Jennings Boogie (long)

[Agilbxr@aol.com]

Just wanted to jot down a quick thanks to all of the people who did all the hard work and ran the Jennings Boogie ride on its first year.  I think they did a marvelous job.

I enjoyed the ride (especially since I got to sleep in my OWN bed).  The trails were wonderful, even if the sand did get a little deep in places.  We even had the added benefit of Florida "snow" (aka, there was a wildfire in one part of the forest, and we were being rained on by ash. ). I especially enjoyed meeting some of the people off ridecamp, and putting names to faces.

Alpine did well. He dragged me MUCH faster than I wanted to go on the first loop, but once I got off by myself on the second loop, I got him slowed down. We finished sound and in 6.5 hours (oops, went TOO slow on the second loop ).  That's ok though, I was there to have fun. Today, my horse is in the pasture bucking and irritating his buddies, so I know he feels better than I do. *grin*

While I'm thinking about it, does anyone have any tips for keeping my horse from dragging me on these rides. I do NOT like blisters on my hands.  We ride in a mechanical hackamore, and normally there is no problem, we ride on loopy reins at the pace I dictate.  He will go in a bit, but has learned the trick of biting the reins and will pull them through his mouth and making them quite useless. (he can do this with those round rubber bit thingies on them too).  
Any ideas would be appreciated.

Anyway, had a great time, enjoyed the scenery and the people, and came home with a sound happy horse. Can't ask for more than that!

Juli and Alpine (mom, boy horses shouldn't get pink numbers on their butts!)