A 3 hour tour!

Oscar cantered down to the barn this morning, whinnying and upset about something. I was suspicious as I had let Ringo and his buddy Thunder out to do some mowing about an hour earlier. It was too quiet around the place and I got to thinking that perhaps they had gone on a little adventure and Oscar had given me the warning. I got in the car to drive down the road, just following my instinct, and sure enough there were my two renegades (teachers pets about a month ago!) tied to the neighbors tree. Now here in VT a neighbor is not just next door, a neighbor can be as close as three or four miles away, but the horses were about 1 mile down the road.

They had gone through the woods, on a trail that I have not explored yet. As I was talking to the kind people who had haltered and tied them, Thunder slipped the halter off his head and took off back through the woods. I hopped on Ringo bareback with rope and halter and went to find him, hoping to pony him back home. But Thunder was long gone. I called Tori from my cell phone and told her I couldn't find Thunder. She said he'd just arrived back at the barn. Good!

Ringo and I were having a nice ride back and he must have thought I knew where I was going. Well, I didn't. 2 HOURS later I found my way back where we belonged!!! My internal GPS system had failed. Ringo had slowed down at a few trail intersections and I should have listened to him. Stupid human, he must have thought!

When I really felt like I'd taken a wrong turn I came off the trail into somebodys yard and was greeted by 2 HUGE llamas!! OMG was my reaction and Ringo was more curious about them than anything. But now they were coming at us. I jumped off quickly, not wanting to get dumped should Ringo bolt from fright. I had to shoo the llamas with my spare rope and tried to run away from them! We made it out alive and got out of their yard pronto. As soon as we got out of the llama driveway I kind of knew what road we were on. Had to back track another mile to get in more familiar surroundings.

It was a great day for an unexpected trail ride. This must have been Ringo's way of getting me away from all the chores and on to a horses back. I would have chosen a saddle and even a rope halter would have been nice, but here I was bareback, heavy web halter that was too big, still had my tape measure attached to my jeans, no helmet, etc.

It was almost three hours later that we arrived back to the barn! Ringo was just a great ride and was having a good time. He loves adventures. I like adventures and this one was pretty spontaneous. For the record, no more horses doing the mowing till I can get perimeter fencing up!