Friday, May 30, 2008

The Day is Long...

I managed to get out of work early yesterday so naturally I decided to use it to my advantage so it was off to the stables!

I quickly saddled Max up and decided that since there was over two hours of daylight left, I'd head out to the Oaks. Naturally, Max was a bit on the lazy side so it took some encouragement to get him to move at something more than a snail's pace. :-)

After a day of dealing with all manner of BS at work in wonderful Downtown LA, it was a joy to go somewhere peaceful with little or no people. One couldn't have asked for a more beautiful or peaceful scene: just Max and I cantering down the trail.

We managed to make good time and got to the Oaks pretty quickly so I debated what to do next (Max's opinion to head home was duly noted). I decided to head back towards the stables and beyond, all the way over to Gabriellano Park. I figured that this would make for a nice long ride.

We leisurely walked back towards the stables (for the most part) and then picked up the canter just before the entrance to the stables. However, Max was expecting to turn in but I had other ideas and spurred him past the entrance. I think he was definately disappointed!

We moved on down the wash and under the Foothill Avenue/210 bridges and then towards the river. Then, just to be different, we went accross the wash and along the back side of the Equestrian Center and finally arrived at the arena in Gabriellano Park. SInce we'd been cantering and trotting, I didn't see the need to take him into the arena so I decided to head home and I planned on walking him up Orcas Avenue.

However, when I begain to cross the park entrance road to connect with Orcas, I noticed there was a tree blocking movement. At the same time a pretty noisy car (the jerk of a driver didn't bother to slow down) so between all of this, Max shied a bit and wasn't happy. We finally made it across the road but at that point I decided to take the path between the nursery and the Equestian Center instead- it wasn't worth dealing with idiot drivers and getting Max all buzzed up. He's walked up Orcas before with no problems but why hassle it?

Overall, not a bad ride and Max was definately happy to get back home. Naturally he got his bucket to reward his efforts. I'm going to have to see about getting off work early in the future. :-)

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