Just a short one, Gary, 50 K. I've been working some youngsters and those horses hadn't been worked in about two months. Also, as you can see, both those were haired up for winter in the Wyoming mountains. By our standards, Moab was downright hot - about 3000 feet lower than the ranch. By the way, the lady is my pardner and the horses are full brother and sister.
50k is still a good hack and it looks like you are going well. A nice family outing all round Beautiful country you are riding through
I love that desert country, Gary. Because my horses are haired up by late Oct, I'm not competitive at Moab, but I still keep going, just to enjoy it.
Jack, ya gotta body clip those wooly buggers to bring them out of the arctic north. I got a new one here yesterday from Oregon off a ranch. It looks like Chewbacca from Star Wars.
You got it, Ben, I remember doing a parade horse here one April. Boy, was he slicked out. I asked the owner how he got him so slick that early. He said "No problem, just drive down to Oklahoma and pick 'em up."
I would enjoy a ride there without the pressure of the time element...beautiful country..but just once..
There was a funny side to the first day -- I thought it was funny anyway. Anyhow, the story. A lady who shall remain unnamed (although in the vernacular of our youth, you can have three guesses, first two don't count). stopped for that pause that refreshes and while she was squatted down with pants around her ankles, her horse decided to rub it's head on her. As she fell backwards, her bare butt landing spot was a patch of blind prickly pear cactus. If you haven't dealt with this variety, it is truly nasty. Instead of large spines that can be easily (although painfully) removed, it has hundreds of very fine short spines that are difficult to remove W/O breaking off. This led to about a forty minute retreat off the trail into the brush while I tried to remove enough spines to make riding possible, After all she couldn't see them. There were probably a couple hundred and my large fingers and no reading glasses didn't make the job easy. Finally mounted up for the last 20 miles. Walk down hill since you're sitting in the saddle then, canter uphill in a very forward seat - hard on the horse, but does protect the butt and make a finish before cutoff time possible. The finish line meant another hour or so bent over a chair while more professional help with good light and tweezers finished the job I had started. Yep, that was a new experience.
Crap! I gotta pay better attention to who's posting what. I thought Jack M. had put up pics of Sydney. It is upside down, right?
