Are Rare Indeed!

Time for a drink~

Ok, I have Plenty to do here at home!  Plenty...  But there again...  It was another Beautiful day!  After working for two-days, scanning paperwork & emailing it off, I was ready to head to the hills.

Amazing ground covers in full bloom

This time of year, our landscape seems to change daily.  I've always considered Mid-May to be our most beautiful time of year - closely followed by Mid-Oct. - weather dependent for the fall colors I enjoy as much.

Farah is in season again, but instead of the unmotivated ride of last Fri. today - given her head - she started off with a nice trot.  Hitting the right hind shoe to the bottom of the right front at every stride.  Here's an article.  We'd worked through this with Art, just before we did the 30-mi. of the Centennial trail - since it was an issue that was showing up with the flat work.  Art had tweaked the shoeing to perfection & it lasted until we made our appointment with the new shoer.  I was told that we could have gone another couple weeks on those shoes, but that there was no problem putting new shoes on - that a few days wouldn't make that much difference.  I wanted shoes that were a couple weeks old for inspection day - which we will now have.   When he was here last week to re-set the RF that was twisted - I mentioned the problem & was told that Farah had at least 6" of clearance at the walk.  Right - at the Walk!  It's speed dependent, we either have to go faster, gallop, or go much slower to not have the forging...

Fast Trail~

It was so clear that the white peaks of the Cascades stood out against the blue skies & puffy white clouds.  We're within a few miles of breaking 400-miles, year-to-date in the Distance Derby.  It was a surprise to find that we'd made it to 12th place - by a few tenths of a mile on Tuesday's leader-board update, especially since we're competing against riders with multiple horses. 
As we were coming toward the end of our day's loop, Farah gave one of her biggest spooks to date!  I couldn't blame her a bit - since we had come upon what I firmly believe to be the ugliest piece of heavy equipment that I've ever seen!

Obviously able to eat a horse in a single bite!

Farah took us from one side of the road to the other in a single leap :-)  I had to convince her that it was OK to pass & thankfully she knew it stood between us & our ride home!

Once home, I hosed her off & turned her out as I did chores.  (Butch was working late.)   I called her to come up out of the pasture for dinner, but no - it was nice out there.  I walked down to hurry her up & she started up the hill in a nice straight line, light trot for the barn.  "Click, click, click, click" -- Enough to make me cringe & not rider error...  No rider!   Now - what to do?

This Farrier said to ride in bell boots so I wouldn't pull off another shoe, as I'm a bit south of his range & obviously his work unlike Art's - is not guaranteed.  Did that - did I say that they were literally pressed FULL of mud by the time we were back at the trailer???  The mud was stuck hard to her hooves... just what I need!  NOT!  Do I call him?  Offering unlimited cash to FIX the problem?  There's not enough hoof growth to do anything major - but I think that we have to slow the hind feet down, or do more with the toes...

Miss you Art, we really miss you~