riyah was trotting steadily at 8+ mph according to the GPS (new batteries!) When I asked her to walk, I did it with a loose rein. She came to a walk easily each time. Her walk averaged about 4 mph. We walked a ways, then trotted a ways. Four miles into the ride, I noticed hoof prints. Suddenly, as I crested the next hill, I recognized where we were and realized they were Riyah's prints from Saturday's ride! It's easy to track booted horses!

A couple of miles more and I started looking for Sharon and Mikey. Riyah did a big double take when she saw them! Woohoo! Another horse! We rode together for a short while then split apart. We joined up a 1/4 mile later. Lots of trails winding in and out of the cedar trees! We did this a couple of time to let Riyah understand that she was OK leaving the other horse. She handled it fairly well-- whinnying a couple of times and getting a little antsy/jiggy but nothing too bad.

When we arrived at Sharon's trailer, I let Riyah stand and relax for a few minutes before we left them to load up while we headed on down the road alone. Riyah absolutely power-walked that last 1 1/2 miles! She averaged 4.4 mph as we walked the whole way to Sharon's house. Coming up the long 1/4 mile driveway toward the house, barn, and horses, she remained at a fast walk on a loose rein! Wow! I was so proud of her! I love this girl!

By the way, the boots that shouldn't fit were perfect--even with the creek, the trotting and lots of mud!