'all by myself''... (insert melody from sappy song)

So, today I was a brave girl - brave because even though I really don't like to go trail riding by myself (heck I don't like riding by myself, period) I went!

I've been waiting lately - waiting for Betsy to get back from vacation, waiting for Michelle to get out of work (not that I begrudge anyone having a job -gasp!), waiting for Lisa to have a moment to ride with me.... but today I decided to wait no longer. I had plans to ride with Betsy later this afternoon but Karl is insisting that we go watch our friends' son play t-ball (yeah). So, I have decided that if I am to give my ride up tonight then I will certainly go with Betsy tomorrow to the NH Horse and Trail ride at Bear Brook. That will be super fun, I think.

Anyway, Lisa and Josh are off getting tattooed so I was on my own. Sky cooperated well enough to come in, considering there isn't a round bale out right now. She lost about three pounds of pin hairs being groomed, a good thing, and I am noticing that she is getting 'beat up' again, a bad thing. As I got her ready, I mentally thought about whether or not I was to ride out alone... I set up peramiders in my mind like if she didn't hesitate out the driveway I would definately go. Silly me - of course she headed right out the driveway - she's actually pretty good riding out alone. That I think is a product of all the rides we did when I first got back to NH as well as the jaunts with Sadie in Texas. When you are the only one riding somwhere you get used to going out alone.

We only had one small altercation with a harley bike on the road and made it past the group of small children and the barking dog on the corner before we were home free down the dirt roads across from Boyce Road. It was pretty quiet and so was Sky once she realized that, yes, we are still going 'that' way. I trotted quite a bit from the left turn and down that road to the trail... stopping once only to get an offer from the mail man to join the pony express!

Sky did pretty well with that - we got some nice, easy jogging in which I have wanted to do for a while for conditioning purposes. Once we got to the trail that leads to across from Winswept, I figured it was best to go the way I knew for our first time out alone on these trails. Sky was more than happy to go the way she knew as well and the trail proved to be very nice. It has dried up a lot since the last time we went out on it, and she tromped through the one puddle perfectly. I had to push her a little bit once we crossed 132 (a breathless experience) and into Windswept's driveway. She hesitated a lot as we cut across to the field behind Betsy's field and spooked once at the mountain lion disguised as a rock! After that I pushed her a little harder to pay attention and stop looking for something to be scared of!

We made it to the back of Betsy's field and as I tried to remember the way to cut across to the power lines both Sky and I spotted a group of rather large turkeys.... Sky stopped dead in her tracks and picked her head up so high I thought she was doing an impression of a llama.... but as I told her, turkeys are a much better thing to be scared of than rocks... so we watched them as they trotted up the old logging trail and I spooked them along with my impression of a turkey... Once they disappeared I pointed Sky down the trail and we found our way along to the way to the power lines.

I had great hopes of finding a way to boondock across the woods by the power lines into the development next to Lisa's in order to avoid coming in the back gate... but the brush has grown up a lot since Betsy and I had tried it before and I couldn't find a way... So, we picked our way through the downed trees and I wrestled with the electric fence gate. It works out ok but it's not exactly the easiest thing either.

So Sky and I truly did a loop as we came back in the same stall and she walked right into the cross ties that she left about an hour + ago. I decided since it was so warm today to give her a bath (scrub a dub dub) and I must say she is looking very spiffy. Hopefully it lasts until the ride tomorrow. :)

Now I am headed to go grocery shopping, I suppose. I highly doubt that will beat out this ride as the highlight of my day.

C