Wednesday Ride, Lunch and Shopping

Unfortunately, I didn't take my camera along with me on our ride this morning. So, I'll have to paint word images for you.

As usual, we went out at 7:30 AM to groom and tack up because of the heat. We're having days in the mid to upper 90's with lots of sun. Fortunately, the nights drop down to the mid to upper 60's so our early mornings are pleasant. We only ride about an hour or so, give or take 15 minutes, to keep ourselves and the horses in tune together.

Betty has been having a little trouble with Sugar not wanting to gait. She's been wanting to trot instead. So part of our plan this morning was to give her a chance to work on that.

After warming them up in our back lot, we headed over into the sage area just South of us. We rode for about a mile or so on the dirt roads. As we were coming back to the area where we planned to stop to let Betty work on Sugar's gait, we spotted a young coyote.

We've seen this coyote a lot recently, often with his/her mother. Being young he's more curious than cautious. He stood in the path watching Betty and Sugar come toward him and then settled into the sage about 6' off the trail as she worked Sugar up and down the trail as Morgunn and I watched. He even laid down for awhile. He's never been a threat in any way -- just curious.

They both did well today. Betty had Sugar back into her gait so it was a good day for the both of them.

We stopped at a grassy patch in the sage on our way home, took off their bits and bridles, and let them munch on the wild grasses.

We walked them home from there. Our neighbor across the street lets us cut through his yard and driveway to and from this area. As we walked out of the sage area onto his driveway, leading the horses, I looked up and there was our little coyote friend resting in the shade of a large sage bush. I guess it was the most excitement for him in days.

This afternoon we're going out for lunch and then some grocery shopping. We have several favorite restaurants in the area -- El Pintos on 4th Street, High Finance on the top of the Sandia Mountains, The Range Cafe in Bernallilo, but we're going to our other favorite, The Indigo Crow here in Corrales. The food is very good and it has a nice outdoor eating area shaded by humongous Cottonwood trees.

As part of our shopping we'll stop at our local farm market, Wagners Farms, as they have just opened for the season. We should be able to get some fresh picked corn there -- yum!