By far the best ride of the year!

..... And, Eeek, scariest too! Hehe!

Ok, so I have to relate my whole weekend to make the ride seem that much more interesting, but I promise I will get to the ride!

So I was planning on going for hay on Sat, but then my dad got up late and had to leave right away to go to his CRFG meeting, so we couldn't unload the stove that was in the back of my truck. So I had to postpone getting hay till Sunday, which was already very busy. I still hadn't been sure when I was going to fit my ride in, but then it seemed ovious that I should ride on Sat, until I remembered that I couldn't trailer becuase of the stove. I considered riding Lucy out from home, but I decided that would be too much for her(lots of steep hills on rocky surfaces). So Loren convinced me that we needed to go to town to figure out my problems with my wow account (I haven't been able access my account since Wednesday), which was really just a ploy to get me to town so he could play wow himself! Ahaha!

So on Sunday I got up and fed early, for a Sunday, and waited for my dad to get up so we could unload the stove. We were unable to get out of the house until 11am, so we were later then we should have been considering all we had to do. What was all we had to do?

Drive a hour or more to get the hay in San Jose.
Drive the hour or more back to town.
Clean the tower.
Eat lunch.
Drive home and unload 12 bales of hay.
Hook the trailer up.
Load Lucy(kinda cute story there!)
Drop Loren off in town.
Go to Carolyns and work with Sassy.
Go back to town and get my phone from Loren.
Go for my ride.
Wow I'm tired just typing it all out!
So ok, we left town at 11am, and I got out on the trail at 8pm! And there was little relaxing inbetween! Yes, I am very tired today!

Cute story concerning Lucy and Loren:

So Loren volunteered to walk Lucy down the hill to the trailer while I drove the truck down and hooked it up ( I am much better at this then him). I was a little suprised but Loren secretly likes Lucy, I will make him ride her someday when I am riding Kezi! So I hooked the trailer up, and just as I was finishing I see Lucy and Loren come around the corner on the road, trotting down the hill! They both looked perfectly ok with the situation and I found out from Loren that it was really neither ones choice to trot, Lucy was just eager to find me and he kept walking faster until they were trotting. It was very cute!

Cute story concerning Lucy and Nachos (or how Lucy got a shadow):

No, nachos is a colt. A super cute Pally Mustang colt! When I arrived at Carolyns it was fairly chaos, which is pretty normal. Apperently Nachos moms had wanted to turn him out in the arena with Gizzy (very cute TB mule) and Sassy (the vanner I am working with) because they are both young and playful. Well as far as I can tell Gizzy reveled in being able to dominat Nachos and pinned him in a corner. So Gizzy and Sassy were promtly taken out again. When I arrive poor Sassy had been left tied up and had gotten caught up in her lead rope and Gizzy needed to be put back in his pasture. So I rescued Sassy and then put Gizzy away for Carolyn. Then went back to rescue my own horse who was waiting patiently in the trailer. I suggested that if they wanted to turn Nachos out with someone who would be nice to him they could turn him out with Lucy. So we did and Lucy gained her shadow! It was pretty darn cute! He stuck to her like glue, and because both my mares are sluts, she insisted on showing off for him! It didn't matter then he is only a year old!

And now the story of my ride!!!:

I'm actually suprised at how resilant I was about going for my ride. I mean there were plently of times where I could have (and on other occations would have) just decided to go home and ride another day. But no, I was determined to go on my ride. And boy am I glad I did! I learned a lot!
Such as:

Riding at dusk/night is fun!
Riding at dust/night is scary as hell!
That I am a big baby about mountian lions at night
That Lucy is a really good girl at night and does quite well with it
That trotting helps me not think about getting eaten by a moutain lion
And that Lucy is more then capable of trotting a lot more then I have been lately and on harder ground too!

So that gives you a base idea of what happened on our ride! We started out at 8pm, went 30 minutes up the trail (2.27 miles) walking and trotting. And then took 50 minutes to get back down the trail (walking more but still trotting on slight downhills) getting back to the trailer at 9:20! Near the end of the trail it was dark enough that I could no longer distiquish shapes unless they were right in front of us. I decided to trust that Lucy will know if the movement belongs to a harmles dear, or something that wants to eat her. I also trust her to know how to respond to something that wants to eat her. I am also hoping her responce isn't to dump me and run! But I think her responce would be to stand and stare, which I think is what scares me about a mountian lion. I am not actually scared of it eating me or Lucy, but just the thought of coming face to face with one while riding scares me. Or passing one in the night not knowing if it is a mountian lion or not.
I have decided I need to go out for more night time rides to get over my fear of Mountain lions. But I would like to start out earlier in the day next time! Like an hour and a half at least!

So that was my very cool/scary ride! Lucy needs to be going one longer rides with more trot soon. I am have considering talking her on a ride from Cloverdale to home soon.

I think we probably could handle the ride this weekend, I have until Wednesday to sign up, assuming they are not already full!