Today was our "group training ride" aka "some friends going riding." Gail, Sharon, and I rode out from Sharon's ranch to hit the hills. It was warmish and mostly sunny but windy.

We decided to split up--Sharon and Gail taking a side trail, and me continuing with Riyah. It was only a half mile or so till we met up again, but to Riyah it was a little (read: a lot) disturbing! The first time she kept going, but whinnied and fretted and tried to jig. Overall she did alright, but she was super-relieved to see that Mikey and Janey had not totally abandoned her when we met up againl. A little later we decided to try it again. This was a little more upsetting to her and included a fairly wild "leaping-laterally-off-the-trail-and-down-the-mountainside-into-the-deadfall-cedars" episode. Luckily I didn't come off and she didn't tumble down the hillside. (Gotta love that Aussie saddle!) Anyway, we got back up to where we were supposed to be and continued on. She was unhappy about being alone, but for the most part she managed to walk (fretfully) up and down the hills, around the big bend in the road for a mile until we met up with her two security blankets again.

Riyah was stellar as long as she was with her buds. She passed the power plant, cows, scary gates and horse-eating rocks, and even the UPS truck. So there were some good parts to the ride, too! It's interesting to me that if I take her out totally alone, she's fine, but if we start out with buddies, she gets upset about leaving them. Have to think about that one a bit.

Back at Sharon's I set up my electric fence corral. We tied Sharon's older gray mare nearby with a hay bag for company and let Riyah chill in the corral for a few hours. She did OK--didn't try to escape or jump out or anything! I left. Poor Keno was very distraught when I pulled up at home without the trailer or his girl! I made his day, though, when I went back to get her after dinner!

The weather outlook for the weekend is not good. Winter storm warning for southern Utah as well as our central Utah mountains. I'm hoping it's a false alarm. I want to leave here Friday afternoon for the Color Country ride (25 miles on Saturday), but I'm a little worried about the freeway travel over the mountains if it's stormy. :[