First training ride, chapter 2

My last several rides have been a battle of wills between Tia and me. She always wants to go, go, go, as in walk very fast, but on a ride with many people and horses you can really only go as fast as the slowest person/equine team in the group. Also, Ti is very alpha and tends to get ugly if other horses get into her bubble. So, I wondered how she would behave around Char's morgan mare Delight. We've decided to try a limited distance (25-30 mile) ride in August, and want to train together. Our first outing, on Saturday morning, turned out much better than I predicted. Ti and Delight didn't bug each other at all! They walked at about the same pace, which meant that neither Char nor I had to work very hard and we had a blast. The weather was picture perfect. Temperature in the 70's, clear sky, green hills, fresh air, and nothing much but the sound of the Emmett hills just being hills. Quiet and peaceful. I loved it. Char is the best company.

We played around with trying to take our horses' pulse. It's harder that it looks! But we didn't do so badly for a first try. Ti's preride pulse was in the low/mid 50s. It was about the same at the end, and down to about 40 bpm after a thirty minute rest. I'm pleased.