An interesting ride...

First, the good news - I got a job! Yeah!! Yeah Me! It's only part time and it's not very much money but I get to start tomorrow and it's something to do in the meantime until I find something or get more hours!

So, that's the good thing about my day - that and I got to hang out at the barn all day and ride with Betsy this afternoon. Michelle was here this morning and she lunged Red who was pretty spooky! But she's working on it and getting him up to speed and in shape for more riding.

I had to wait until the afternoon for Betsy to get out of work - so I rode in the yard for a while which was an adventure of its own. Sky was acting very gawky even at the walk. We trotted spirals and circles and then I made the mistake of asking her to lope... she can not for the life of her get the correct lead and she gets pissed off - pins her ears back and sticks her head up! I pretty much gave up on that, tried to end on a good note and then put her up and left her tied while I waited for Betsy.

Betsy finallly got out of work and Sky and I went down the road to meet Betsy and Harvey. We made it down the road and up Betsy's trail - no Betsy... so I call her and find we passed each other in the field! So, I trotted back down to the field at the corner and we finally got going.

We went down New Road a ways and as we passed a trail which looked like it had some ruts in it, like something had driven down there, I asked Betsy where that went... so Betsy says, "I think it goes to a dead end"... but we decided to check it out anyway. It was a beautiful trail but we were watching out the whole time because Betsy thought it the land belongs to a guy who she wound up in his backyard one time and he gave her a hard time about being on his land! So, we veered to the left to stay away from his house and wound up on some beautiful trails - we think made by this guy!

We came out down by a little pond and there was a bridge which looked somewhat questionable so we boondcocked it (boondock (v) - to venture off the beaten trail in search of a better route) through the stream which Sky did very well at considering her history with streams!

Continuing down the trail, we went through some serious muck and through another stream before we wound up coming out into a beautiful field! That's when Betsy instilled lots of confidance by saying, "I think I know where we are..." (famous last words!) But she really did know where we were and we happened to be behind someone's house which led to a dirt road which led back around to home.

We decided to cut across Windswept so I could come back home through the gate at the top of the powerlines in the field behind Lisa's barn. Along the way we came across a small (I'm talking small here - the lower part was about six inches) branch... Betsy sped Harvey up to jump it and she pointed him over the higher portion and he lept over. I, however, am not so adventerous so I slowed Sky to a walk and pointed her to the lower end thinking we would walk over..... oh no! Sky decided at that point to leap straight up and then lurch over the branch! OH SH**.... Now I had, in anticipation of this, held onto the saddle horn - lot of good it did me! As Sky continued on, loping at the speed of light, I found myself bouncing out of the saddle, losing both stirrups, all my reins and landing on top of the pommel, my legs flying up over her neck! With a fistful of her mane and a lot of grip wherever I could find it, I managed to pull her up somehow while steering her pretty much into Harvey to get her to stop.... Once she did manage to plant her feet, I proceeded to swear like a trucker before my eyes stung with tears over both the pain in my thigh and in my pride.

Betsy couldn't believe I'd stayed on and as we went along I tried to make sense out of what happened. The rest of our ride was uneventful and I came down through the power lines, which I like to do. All I can say is OMG!

So, wish me luck on my new job tomorrow! I'll let you know how it goes!

C