This past weekend, the mare and I set out for some new horizons we could ride to, without using a trailer.
We have trailered to these area's before; to ride the vast service roads to thousands and thousands of managed forest lands. They are but a few miles away from my barn.
We had not attempted to ride there... just to the nearby "Trails Shangrila". BUT-Those trails are far too wet and sloppy to get to now...so to be able to reach these service roads, we had a small amount of our own local roads to ride.
I never like to ride on roads, a certain amount of common sense foreboding to doing it for me....back country, speeding vehicles, and sometimes-low visibility for them-before they see us!
Of course, I ride prepared with Flashing lights on my helmet, blinking red lights, on the back of my saddle, my very bright neon road service vest, with glowing reflection strips on it. I try to be smart about it.
This time too...it was Super Bowl Sunday...nobody was out!
It is gorgeous out there!
You can see three mountains, when it not overcast as it was for most of my ride.
I left the barn at 1:30pm....arrived to the first main road into the Forest lands at 2:30pm. We made great time...We trotted and cantered a little, where we could. The mare was so darned fresh from the start(trying to buck in our driveway!) I knew this ride would be perfect for her..NEW and long!
It was COLD...in the shade I noticed FROST on my mare's face, just below her eye!!!
We had a very nice time out there solo this day.
AND
It did get sunny by 3:30 PM, as we started to head for the front gate to the properties.
The nice thing is...we head west to go home on most our rides and so- yea....it is the best to always be...... wait for it........Riding Into the Sunset!
Home by 5pm
