Last minute, cold 2pm Ride with Hershey, Sheila and Tango

Duchess was on the walk ride. I like when she is on the rides. She is such a beaufitul large horse.

Sweet Hershey & Horsee Mumps (Boger)  I real sweet horse.  Hershey was a great ride!

Crazy day for a ride.  Not sure there was time, next weekend is Christmas but Id like to ride as much as possible.  I waited to hear from Colleen but she didnt write.  She said she was havin lunch and couldnt ride. I had wanted to ride at 3pm but I know the farm tries to get the horses out with one ride or larger rides so that its worth it for the farm.  I rode into the dirt road at 2pm on the nose.  Ran over to Bobby. He looked as though he had done some real hard work today.  He had on his dirty work coat. I gave him a hard time about not having his Santa hat on.  He said he got his Christmas present today, His favorite kitty returned home. He pointed to him laying on his Lazy Boy chair sleeping with the santa hat on the kitty.  It was nice. Anyway. I was ready.  The guides said that we needed to wait for 8 more people.   At 10 past a car of 4 asian people pulled in the farm area.  There was a girl and 3 guys.  She was all dressed up special boots. She was kind of amusing.  There was a man with a stylish suit coat on and they looked under dressed as far as riding in the cold.  Still we had to wait for 4 more.  Again at 2:20 the other Mercedes showed up.  They signed in. I was getting pretty cold.  I should have been pissed but I was happy to be there.
Anyway. The others were loaded on the horses. I wanted Foxxy but its ok.  I was lucky there were no large men.  Duke, Midnight, Andy, Boger, Duchess and some other really nice horses were on the ride.  I was happy to finally be on Hershey.
The trail ride was crazy. The team of riders from Asia were kind of wacky. The girl walks up to the gate where the horses were waiting and asked, "What is the fastest horse you have?".  It made us laugh.  None of the guides answered.  She seemed to be the gang leader. She was the only one that spoke english.  That made things exciting. She translated everything that Sheila said.

There was a small girl on the ride that was excited to ride. Her boyfriend went on the walk ride and she went on the trot.  Her Mom and Dad stayed in the car.  This girl didnt seem like a problem at first. She rode Foxxy and she had riding experience.  The 3 others behind me seem like they may have the problems.  They spoke a foreign language to each other the whole ride.  Well less than half way through (and we were having a great ride. Sheila took trails and short cuts that I had never taken). We went up many hills, with soft leaves, rocks and on the higher sides to avoid the regular trail. The ground was pretty cold and partly frozen.  The girl spoke that she couldnt feel her toes. She also whined for a while. She talked about her feet were so cold she couldnt ride.  Sheila felt bad but its cold but you really need to dress for the ride.  Anyway we ended up going most of the way around the lake then we went back the way we came to the trail. And Sheila asked the girl if she would feel better if we trotted. So we were on one if not the longest trot I had ever been on.  Funny thing at the very end, one of the horses spooked.  When I looked back Duke was racing toward the rear of Hershey.  I was worried. Sheila yelled to pull back.  The man did. I saw that Foxxy had also felt frightened.  Sheila took the girl and Foxxy up front and we headed down the hill of the farm. The backway.  The girl behind me and her friends did ok with the spacing and the animal controlling. We got back and it was a different sort of ride.  I was worried about them but it was an interesting ride.  Cathy and Sarah took the walk ride. We got back sooner but we took a different trail. The backwards one. I went into the barn and petted Duke and Tango.  It was a great ride.
Funny thing, we needed to get back quickly because the girl was making crying noises and wanted to go back to the barn.  While we were trottig backwards, Sheila said she told Tango to take the trail that was the fastest and he brought us up through the middle of the woods and cut over.  He found a great path.  Sheila said he was a great guide horse.  They know exactly the fastest way to get back to the barn everytime.