It's fall in more than one way!

Fall colors were all around us today. The poison oak was red and pink and salmon-colored; it was especially beautiful climbing up trees. The dogwoods were in various stages of pink and green and hopefully I will get some pictures from Lynn since she stopped every little bit and took some. She also took movies of us--on purpose this time--so maybe I'll see about downloading them as well.

Last weekend, we all met up in Red Bluff and went riding at Jelly's Ferry. It was a pleasant, breezy day. We traveled all over that flat and even went through a deep little creek. Brady and I almost took a header when he caught his foot in deep groove left in the hard ground, but somehow I stayed on and he righted himself. Thankfully he wasn't hurt. It was good to have all of us together again--Alisa and Odie; Shirley and Star; Lynn and Ziggy; and me and Brady. It had been a while since all us of rode together and it was fun.

Today was an odd day on the Hennessey. It was foggy and drippy. The branches seemed to hold their water in little cups for us and it wasn't long before we had it running down our necks and off our helmet visors. There were hunters out and about and everything sounded differently. Once again, it was me and Brady doing tricks. I never really know what happens. I just find myself in the position of hind end in the air and top-heavy helmeted head hanging over his neck! But, I guess he shied and then slipped and fell onto his knees. He scraped his nose on the ground and I squealed in his ear, but I stayed on and I helped him get up a little by getting back in the saddle and up off his neck! I guess I'm getting stronger or more balanced or something since I didn't go off. Although I will say that both last weekend and this time I got a cramp in my leg so I must be clamping on tight. (:

Anyway, he was positive there were scary monsters out in the brush today. Finally he was proven right--as we were walking out the last bit like we always do, a covey of quail lifted straight up, flapping loudly over the big clump of blackberries directly in front of us. I felt the reins lift from my shoulder where I had them draped and Shirley, who was behind us laughed and said I should have been on him that time. I guess he jumped straight up in air and landed to our left. Good grief! Then he settled down--it's good to be right.