Riding in Dry Gulch

This weekend we headed up Dry Gulch with family to ride our horses. 

But first, here is how tricked out my horse has become. :) I'm convinced she is the prettiest horse on the farm. 

On Thursday night I went to Vernal to meet Josh and pick out the rest of the stuff I needed for my saddle. It was hard to choose a saddle blanket. I wanted something in purple, but the only purple they had was ugly, and expensive. I was finally able to settle on this neutral one. 

The only thing I was able to pick out on my own, without Josh there to guide me, was the harness and lead rope, which I did a few weeks ago. The pictures don't show up well though, the harness is purple, not pink. The lead rope is purple, pink and blue. 

I also picked out a breast collar when I met Josh in Vernal. 

 We went with Mel and her family, Dallon & Natalie, and met Josh's uncle Willard and Aunt Judy who had brought a few of their nephews with them. We had 5 horses between all of, so we had to take turns. Willard and Judy's horses, Tuner & Peanuts, are the calmest horses ever. 

 The boys LOVED riding the horses. I didn't get pictures of Judy's nephews, but each time one of the boys came back, another boy was begging to go. For the most part, the boys only got to ride Peanuts and Tuner, but at one point, Josh took Sugar and let Tyler ride with him.  (No picture though, the camera was in Josh's pocket.)

 No one thought Colter would ride, but when he saw how calm the horses were, he decided to go too. Tyler missed the first family ride while he finished his nap.

Then we started to get up for the long ride which included, myself, Josh, Dallon, Natalie and Willard

 Tyler woke up, so he got a quick ride in with his uncle Josh before we left.

We rode for about 2 hours along a trail that took us through some pretty country. I forgot my camera, but was able to borrow Barb's. Some of the pictures are blurry because its hard to take pictures on a moving horse. 

I tried to take a few pictures over my head to get pictures of Dallon and Natalie.

We stopped at this pond to look around when suddenly something started to move in the middle. 

At this point I gave the camera to Josh and told him to get lots of pictures. He did a great job. 

My thought on this picture was, why didn't I think of that and hold hands with Josh? But his horse was in one of her "sassy" moods, so we probably couldn't of anyways. 

 Sugar and I did so well together. She is a pretty calm horse and I'm getting more comfortable riding. I'm not near as sore as I was last week after we went riding. 

Back at the trucks so the others can take turns again. The spot we met at was so nice. We set up our blankets and picnic food in the shade of a few trees that kept us nice and cool. Then there was a huge field where all the kids could run and play and we could be able to keep an eye on them. And there was no running water nearby so it was nice to not have to worry about that. 

Josh took these pictures of Dallon and Natalie. Watch closely.

I can't figure out where Preston came from. Maybe he was hiding behind that tree?

Melanie & Colter took one last ride with Tyler. They said he kept switching between them and he never stopped talking to the hose. He LOVED it!

It was the perfect fun day. Hopefully we can go again soon.