Thick and thin

Lance and I had a date with friends at Perrydale Trails yesterday morning! It was cool and cloudy – perfect for riding, especially on a compromised mount. Not that anyone could tell Lance was compromised, because he got all amped up over a horse being free-lunged in the round pen at the beginning of our ride, and moved out nicely the rest of the time. Well, they could tell if they looked and listened; more on that at the end. But first, the FUN!

Fun new trails have been added through the Christmas trees

There were five in our group: Kathy (her daughter Ashleigh took dressage lessons from me last winter; too busy studying to come) in Western tack on retired roping quarter horse Safari; red-headed Kate on her Welsh Cob/Trakehner mare Dinah; Kate's blond daughter on her blond quarter horse mare Amber; blogpal Alanna on her wonderkid Welsh Cob filly Emi, and me in a red coat on my big orange goober. ;-) Perrydale Trails owner Rebecca also popped up occasionally on her Paint; she takes photos of every visitor to email to them. The last time Kate and I were at Perrydale Trails with Alanna, Emi wasn't under saddle yet so they did the whole thing in-hand. Now look at her!

Kate and Keauri didn't do as many obstacles so I am short on photos of them (we did eat lunch together afterwards, though). Alanna, Kathy and I played more. ;-)

Kathy with a rose backdrop

A side note: The wild roses are amazing this year! I've never seen them so big, intense or numerous!

Rebecca getting a photo of Emi's amazing tail; it truly is an entity of its own. ;-)

We now go from Emi's impossibly lush tail to Lance's startlingly thin coat. I knew he was losing hair, but since I groom and tack up in the stall at home where aging eyes don't see as well, I didn't realize how much. Yesterday it was clear where he is shedding out his winter coat first (head, throat, neck, shoulders) that his summer coat is practically nonexistent. And he's still not growing any hair to speak of where Rick shaved his sides to ultrasound his lungs.

Zoom in and you can see how patchy his head looks

He also coughed sporadically from the git-go, even though I gave him albuterol before mounting up. And by the end of our ride, when the albuterol had well and truly worn off, he was coughing and coughing and coughing, poor guy. As soon as we got back to the trailer, I gave him some more albuterol and housed off his sweaty hide, which seemed to help him feel better.

But we had a GREAT time in spite of that. He was such a good boy on all the trails and obstacles and I enjoyed my time with him and friends immensely. When I get the photos Rebecca took, I'll share those as well. If you're within hauling distance, I highly recommend Perrydale Trails!