Despite overnight rain and dire predictions of continued rain for the day, I got up and saddled up. I was very glad I did. The rain cleared out fairly early and made for a nice day to ride. I have to say I agree with the Duck: There is no such thing as bad riding weather, just inappropriate clothing. While I would generally not ride on a rainy day at home, I'll ride at an event no matter what!
I was really hoping Hoss would be a little worn down from the previous day's ride. Well, I was hoping in vain. While he wasn't quite as bad as on the first day, he certainly wasn't settling down! He still wanted to catch up to and pass every horse he saw. So, I started pushing him to pass – and keep going. This worked relatively well, until he decided he'd passed everybody, then he went in to slug mode. We got past all the horses we saw, and he slowed way down. I just kept pushing him. Not exactly the easiest thing in the world to do, but it had to be done. After a bit, I'd let him drop back to a walk. As soon as another horse tried to pass, though, he'd try to pick up the trot again.
At one point we were passed while I wasn't holding the reins. I don't remember why I didn't have the reins in my hands, but the result was, he realized he was about to be passed, and surged into a trot. I decided to simply let him trot a while, since it would have taken a bit to pick up the reins and pull him back. So instead, I made him trot longer than he really wanted to!
After a few episodes of leapfrog, the rider of the horse who had tried to pass us and I decided to simply ride together. Our horses were well matched and got along well. We had ridden together briefly at Death Valley, too.
Because of the threat of rain, the ride management had reworked the trail so that the vet check was back in camp. We came in and brought our horses to check in, grabbed some lunch, and headed to our trailers. I gave Hoss a nice bran mash and some hay. Hoss seems to particularly appreciate his bran mashes on rides.
Since I was back in camp, I decided to lay down in the tent for a while. I was tired! It turned out I only had about fifteen minutes to rest. An hour really is not a very long time! Still, I laid down for a bit, and was glad of the brief rest. I got up when my fifteen minutes were over and took Hoss to the vet. While we were vetting, the rider we had been with arrived to get her horse checked through. We decided to finish the ride together.
After heading back out on the trail, Hoss was a bit logy. This is not unusual. He often feels a little less than motivated after a long vet hold. This being the case, we decided to canter a bit to wake both of our horses up. Hoss picked up the canter somewhat less than enthusiastically, but was motivated enough to keep it up to prevent the other horse from passing him. After we let the horses drop back to a trot, we continued on our way, me feeling like I had to keep goading Hoss at every stride.
We were trotting up an incline, not steep but noticeable. Hoss is not happy about uphills. He likes flat and downhill. This was borne out when we hit the flat part, and suddenly he was moving forward! We're gonna have to work on that whole moving out on uphills thing.
Once we were moving out nicely, it was easy to keep the horses going. We did walk from time to time. Mostly, though, we trotted. The horses wanted to go mostly side by side. This would get complicated when the trail would get narrow. Neither of them were particularly happy about the idea of giving trail to the other. So, as riders, we were checking back or pushing forward to make them give trail.
The rest of the ride was uneventful but pretty. I like the desert. I've heard from others how they don't like doing the desert rides because it's "too barren." Barren? It's beautiful out there! It's flat, but I like it.
We finished in a respectable 8 hours. Hoss once again vetted through with flying colors. I took him back to the trailer and settled him in. One more day to go!
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