G is for Giddyup

Stacey and I went trail riding with some people she knows. The four hours on the trail ended up being about 6 hours when all was said and done and we ended up walking the last 1/2 mile or so (I think the total distance was 12 miles).

We had tied up at a look out station on top of a mountain for a little break. We were just standing around chatting when all hell breaks loose and the horses are scared to death. Umm, yeah, a woman in the lookout station had poured a 5 gallon bucket of soapy water over.the.side. Wtf, lady? She called down, "Sorry, it was heavy and I didn't have time to look." One of our party yelled up something and the response was, "I said I was sorry" in a very snotty tone. The woman's daughter comes down the stairs to put something in the truck and tells us that her mother dropped the bucket accidentally while trying to look. Umm, no, that's not what she said. We leave the look out station, grumbling about the idiot woman, but thankful that no one got hurt. One of the horses broke her lead line, but stayed.

About a mile or two farther down the trail, the same horse stepped on a branch on the trail and it flipped up and impaled the horse, who, of course, bucked off her rider (out of his shoes). He started walking her and I, being directly behind, got to see her white hind legs turn red with blood. When she started limping, we paused so they could get some pain meds in her. Then we paused again about a mile later because they thought they had some gauze to try to stick up in the wound.

Unfortunately, we stopped near bees. We think that my horse was stung so she got off the trail, I managed to get her back on, then she went off again. Then Stacey's horse was getting stung a lot so she was trying to get away, Stacey picked a point to jump off safely, I think she fell pretty much in with the bees. Her horse got stuck among some limbs so Stacey was trying to fight them off, get her horse, and then get away. She got the horse and ran down the trail a ways. The other woman was picking them out of her hair -- very much like a monkey delousing. I was as still as possible since I'm allergic. Got off my horse and walked back to the trail and over to them. Then Stacey realized she'd dropped her cell phone so she.walked.back. The others started walking (with Stacey's horse) and I stayed there with my horse, waiting for Stacey. She didn't find it, but then we had to jog to catch up with the others. We walked out the rest of the way. Next time I am so watching Megan while Stacey goes riding. As Clem says, cupcake baking and Play-doh are much more my speed.

As far as soreness, my back is killing me. Not sure what I did, but holy crap. My hips only hurt when I first get up from sitting for awhile and my thighs don't hurt at all. I do have a little chafing on my right leg since my saddle slid a little in the first part of the ride so trying to overcompensate in order to stay in the saddle wasn't very comfortable.

G is also for Girls Weekend. Yay! 4 days!