OVER it... sooooo over it!

Poor Lyric. My delicate little flower. We had planned to go to Charlie Elliott today and ride with Laura and Jacel. I told Lyric this morning that we were going for a fun trail ride and it would be relaxing and nice. LIES!!! All lies!! Doh. Poor girl.

We went to pick Laura and Smarty up because her husbands truck was in the shop so he took hers. Not a big deal.. she's only 15 minutes away from CE. We picked her up and headed out. Jacel and Monica were there so we all got tacked up. There was a couple parked next to us with western horses and when I unloaded Lyric he was like "Holy cow.. is she 18 hands? She's huge!!". Yes sir.. but not 18 hands. Ha ha. But her butt next to Smarty's butt was HUGE. Ha ha. I forgot to get a photo though of them in the trailer. We got tacked up and headed out.

For whatever reason, everyone was a little jazzed up when we started out and Smarty and Piper got in the front and then Lyric and Moose were both a little panicky about getting left and Lyric kind of scooted through the gate first and then Moose was hot on her heels. Lyric fired out a kick and barely got Moose in the face. Luckily she just brushed her with the tip of her hoof, but jeepers!!! Then everyone was jiggy for a minute. And we had to play musical ponies for a bit, but within 5 minutes, Lyric was in the lead, then Smarty, then Moose and then Piper and everyone settled. Except apparently poor Piper kept getting left behind so Monica had to basically trot the whole trail ride. Which, makes sense, because Smarty can walk so darn fast and Lyric had her power march on. No navicular quarter horse striding today! Eventually Lyric settled enough to let Smarty lead and everyone settled down. Except the bugs were awful!! Poor Smarty was getting eaten alive and I could pretty much see 4 deer flies hovered around his hind end the entire ride. Lyric was pissed too and huffing her displeasure the entire ride. Moose and Piper were quite content though, because Jacel had doused them with that Equine Shield fly spray. (Laura stopped and bought us each two bottles on her way home from the barn today because it was such a good testimony for it). I seriously think they only swished their tails a few times, whereas Smarty and Lyric were kicking, bucking, stomping, and just being eaten up! And I had even sprayed Lyric's underside with Deep Woods Off!!

It would have been fun if the ponies weren't so agitated. And then at one point, Piper ran up behind Lyric a little bit and she kicked him too! GIRL! Seriously... I brought you because you're usually the good one! I think she was just so pissed off at the bugs! Luckily she missed Piper too. We tried trotting a little bit to get away from the bugs and it went okay for a minute but then Lyric suddenly got squirrely and was almost bucking/cantering and slinging her hind end around. I pulled her up and asked Laura to stop trotting and then Lyric felt lame. Wait... what?!? She felt lame at the walk too so I was trying to see if she had twisted a shoe... and it looked like she was toe touching on her left hind. I jumped off to check and her shoes were all on tight... but she was definitely toe touching. Laura said it looked like she had a stick stuck in there or something. But she was so upset at the bugs I was afraid she was going to kick me. I swiped her belly with the whip and she settled long enough for me to look. She had a GIANT rock wedged in there. Like the size of a plum! And it was wedged! It took me both hands and a few minutes to get it. Laura had to jump off and hold Lyric for me so I could use both hands. And she forgot to unplug her vest but she got lucky and didn't pop it! Phew! And I got the rock out. Phew! We both got back on and carried on.

Lyric was behind Moose and Piper now and actually sat there happily for a minute because the bugs were so much better! I think Smarty was attracting them. Or the bug spray was potent enough that it hovered around Lyric too. But eventually she power walked past them and we got back behind Smarty again. Luckily we were close to the trailers again and the bugs were a bit less awful in this section of the trail. I was apologizing to Monica and Jacel about Lyric being so bad and Jacel was like "don't apologize.. it's fine". Um,... she kicked 2 outta 3 horses today!! Jacel was sweet though and said that Moose deserved it. Not really, but.. thanks for being kind.

We made it back to the trailers with no more mishaps and untacked. And then Laura went to hose off and... there was no water! What?? Why would they shut the water off! Ugh... I had just enough water in my tank for two small buckets. Lyric and Smarty weren't interested but Moose and Piper guzzled it down. So we just decided to load up and hose them off at the barn. I put Lyric in first and then Laura went to put Smarty on and Lyric fired out at him! She must have kicked the butt bar that was hanging and it flung and tapped Laura in the thigh. Smarty flew backwards. Holy cow Lyric!! Seriously girl! Jacel laughed and said "Well now she's 3 for 3... ha ha." I mean... we gotta laugh at the absurdity of it all! But how embarassing!! So I unloaded Lyric and we put Smarty on and then I reloaded Lyric. Luckily she was fairly nice to him on the ride home. When we got to Laura's barn I asked her if she wanted me to unload Lyric first and then I could reload her but she said she thought it would be fine now. And it was. I scratched her butt while Smarty unloaded and she was fine. We got home and I hosed all the sweat and gunk off her and fly sprayed her (with the good stuff) and turned her out.

Good gravy!! I'm sorry I lied girl. That wasn't exactly a fun and relaxing trail ride. :( But also... you can't kick ALL YOUR FRIENDS! So... definitely going to avoid taking her out on the trails until I can get that fly spray from Laura. She is NOT a fan of bugs. I can't blame her. They were very awful today. I'm glad no one got hurt either. Even Laura said she was fine.. no marks or anything. Phew! Thank you God for your protection.