Faye Solos on WST

5:30 came way to early this morning.  But I had to catch Faye, which took a few laps around the pasture, load her, & stop at the Shell station to get gas.  Then I was off to meet my friend J at the Auburn Overlook at 9am.  We were planning to ride the last few miles of Tevis, out to No Hands Bridge & back, because she & her mare Asali are entered in Tevis this year.  Well things didn't go quite as we'd planned.

I'm perpetually early & true to form, Faye & I arrived at 8:30.  Not a bad thing to be early because it gives me plenty of time to get ready, tack up Faye, put her boots on, let her settle & finish eating her bucket of mash.  I'm glad I had the extra time this morning because Faye was pretty nervous when we arrived.  It took her a while to quiet down & relax.  After tacking her up, I lead her around the parking lot & across the wooden bridge to the other side of the irrigation canal.  She didn't even hesitate. 9am came & went with no sign of my friend.  I was sure hoping everything was ok.  At 9:30 I decided to start riding.  Today was only Faye's fourth solo ride & she did AWESOME!

It can be scary for a horse to start out on the Western States Trail from the Auburn Overlook.  The trail goes down in the undergrowth so it's dark & frightening.  Faye snorted, hesitated, snorted again, & then just kept on going.  I couldn't believe how many runners were out on the trail.  The first 3-4 spooked Faye a little, but after that she either ignored them as they ran by or tried to reach out to see if their water bottles were carrots.  The scariest incident of our ride was mysterious crashing ahead of us in the bend of a switchback.  Faye KNEW it was a monster, & I couldn't honestly tell her different.  As it was, it turned out to be a very noisy, obnoxious squirrel who was tossing pine cones out of the tree.  I was glad to be wearing a helmet, just in case.  And was so thankful a pine cone didn't land on Faye's butt.  That would NOT have been good.  LOL  Faye's very careful with her feet on technical trail & today she was very aware of every hoof as we made our way towards No Hands Bridge, or the Mt Quarry Bridge as it's officially called.  It was sad to see the lack of water on the trail.  Where usually there's small creek crossings, only dry rock was there to cross.  At least the waterfall had water, although so much less than I've ever seen it.  The footing down into the waterfall is tricky & Faye took her time, pausing to listen to the water before she continued.  She passed by the waterfall with only a moments hesitation before heading up the steps, back onto the old railroad grade.  We passed a group of people, 8-10, belonging to an infant group.  They all had infants in packs on their backs.  Oh did Faye's eyes get big.  But even this didn't stop her for long & it was on to No Hands Bridge.

I was disappointed when I got to the bridge because I was alone & wouldn't get a picture of Faye on her first ride across the bridge.  Then I saw an unsuspecting hiker.  Uh, would you mind doing me a HUGE favor?  Woohoooo I have Faye's picture on the bridge.  On our way back to the overlook we again passed the infant group.  This time we stopped for a few minutes while a couple of the babies reached tiny hands out for Faye's nose to touch.  She's such a sweet mare & she barely brushed their hands, eliciting a few giggles.  Now mind you that I don't like human babies, but it was quite something to see Faye's soft reaction to them.  We passed a few more runners on the way back, some with dogs, all trying to beat the heat.  As I headed up to Robie Point I could hear horses on the trail below.  I wondered if it could be my friend but then thought, probably not.  In the last 1/2 mile before getting back to the parking lot, we passed the first & only horses we saw today.  Right behind my truck was my friend's truck.  How on earth did we miss each other?  There was a note on my windshield explaining she was 40 minutes late because she'd had some truck/trailer issues & she hoped to see us on the trail.  Again, how on earth did we miss each other?  It's obvious now that the horses on the trail below Robie Point were my friend & her mom.  We missed each other by maybe 5 minutes.  DARN!  But oh well...it was a great day nonetheless.  I'm so proud of my little grey mare, who never ceases to amaze me.