Ride 81 - Chrome kissed a bull and he liked it (picture heavy)!

 Headed up our long driveway.

The weather was perfect today!  Seriously I'm back in shorts and a t-shirt (after the ride, I rode in sweats).  This is how November is supposed to be!  :D  So hubby and I went for a ride (me on horse, him on bike).  We went the direction of the dead end road, but bypassed it and kept going, then doubled back home.  It was a total of 4.24 miles.  Chrome was extremely balky around other horses, pretty spooky (for him - it's probably because we haven't gone in a new direction in a while), but otherwise he was good.  :)  Now I'm just going to share a ton of pictures.

 Staring at the neighbor horses while hubby shuts the gate.

 I'm so glad he's so awesome around bikes.

 It was a little breezy so his cute mane was getting blown around.

 The above picture is looking down a looooong hill that we doubled back on, so we ended up doing it three times (up and down both sides every time, not turning around at the top).  :)  The hill from the bottom on one side to the bottom on the other side is a quarter of a mile, so the laps on the hill made up three quarters of a mile of our ride.  I think the long, steady slope will be great for his stifles if he'll ever learn to walk a straight line.

Looking back to the top of the hill.  You can see the slope at the very top really well, but the whole thing is on a gradual slope from where we were standing.  The other side was shorter.

 I love his wind blown mane.

 Hubby found a spitfire of a snake.  It bit his shoe hehe.  So tiny and cute!

 We made the cemetery our turn around spot.

How many of you have ridden in a cemetery?  I've been riding along the edges of this one ever since I was a kid, but this was a first for Chrome.  I won't take a horse directly across the graves because it's rude and potentially dangerous even though I think this one has been full for a long time.

 On the way back a bull came to say hi.

 He kissed Chrome, tongue and all!  I didn't get a shot of his tongue, but it was so cute.

 A mule owned by the same people as the bull.  She's been there since I  was a teen.  :)

 Back at home I've kept up my plan of tying him up.

He was so tired he didn't budge, even though my dad was using a leaf blower nearby.  Of course he never budges around a leaf blower so that's nothing special lol.

 Giving me some tongue.  :)

 He's so cute!

I decided to wash his tail because it was looking really gross.

 After I brushed it, before washing it.

 My awesome sidekick.  

 Looks much cleaner!  It was still wet here.

Yes I let him graze because he stood tied to the pole for a really long time and was a good boy.  He didn't try to take his halter off, untie himself, pace, paw or anything else.  The worst thing he did was yawn. ;)

One thing I've always loved about gray horses is how their dark eyes pop against their white coat.  His face is getting light enough they are starting to pop.  :D

 Then I was very bad.... I climbed on his back without a helmet while he grazed.  Don't be mad!  I wore it during the ride.  :)

 Best way to lounge to watch him graze and give him neck scratches too.  :)

He eventually started grazing toward low hanging branches so I jumped off.

 His tail once it was dry.

 He is so gorgeous!

I need to try some of that Orvus shampoo to see if I can get the stains out.

I really enjoyed today.  So happy for a break from the bone chilling cold.  I hope a warming trend is on the horizon for all of my blogging friends.  :)

ETA:  I completely forgot to mention that at one point hubby was looping his bike around behind Chrome when he slammed on the brakes.  Hubby ran his bike into Chrome's haunches and got his tail tangled in the handlebars.  It was hilarious!  No one was hurt.  :D