In which we meet new friends on the trail, and we ride down to the river

"Hey, we're gonna ride down to the river.  

You wanna come with us?"

This picture was taken last week, but the Dragon and I were
in exactly the same spot when Ellen and Liz happened along.

"Um.  Yeah.  Sure!"

And, off we went.

Ellen and Eclipse in the front, Liz and Whisper in the middle,
Fiddle and me at the tail.

There isn't time to spontaneously join in with a couple of people you've just met if you're conditioning for an endurance season.

At least, there wasn't time when the Dragon and I were conditioning.

Over the sand bar

Now that my horse is retired from competition, all the urgency to condition and train and get miles behind is is gone.

We can just go.  And we do.

Down to the river

Sometimes we go fast.  Fast is fun.

Sometimes we go slowly.  If we go slowly, we might see chanterelles...or lobster mushrooms.  Or some other treasure.

Sometimes we go alone...and now, if we want, we can ride with people who also aren't training for anything.  We can even ride with people we don't know.  And it's okay.

Ellen has done some international horse-trekking, and has great stories about riding in Kenya--and Iceland!
Liz recently returned from a 2-week riding trip in the Red Rocks area of Utah.

We talk about all kinds of things, but mostly we talk about horses and riding.

Star the dog came along also.  Does anybody even remember how Fiddle used to hate dogs?
She's so over that now.

Three women, three mares, and a dog.  A sunny day, a nice trail, good conversation, a cool walk to the river.

We didn't trot much, or track our mpg, or even capture any mushrooms.

Just about the best kind of day.

It was good.