Ride in Yuma!

This is my friend/trainer that I have talked about before, in prior posts, remember Jamie?  We spent the season together last winter in Yuma.  I had contacted her to help me with my riding techniques, and she introduced me to the fun of Barrel Racing.  She is in the process of turning pro, I.... on the other hand am still just being introduced to it.... Well, we got to go to Yuma last week and I had texted her to see if we could ride together.  She was excited to have me come down and we decided to repeat our ride from last year when we took the horses down to the river and swam with them. 
I was riding Sky and she was on her new baby (3yrs.) Paradise
As it turned out it was just a bit cool to go in the water, so we just rode.  Her horses hadn't been down to the river, or on this trail since last year when we did it.  We noticed right away that they were both kinda spooking at all the "different things"  such as park toys, plastic bag on ground, THE YELLOW POLE! really???  So, I had a feeling it could be an interesting ride.

So, here we go....couldn't have asked for a nicer day!    And then.....

We came to this overpass, and they started freaking out.  Sky turned on me and was just gonna head home!  He was like, "Ok, I'm done, NOT gonna go under that!"  Well, of course I turned him back, and at this time, we had two dancing horses we were both trying to control....and we had only two choices....end up in the canal, or into some sharp, large boulders on the other side.   So, we decided to just sit and wait, and give them some time to adjust to the overhead noise etc.  Good thing we did, because as we were sitting here, about 100 birds flew out from underneath it!  Jamie and I just looked at each other and said...."Damn.... I'm glad that happened HERE, and not while we were going underneath it! 

After a while, we decided to give it a try, and they did pretty good, they just were REAL glad to get to the other side....LOLO  Silly horses.....

And FINALLY, we came to the swimming hole.   Can you see it above?  Well, on the right, it becomes nice park and grassy area with picnic tables.  

Now, we call Dominos and order pizza!   They delivered it to us at the park.

 

Horses were standing nicely....for a while.  Then Sky decided he didn't want Paradise on his tree, so he began kicking out at him.  Jamie would run over, smack him and move him away to the other side of the tree, but as soon as she walked away, he would side up to Paradise and kick with his hind leg out at him.  I couldn't believe how he was behaving and he would WAIT for Jamie to walk away, then do it again!  FINALLY, the funniest thing was when he saw Jamie coming and he literally scooted or ran as best he could to the other side of the tree so he wouldn't get spanked!  LOLO  It was just like a toddler who knew he'd crossed the line.....I couldn't help but laugh.

So, while we waited, we had some wine that we just happened to have brought in our bags. 

And then the pizza came.....Wow, it doesn't get much better than this!  Sun, pizza, wine, horses and spending the day with my sweet friend!  It was nice to catch up with her.

 Really????  Horse poop in the park?  That sounds like a book huh?  LOLO  Here's Jamie being so good, she picked their poop and disposed of it to garbage.

I'm still begging her to come up to Palm Desert and ride the Indian Canyons with Desert Rose and me....We'll see if she can swing some time this season.