I went out riding with a friend. I don't get many chances to ride these days. Most times I'm exhausted and done with horses by the time I get home and feed my own.

I took a green-broke Mustang filly from my herd. Really, she shouldn't be expected to do much outside our property line but the cowboy in me wouldn't let her alone. She just looked like she needed rode.

We committed to a short haul. A little trail, some gravel road and some paved hacking. About an hour ride.

My horse did fine except for an ugly triple log crossing. We wound up going the long way around. I didn't blame her. She wasn't prepared and I had been drinking.

My friend was on a new (to her) Appaloosa I had been trimming for a couple of years. Her horse had been in pretty rough shape with a lousy case of white line disease and pancake flat feet but had come along nicely under natural care.

When we hit the gravel road it was no surprise my Mustang handled it fine. The Appaloosa was a big question mark though. I kept looking over my shoulder (causing my green horse to swerve wildly) to see how my friend's Appy was doing. Over and over I exclaimed "hey! We're riding barefoot horses on a gravel road!"

When we got to the pavement and rode side by side I was some-what overcome and I reached out to my friend for her hand. She said something I won't soon forget.

My friend who is both a long time customer and an AANHCP student said "I've been riding barefoot horses on gravel roads for a couple of years now. It's not so amazing to me anymore."

I'm going to spend more time with my own horses.

Todd