beautiful day

I got a rare treat today...I was slated to take Jackson out on a trail ride. For those of you who don't know Jackson is a 1400+ pound morgan x friesan. He's right about 16h, but wider than a aircraft carrier. Seriously you can land a helicopter on his back. He had shown some nervousness about limbs and such rustling/falling. I was expecting him to take me for a ride. IN the end we had a beautiful 2 hours, of fine tuning, and a tiny jump when my boot hit a tree trunk. I saw my first red (think toadstool) mushroom. It was really cool to realize those things in storybooks actually exsist.

We were crusing along really well until we hit water at the end. The first puddle was small and avoidable. After just a minute of protest I gave up so I wouldn't hold everyone up. The second wet spot was either go through water or at least deep suctiony mud. This fight I was in for the long haul. I ride Jackson in Kellie's treeless saddle which is about 3 inches too large for me, and the girth is about 2 inches too big for Jackson. SO not the ideal equipment for a fight. Jackson was definitley dug in for a fight. When he realized I was too. He answered my insistence with a High, Ho, Silver move. He went vertical and lunged over the mud. I can't say he jumped it because the hind feet didn't leave the ground until the front ones touched down, and he was truly vertical with every ounce of strength in his hind quarter. I gotta say it was fun:)

Another happy note. Bella aka. Palmetto Walk will be out of quarantine tomrrow. We're going to let her settle into her new routine this week, and then the girls will be able to start lessons regularly next week.