Smokin' Hot~

Smoke from the fires in Eastern, WA

Another hot day - our tenth consecutive day of temperatures above 80 & the count is at 12 so far this summer.  With the smoke in the air from the Mills Canyon fire in Eastern, WA making up most of the haze.  Linda & I headed out, Farah with a crupper for the first time.  I left it a little loose & when I got off to tighten it - she responded "no!"  Linda suggested leaving it this time - since she was doing so well & setting it up one more notch on my next ride.  We did a lot of hills & I didn't have to practice my emergency dismount :-)

Blooming Thistles

The heat has all the thistles blooming & I'm sure it will only be days until they go to seed.  Seems it's going to be a bad year for weeds.  The trails are now bone dry - in perfect shape.  We were the only ones riding - besides one guy with his bike.

Real woods~

 Just love riding the trails through the big trees when it's hot - the temperature is at least ten degrees cooler.   The hole on this trail that Farah had stepped in - is a Big one, so have to figure out how to carry some rock in to fill it.  Someone put a large branch in - as warning, but it's right in the middle of a nice trotting trail.

Linda & Count

By the time we reached the far end of our "range" we decided that it was darn Hot & time to head back!  Both horses were sweating & all the water puddles have dried up.  When we returned to Linda's - Farah was ready for water!  Count got a bath & tried to drink the spray :-)

Farah too :-)

Farah had her bath once we were home - she enjoyed every minute!  Her weight has held really well - even as the miles have been adding up.  We're ahead of where we were this time last season.  Looking forward to heading down to Bare Bones.  Just hope that all the hikers are aware that an endurance ride will be happening.  Know that many we saw as we were coming in last year - were unhappy at our pace.  Hard to finish a ride top ten & drop to a walk to past all the hikers...