our longest ride yet! 20 miles! Aug 18

We are supposed to ride out on a good long ride Sunday morning.. I have to run to the states so we get up early and head out.. I get back just as Kaaren is ready to ride out to meet me! So I get dressed while my hubby Chris gets my saddle and gear ready and grabs Kizz for me.

We are heading into Nackawic this ride.. to the river! So it is away from Kaaren's house, so I decide I'll take the road to her house to save a long ride of us riding and meeting on the RR our usual meeting spot lately.
Kizz really seems to feel safe on the road too, so I figure it's the best place to go !

I  know we are going for a good long ride so I make sure my HRM and my MapMyRide Ap are ready to go ! I boot Kizz and Tack him up and head down the drive! Chris puts Coby in the shelter and he only whinnies once before we leave. I get Kizz out on the road and we trot off . He has never went this way before , only on the way home and not alone. but he is very settled and trots along great! I am a bit nervous as there is a horse up on the left as well as a snapping fence near the road , and directly across from it a couple big dogs that like to come out and bark at us.. But we get through all of that with no dogs or horse noticing us :P

We aren't long until we see Kaaren! We meet halfway down the big Maple Ridge hill. We go into the trails and get to her house. We then leave her house and head onto the RR. We trot and canter some and Kizz seems really happy. The trail is dry and good footing and wide (like the RR always is) We leave the RR and hit The millroad and ride down that a ways.. luckily it's sunday and we meet no transports. We take a left off the mill road and head down another dirt road.. it's pretty good trail  , we do take a wrong turn and get on a messy wet trail but we turn and find the right trail after that :)  We come to some big trenches that Kizz jumps and a couple way too big ones for him to jump that we go down in through pretty good ! it's pretty warm out by now ! but beautiful trails and Kizz seems to be happy and going along steady. We go through a few beaver ponds that he doesn't mind at all.  I even drop my crop and have to dismount, so I fix my saddle that slipped back some (reminder for next time USE my breast collar!!) and he stands in a ditch perfectly for me to mount up again. He does walk off a bit after I get half on, but I'm still happy he WENT in the ditch for me lol

 We come out onto a smaller wooded trail and not long we are down to the highway into Nackawic where we cross and go down into an inlet of the river and the horses get their feet wet . I grab a couple pics, never thought I'd have my horse way into NACKAWIC!! :)

Odin & Kizz .. pretty view! 

Kizz at the river in Nackawic

We ride up the highway and swing a right to head back towards home on the road My hubby and daughter drive by and show us they got icecream. I'm so hot an icecream sounds great! Some motorcycles go by, but Kizz handles it ok! 

 A ways in we hit the old snowmobile trail and go out by the golf course. The trail is nice! We come upon a lady and 3 dogs , Kizz handles the barking dogs fine! We ride back towards home and eventually hit the RR again. We canter some more, Kizz does great!  We stop at one point for a drink and I get Kaaren to take a pic of me for my blog :)

Kizz and I on the trail home! having a BLAST! Kizz is very happy!

We skip on by her house staying on the RR, instead of me going home the RR and being way down from my house and having to back track, I decide to go back up the road the way I came. So We cross the road and go onto the little trail that takes you to the dirt road that circles in behind my place, (but we take a right to go out towards the pave) at that point she and Odin stay behind and head back home. I trot on along that dirt road out to the pave alone fine! once we hit the pave and head the long way up the Maple Ridge hill. Somewhere near the top Kizz realizes we are almost home :)

We get home after 4hrs 45 minutes or so! and 20 miles!!! What a great ride! My husband helps me untack and we dump buckets of water on him. (he's never had this done before!) and he doesn't mind at all! must feel so good! I give him his sloppy supper , and he eats it right up!

what a GREAT ride! Rides like this really make me think that Kizz can handle this!! Me too!!

our Map my ride screen shot! 20 miles yahooo!!

and check out how many calories I burned!! yaahooo! Getting in shape was never so fun!!