Another river day

We did head back to the river today, but we took the long way around, doing some bushwhacking parallel to the dyke, heading downstream. Found some very pleasant trails, and turned around when they all ended at the river. Michelle came with us again today but on her palomino Morgan/Quarter Horse cross mare, Allie, who used to be Shayla's horse; you may remember her from a few of my posts trail riding with Rio a few years ago.

I was bareback again as I planned to ride into the river, as was Michelle. My butt cheeks are sure getting a workout!

Shayla did a little schooling on Sassy, checking her for issues when the other horses get a ways ahead of her, but- she was a rock star! She was happy to stay back, no trotting to keep up.

Shayla was saddled, so she opted to take the photos. We went across on the shallow end first to see how Allie reacted. All was well so the next pass was deeper.

Michelle said that she could really feel Allie reaching for bottom!

 No, Allie, you are not a submarine, you need to keep your nose above the water!

Gussie did better today, although she definitely was more comfortable with another horse in the water with her....

we did get to swimming depth a couple of times. She does turn around and head to shore pretty quickly once she has to swim though; I think the trick there will be going with a horse that will swim straight across and have her follow.

Shayla took her mare across but not at swimming depth. Sassy seems to like the water.

She's a pretty cool li'l mare!
After that we went upstream a ways and found a place where we can go further by getting into some shallow water to go around a fenceline- that's Sunday's project. It should bring us to some trails that Shayla knows well.

Riding Day 55