Riding

     Its finally dried out  enough here in CA for me to get out and ride some. I went on a very short trail ride on Sunday on my friends horse Magnum. My friend just walked with us but it was nice to get out. Yesterday, I went on the same horse for a longer trail ride with another one of my friends. We did a long loop with lots of hills and Magnum really seemed like he enjoyed getting out and really wanted to go running up all the hills and gave me a few interesting little moments. My friends horse Sophie wasn't feeling great towards the end and ended up getting a nasty allergic reaction once they got back to the ranch. She is fine now. Magnum at the end of the ride felt like he could go around the loop again and be fine but I did get him quite sweaty with his winter coat but it was nice enough to hose him off a bit.
     Today I went down to my old ranch to ride my friends other horse Weldon. He has been off work for awhile and is finally sound enough to start riding but is very out of shape. My friend doesn't feel good riding him himself until he is a bit more in shape but wanted me to try him out because I am lighter. Weldon was a lot of fun to ride and really enjoyed getting out and doing something. He is a TB/Arab cross and sure showed his race horse heritage today. He really didn't want to settle into a trot and kept breaking into a canter. When I did canter he was very forward but the first direction he kept changing leads but the second direction he just went. I kind of just had to let him get some of that out and he did give me a nice slower canter at the end. He took a bit of getting use to at first because he has much more suspension than Banico. I also saw a bunch of my old friends from there and had had some nice conversations with some. It is very nice to have friend who will let me ride their horses when I am so far away from Banico.