The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread SIX

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[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

Just got in, hot, tired and hungry:)

We had a great ride, and the heat didn't seem all that bad to the riders, the horses all looked hot. We found a place in some water and let them stand and cool off. After that they never really sweated up again. We rode a little over 3 hours.

Pictures later.

Becky

[tuffydoodle]

Ooooo I get charley horses during the night, if I don't take calcium supplements every day.

[tuffydoodle]

Can't wait for the pics!

[HairOfTheDog]

Fabulous.... looking forward to the pictures!

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

Today's ride:)

I took some pictures of the road scenery as I drove down there....pretty good huh, taking pictures, doing 60 while hauling a horse:),,,uummm good, or stupid:)

This is a bridge I hate coming too because it is so narrow, and it seems I always meet someone form the other direction. I usually just slow down till I can go across by myself.

Corn field. I love seeing the straight rows of corn. Nothing prettier, IMO.

This is going across a bridge over the lake that the park I went to is on.

Inside the park looking at the lake.

I got there about 30 minutes ahead of everyone, so I gave Harley a massage, then saddled and waited on the others. He was watching for them too:)

Assorted trail pictures. I'll try to refrain from too many:)

I love Harley's ears in this one:). They were watching a deer and with a baby run thru the woods. That was what I was trying to catch when I took this one.

This place is full of wonderful hills to climb.

Becky

[HairOfTheDog]

Great pictures! Post some more if you have them!

I'm going to go back and look at them again.

[HairOfTheDog]

Great lake.... I never would have dreamed there was a body of water that big in Oklahoma!

Do any of the horse-approved areas have access to it? It's a blast to swim a horse.

oh - and I was driving down the road trying to take a picture last trip.... because Cyn was sticking her nose out of the window in the trailer, and her lips were just flapping like flags in the wind. I could see her in the rear view mirror, but I never caught her doing it at a safe time for me to click the pic, and I wasn't sure it would really show what I was trying to show ;~D

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

LOL...I took 30:)

Becky

[HairOfTheDog]

Go for it. That's an excellent climbing pic there at the end.... I enjoy seeing what your scenery looks like!

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

LOL, that would be a hoot, seeing a horses lips flapping ing the wind.

We could get to the lake. But I'm a wuss about that sort of stuff. The problem is the footing, you just don't know when the bottom is going to either drop away, or your going to sink in mud, which might freak a horse.

I think but don't quote me this is the biggest lake in OK. Eufuala Lake.

Becky

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

Here's one from the other side of the highway of the lake.

Becky

[HairOfTheDog]

When I was a kid we used to swim ours in the lake by our house... we knew the bottom, because we swam there ourselves...

Chico, my mustang, would swim clear out over his head, and really, I'd grab mane and mostly swim along side, until he headed back to shore and I'd swing my leg back over before he touched bottom. I had been known to swim him, take him out and shampoo him, then swim him to rinse. They get really super clean that way! Immersion! He enjoyed it, I haven't had a chance like that, or access to a lake with a horse, since.

It's not for the faint of heart, we swam bareback and without tack (halter and lead rope) in bathing suits! But as hot as it is there, I might have considered swimming fully clothed!

[HairOfTheDog]

Gosh that's a big lake. I had no idea. I'd have been tempted to take them in to beat the heat. was it over a hundred like they predicted?

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

At the ranch Jenny and I use to work at we were told all the ponds were safe to take the horses in. so we swam them there. Well Jenny did. I'd go out quit a ways, but never were the horse could touch. Those horses were use to it so it didn't bother them. Harley doesn't even like stepping in puddles....I don't know what he would do.

Becky

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

I think it might be hitting a 100 now. but we were done by 1:00. It's wasn't 100 then. But it was hot when we did come to the lake for the horse to drink. We were at a place that wasn't very deep, it was kind of a channel with land on 3 sides. Sally told Celia to swim across, but she wouldn't:). I got Harley in up to his pasterns, for a drink. He didn't seem to want to go any farther.

Becky

[HairOfTheDog]

Heh... I don't know how far Bay would go either...

Chico loved it.... my Arabs never really swam more than a stride. They'd go, but they'd stop when they couldn't touch and turn around. Chico just kept going, he'd swim clear out far like it was easy for him. I was never able to repeat that in another horse, so he might have been unusual.

I'd imagine it's great conditioning. No impact, good cool workout.

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

I guess I should mention this lake, and I bet all the lakes in OK are man made. Damed up rivers.

Becky

[HairOfTheDog]

oh - Okay, that makes sense... do they get power from them? or just reservoirs for drinking and irrigation water?

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

I can get him to cross our creek with no problem. But he knows it now. I think Rusty would just jump right in. He loves water. Rocky wouldn't go in either. I have to make him stand in the creek to cool off. Given a choice he'll just go right out.

Becky

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

I'm not sure about this lake, but I ~think~ most of the big lakes are for power. We have alot of little lakes around for water, but they don't let you swim in the water reservoirs, so I imagine you couldn;t let a horse in them:)

Becky