Riding with Sandy & Ody!

As we get ready to head out!

This year, Sandy was available to fill one of the rare empty spots with our group!  We've only had these two horses together twice!  We were both pretty excited to have days to ride & finally the time to enjoy seeing these two together!  Farah had been waiting & watching for Justin's Morgan gelding - she was truly surprised when Ody pulled in!  They both recognized each other right away :-)  Sandy's camp was right behind ours - with a short connecting trail, so the two could see each other from their respective corrals.

Everyone in camp was struck with how much Farah resembles her sire!  So much for a foal taking after the dam more than the sire!  I was shocked at how differently Farah was behaving with Ody.  Absolutely none of her snarky attitude, she was mellow, happy & it wasn't the same behavior as when she's with other geldings.  If he was in front, she was fine with it, if he was behind - even close behind - she was fine with that too! 

We find the pretty trail~

This is one of the prettiest trails in the park, if not for the sand - you'd think you were in the mountains!  From it, there's several trails that lead over to the inlet side of the spit & a couple that go over to the ocean side.  One of these was closed due to the Snowy Plover nesting sights.

Farah smells Ody~

When we came out further south & stopped to admire the view, Farah put her nose lightly on Ody's hip & took in his scent.  She has Never done this before!  No nip - which is her usual behavior!  We were laughing out loud several times over their behaviors!  Both like to grunt!  Both like to sneeze, both Love to Yawn!  To see the two of them yawning was just too funny!  :-)

The Sea Lions were in their sunbathing spot~

 We walked along the beach of the inlet, then turned inland on the farthest trail out to the ocean.

We crest the hill to the ocean side~

Once you reach the ocean, you feel the wind!  We'd be heading into it on our four-mile trip back toward camp.  The tide was on it's way out - so we had a decent width of wet compacted sand.  We were restricted to the wet sand - again due to the birds.

The Jetty~

From here - it was time to trot & gallop north!  Yippee!  Since it was a weekday - we had the beach pretty much to ourselves & what a wonderful feeling that is!  The roar of the surf, sound of the wind & strange sound that the sand makes under the hooves of the horses was really a rush.

Sandy & Ody!

Watching Ody move out - was almost like watching Farah!  The length of stride, way of going, everything about them was so similar!  Soon, we were up & over 10-mph at the trot - side by side!  The beach flew by & we overshot our trail back!  When we turned, it was nice to have the wind at our backs!

This night - the first with everyone in camp, we had our traditional pot-luck!  We filled four long tables with food & we did our very best to eat it all!  Afterward, when the wind died down, we sat around the campfire, swapping stories - perfect end to a perfect day!