CRAP.. I killed the Camera!! :(

Good thing I have a back up! Although the backup camera is not quite as good.. I am not 100% sure I cant fix the camera, but I was using it off/on Saturday on our ride and all the sudden it just wouldnt close down when I turned it off. The lens is in the outward position and only buzzes, it will not close, it will not stay turned on, you cannot view pictures or take pictures.. it tries, but not hard enough. I am thinking on taking the camera apart, what harm would it do at this point.

We went to check on the horses Friday night, to be sure they were OK and ready for a ride the next day, all looked just fine. Oakley had been jumping the fence to get in with BS, so we just put them together. I figured it was safer that way, I didnt need my horse getting hung up in the not-so-perfect fencing! :) Saturday morning as we are loading up, BS is missing a back shoe!! Dammit... We headed up to the trailhead anyways. We rode on Blanchard Hill (Mtn) which is up at I5 exit 240 (Alger Exit), the trails are called Lilly & Lizard Lakes trail system. 45 minutes into the ride, BS pulled a front shoe as well.

A nice wooded section in the trail..

Derek said his horse had 2 flats. :) BS did just fine, the trails were not too bad for him to travel on. I was riding Oakley. The trail is basically a steady climb the entire ride! You are riding up to the lakes and then from there to a lookout over the bay area above Anacortes. You can see all the way to Anacortes from the lunch spot, see some islands, a great place to stop and eat lunch. On the way there however, we had a few tricky spots on the trail with rock faces to deal with. Oakley misjudged one rock face as we were going uphill and he went down on his chest (like he did a few weeks ago with Derek) and he calmly pulled himself up and continued on. A few minutes later we had stopped to let the horses have a breather and when I asked Oakley to go forward, he tripped on a tree root and down he went onto his chest again, it was like slow motion, he sat there for a few seconds thinking about his next move, then slowly got back up again. I felt like gumby!! As my horse's front end is dissappearing, I'm stretching back to keep from falling off. Those that saw Oakley's reaction to the situations were impressed that at his young age, he handles himself well w/o panicking. Some horses would scramble and cause more problems, but Oakley seems very level headed and you can feel/see him thinking about what to do vs just reacting.

Dropping down to a water crossing..
Coming out of the creek..

A little while later we went through a tight hairy situation of tree roots and rocks, a sign that was in the way, a dip... A few riders made it through fine, but then Derek went through and as he was passing the wood sign, he pulled his leg up to avoid hitting the sign, but his leg/foot got caught on the sign and jolted his knee, which created a big POP and he was in immediate pain. I got off Oakley and led him through, it was just too much for him as a young horse to deal with. Derek continued to ride with pain and when we stopped for lunch, he was hobbling a lot. We were very concerned he had torn his ACL, but he twisted while walking and it popped again, he said it was immediate relief! Thank goodness. His knees are still pretty swollen, but they are not in pain, just sore/stiff. Our in saddle time for the day was 5.25 hours!!

These are the roots in the "bad" section we went through..

Derek's toushy was a little sore, it was a great ride, challenging in some areas. Oakley did great. In the beginning of the ride, we came across a small creek crossing that he wasnt sure he wanted to pass over, but there was uphill on one side, downhill on the other, NO room whatsoever for him to be squirmy, so I immediately jumped off and led him over (which he walked over just fine) and then got back on. The next big creek we came across he kinda bolted through, but after that, we crossed quite a few creeks/small water ways and mucky areas and he walked through them all like a pro. I was very happy with how he rode on Saturday.

Lunch Break at the Lookout..

I rode Edgar on Sunday while Derek rode BS, just for an hour down the road. Edgar was missing 2 shoes himself, so really hard to tell if his shoulder was bothering him or if it was because he was missing a shoe on the side he had injured... I think he is 95% fine, so the plan is to get new shoes on this week and start riding him again and get Derek riding Oakley now.

I lost a couple more pounds! Not yet significant loss, but I'm working on it.... Sorry the blog may be boring lately, we've been trying to get in lots of riding, so thats the main focus of what we do lately! :)