On Sunday, Rich and I took Simon and the two dogs and we went on a ride and hike. 

We took turns riding and hiking and had a really good time. 

We got to work out our hiking muscles and our riding muscles.

We got to spend the day enjoying the outdoors and the nice weather, while getting exercise and  having quality time with our dogs and pony.

The dogs also had a great time.  They love spending time in the woods and usually go on trail rides with me.  Daisy usually wears her safety vest.  Mainly so I can spot her as she zips all over the place, but, it also makes me feel a bit more comfortable if there are hunters around.  

I did have a moments thought, should we consider doing a ride and tie?  For those of you that don’t know what a ride and tie is, it is an equine endurance sport, where two riders and one pony cover a distance on trails. 

One person would start out on foot, then the rider would start out and pass the person on foot.  After a ways the rider would dismount and tie the pony up just off the trail and continue along the trail on foot.  The person that started out on foot would eventually catch up to their pony, untie said pony, remount and take off along the trail, passing their teammate.  They would then select a point to stop and tie the pony up and continue on foot.  The two people would swap the pony back and forth in this means.  The race is over when both people and the pony cross the finish line.

Anyway, I don’t think ride and tie is something Rich and I will aspire to, but it would be cool.  So who knows? 

Rich is not normally a rider, but he really enjoyed it and did an outstanding job.  Simon got on well with him and was a really good pony.  I think he was happy to be getting so much attention. 

I am not a runner, and I decided that hiking in my riding boots sort of sucked with the lack of tread for going up hills.  And I was nervous that Rich had on sneakers and that they would slip through the stirrups.  They are endurance stirrups at least, so they are wide, but it was still not the best situation.  So I decided I am going to order some of the cage endurance stirrups so we can ride in sneakers safely.        

We definitely plan on doing some more ride and hikes.