7 Hr Ride!!

Sundance (Tennesse Walking Horse)

Andrea and Misty in the lake at our first water stop..Andrea is my age and she is also into training horses. I wouldn't be surprised we go on trail rides together in the future!!

Three of the other girls in the lake at our first stop by the water!

Some scenery..it was a gorgeous day!

Lunch break

Second water stop (Sharon on Lightning..recently gelded)

Andrea on Misty

Earl Dean on Curly (the horse I rode some last time) and more scenery.

Some of the people behind me

I was farther behind the group this time

In the back of the group

Me on Sundance after our ride

Lightning

Sundance waiting to be loaded into the trailer to go home

I am not sure how to write about the ride yesterday but I am going to try. I left home here at 6 am so I could be down at Sharon's a bit before 6:30 so I could try out the bareback pad setup to see if I wanted to do that. I knew I would be way to sore riding in the saddle (I was more saddle sore on Tuesday than anything else) and I am not sore in the least from riding yesterday =) Anyway we left Sharon's house (there were 11 of us and we were meeting one guy up there at Blue Marsh (where we were riding) so there were 12 of us all together. We got up there a bit before 8 and I would say that we were out on the trail about 8:10 or so. The first half of the day was pretty uneventful. We rode in a lot of woods and we did have some open spaces but mostly wooded area. We stopped for lunch (I didn't have time on me so I don't know what time it was or how long we rested for lunch). After lunch we rode a ways and got to another area we could go into the lake at. My horse drank her fill of water and we just stood there for a bit. One of the guys 4 year old (Moonlight) decided to roll with the saddle on. He got off and nobody was hurt but he was wet from the waist down. Poor guy but his horse sure felt great =D

We crossed a few little streams and one not really river but it was deep enough that it came just below the stirrups on my horse. It was lots of fun crossing streams and going in the water like that. A few times we crossed over on the bridge instead of going thru the water. We did a fair amount of walking but we did add soem good canters and a few gallops in as well. So much fun and there is not feeling like sitting on a horse at a canter..such freedom!! We were about half an hour from being back and me (on Sundance) and Andrea (on Misty) and Marybeth (on Jack) were a little bit behind our group (Sharon and her husband Earl Dean were farther behind as we had cantered a bit and they couldn't keep up because Lightning lost some of his shoe) and we were just talking as we were just walking along on our horses. All of a sudden Jack starts putting his head down and acting real funny and then Sundance did the same. Andrea was behind me and she yells BEES and JUMP OFF!! I got off and ran into the forest and Marybeth just runs ahead with her horse. Andrea gets off her horse and runs back (so not to go by the bees..which were actually wasps we later figured..apparently they had a nest on the ground or something and when the group ahead came thru they stirred them up then we came thru and we got the brunt of the attack) and Misty runs to catch up with the rest of the group. I ran up to the rest of the group and they are like what is wrong and we said bees. They asked if anyone got stung. Marybeth got stung on her ankle and I got stung on both ears and by shoulder (a bee got inside my clothing). Needless to say I was a bit miserable. The one guy calls Sharon on her phone and tells her we had some trouble and they came thru the forest to avoid the bees. We weren't far from being back of which I was thankful because my ears were hurting. They did swell a bit and they were red...the group was laughing at my red ears =D I must say that is one trail ride I will not forget. 

We rode back to the trailers and I took some pics. We loaded our horses up and took them back to Sharon's house and unloaded them. We unsaddled them and tied them out by the fence to hose them off. I had to head home because I wanted to go to the youth meeting but if I wouldn't of had that I would have stayed and helped. It was a fun but very memorable ride. I enjoyed being able to meet other horse people (my age which was awesome) and just spending a day on horseback. I must say there is nothing like feeling like you are in the middle of nowhere on horseback!! I would not be surprised in the least that I get to ride with Andrea again. She has a horse of her own that she is training (she wasn't riding him as he is only 2) and it was interesting talking to another person that is my age and looks at training a lot as I do. Pretty neat!!

I did go to the youth meeting and I got to hang out with the girls from the different Hope Church's Youth. Very much fun. I didn't go to church this morning as I was not feeling so well (my bee stings were hurting me, I got the cold my mom has, and my stomache was feeling upset =D). My mom gave me Benedryl (Sp) for the bee stings so I feel a bit better now =)