Casual Friday

I don't make enough time to do fun and easy stuff with my boys. I should; we all should. When you work full time, and you're a perpetual under achieving over-achiever, there's simply no time for taking it easy. I don't know who makes those rules, but I broke one of them on Friday.

A new friend, KM, sent me a text asking if I had Saturday open for a ride. She rode with me a month or so back, and I had told her to call when she up for round two. I had a Chemaine Hurtado Clinic to put on on Saturday, but I told her that my Friday was free. As luck would have it, so was hers.

Learning Archie's saddling preferences.

My selection of trails is quite small. If you want to get an hour ride in, there's basically one loop. You can ride it clockwise or counter clockwise. We have a single paved road with a good shoulder and no traffic that circles around the neighborhood which is comprised of two to ten acre properties. There's also a small section that winds through some nice trees and then down along the river. The ranch itself has a nice circle, but even if you tie it all together, that's all there is.

Fortunately, KM is not picky. She had seen it all before, but she was more than happy to do it all again. She's a lady after my own heart. Four sound legs, a long swinging neck, and a piece of leather under her bum were all she needed to be happy.

Two gray ponies and two happy ladies.

We spent some time grooming and tacking up and then walked up to the arena for some get re-acquainted time. After that, we spent a lovely hour just enjoying the nice weather and the musical sound of eight hooves beating out their rhythm.

On the way back to the ranch, we discovered that the sandy beach along the river had been smoothed out and cleaned up so we walked the horses down to the water and let them put their toes in. KM had been sharing how she was looking forward to an upcoming beach ride with her husband and friends. The Kern River is not quite the Pacific Ocean, but it was a beach ride.

After we had cleaned up the horses and given them some treats, we spent some time chatting. I learned that KM is quite an accomplished artist, like people would buy her stuff kind of good. She especially likes to paint animals.

Oh, boy ... I've got a couple she can paint!