On the trails

It has been a while since I have ridden. I did have a short ride on Gussie a week or so ago, but with new foals and working with Sparkle and trimming feet, on top of hot weather that has me hiding out in the house, I have been neglecting my riding.
Yesterday was a good test for Sparkle. I saddled Gussie, then got Sparkle and saddled her up. She was only minimally twitchy about it ( grin) so I rode Gussie and led her. I wanted to see how she would do going through out pond so that's where we headed first. Last time I rode through there the water was over my stirrups and this time it was only up to Gussie's knees at the deepest part. The river is almost back to it's summer level.

No problem, no hesitation. Good girl!
We headed on down to the dyke and I was monitoring how she was doing on the rocky ground. No ouchiness, also good as I plan to keep her barefoot. Gussie is good barefoot so rides like this help keep their feet conditioned.
Once we got to the furthest part of the ride we relaxed by the river for a bit.

Took a different route going back, through the trees. I was happy that branches rubbing on her and the noise they made scraping across the saddle didn't seem to bother Sparkle. There is one place in the ride where there is a scary looking stump that looks like a black hole- as you can see in the next video she did give it a good look. It's near the end of the video.

I'm pretty happy with miss Sparkle and I can't wait to hit the trails with her! Now I just need a riding partner. I think our next outing will be upriver to check out the swimming hole.

Riding day 43 and 44