Third time's the charm - longwinded

Yesterday's ride has been really unexpectedly hard for me to write about! I'm super tired, but in many ways it was the best of the three rides, so I'm not sure why this is so difficult.

We did almost 8 miles in 3 hours - we were truly just ambling along in no hurry at all. Here's the map - zoom in and check the terrain and satellite views! I don't really trust my GPS in the trees, but it looks pretty accurate.

View Thomas Creek ride in a larger map

In a delightful change of circumstances, I went and picked up ~C and Diego and we hauled up to a trailhead by her house, off of Thomas Creek. Look at that, it's my horse and my truck and MY TRAILER! Tough call, but I suspect my horse is the prettiest thing in the picture.



We wound slowly up the creek canyon. It was very dramatic - very much what you think of when you think "riding in the Sierras." (And minutes from Reno!)


There was a crappy road and a scenic singletrack trail. We switched back and forth between the two - the road had a more boring view (bad) but fewer horse-eating monsters (good). The trail is popular with hikers and mountain bikers - our horses did just fine together, but I don't think I'd want to ride it alone any time soon.


I quickly braided Dixie's mane in a running braid, just to see how it'd do. It had mostly fallen out in 2 hours, but it was substantially quicker than the viking braids I do for races. Here's the other thing - you see those ears?


I had paying-attention-to-me ears the whole time. She was the calmest, sweetest, most obedient pony I've ever ridden.


I just realized, as I was writing this up, that I hadn't brought Miss Thing her nightly carrots. Sometimes I run out of carrots and bring her apples or pears, and sometimes I have nothing to give her, but most nights, I bring her a couple of carrots.

I don't think I've ever told you this - well, maybe I did at the very beginning of this blog, but I think Sara's the only person who was still reading that long ago. Anyway, I had no good reason to buy Dixie - I had three perfectly good horses and she cost more than all three put together. My friends tricked me into looking at her - Jen said that Jody wanted her to buy one of Jody's horses and let's go look at her. We walked in the stall with this absolutely wild-eyed spazzed-out show horse and I immediately knew that Jen didn't need or want this kind of horse. And then I realized that it was a setup, and they wanted me to look at her, but it was too late for me to walk away. Dixie gave me this fearsome glare, the kind that said "You! Human! Get me out of here." I've told yall that before, but here's the part I never told: I scratched her neck, and her face softened and she made silly faces for me. So I bought the stupid horse. It took almost three and a half years for me to pay her off. It took almost four years for us to get comfortable with each other. I've ridden her almost a thousand miles. And now, this year, she's finally started making the silly faces for me again.



It's not for lack of trying, either. She doesn't like to be touched, and for years every time I'd scritch her withers or her neck or her tailhead she'd move away. Or she'd purse her lips and endure it. It was heartbreaking, over and over. I started to think I'd imagined her ever wanting to be scratched. Finally, slowly, in 2011, she started to warm up to me a tiny bit. She'd lick my hands and, I swear, give me a hopeful look. I am dense, but I finally realized that maybe she would permit me to scratch her withers? Yes. Yes, human, you may scratch me.



So yesterday, after two hard scary days of riding, I went and haltered Dixie and loaded her in MY TRAILER and took her off with Diego. And she gave me "what next?" ears, the whole time. We led Dig past scary mountain bikes and scary dogs, and he led her through scary rushing burbling running creeks. We walked up tiny singletrack along steep canyon walls, through old snowbanks. I hopped off and led her whenever I felt like it, because I knew she'd stand still (just long enough) for me to remount. And the whole time I felt like she was listening to me and asking "what next?"



And tonight I brought her carrots, and she gave me the hopeful look, so I opened the gate and slipped inside to scratch her. It's freezing (literally! IN MAY!) but her mane kept my fingers warm. I spent a good twenty minutes scratching her. She is a jealous beast - she charged Cersei and ran her off from us - but so gentle and polite with me. I love that horse.