Our Saturday afternoon ride was so nice. The girls (all four of us!) had had some lunch and a short rest, and were ready to go. I was particularly eager to get to this loop, as it promised some of the open meadow terrain that one sees between Highway 55 and East Mountain while driving along 55, and for years I've thought it would be pretty swell to ride over there. Back out toward Corral Creek Road, then turned north up a draw through the middle of the field.
We'd paced our morning loop very conservatively, took our time, and worked hard to prevent our ponies from wearing out. Not knowing how long or steep any section of the two small mountains were, and being newbies, we were very very careful. But we learned a lot by watching how some of the more seasoned competitors managed their respective rides. So, we not-so-newbies picked up a steady trot and moved right along.
This trail was cake by comparison to the AM--level two-track sections, meandering paths through open woodlands, and the piece de resistance...?...a very good portion on trails blazed smack dab through deep grassy meadows. It was heavenly, except for the fact that my hind end was getting sore and by then my poor legs were screaming in pain from all the posting and standing in stirrups. Never knew my thighs could hurt so much!! But quitting out there really wasn't an option, since the alternative would have been to get off and walk. NOT. We were encouraged on by the skinny we'd heard at lunch, that the loop was only 8 miles, not the designated 10. That might have been hearsay, but we had it on good authority (I'm not naming names!) and chose to believe it. A sweet psychological ploy, whether or not it was true.
I remember keeping close tabs on the time, since we had a deadline to meet. But this meant maintaining our speedier pace for relatively long distances, and I think it was this afternoon loop where I began standing up alot in my stirrups. At the time it felt like much less work than posting. I had no idea what price I would later pay for my strategy...didn't really think about that.
There may have been only one water stop along this loop. I only remember the one in the river. Ti and Delight marched right in and Ti sucked down cool fresh water. Char was a little frustrated that Delight wasn't drinking, but you know what they say: "You can lead a horse to water.......". Delight was happy to stand there and paw at the water, helping Char cool her off. We both used Char's nifty sponge on a string to cool the girls off. Drop the sponge down into the water, pull it up with the long string, and squeeze the water out on the horse. Wring out the sponge, tie it back up to the saddle, and ta da! We didn't linger, as there was only room for three or four horses in the water at a time and other riders arrived shortly after us.
Toward the end of the loop we were back in the trees, and suddenly there was the little paper plate on a stick pointing us to the road and finish line. We hit the road with only minutes to spare, and trotted the girls down the last quarter mile of road. This may have been the point where we grabbed each other's hands and raised them high over our heads for our victorious, glorious finish.
No comments:
Post a Comment