The Best Way To Go for a Beer With a Friend

Hello, November - you did arrive in style, I suppose.  All dressed up for Halloween, anyway - in fresh snow and way below average temps.  I think it was technically above freezing today, though my toes wouldn't agree. 

Not quite unbroken snow, as two someones had been walking here before us.  But truly enticing, nonetheless.

About midday, and with a glorious amount of sunshine beaming down upon us, Red and I headed off with M. and her Paint mare Twister.  This is actually Red's first ridden outing since moving here, as I have been taking both horses with Red ponying up until this point.  Before getting to the farm, I stopped at a feed store hoping to find a performance feed.  No such luck - everyone around here would be happy to order something for me, but my choices off-the-shelf are pretty slim.  At least I can readily get beet pulp!  So instead of keeping is as simple as possible for M. to feed my boys (just soaked beet pulp and a pelleted feed, in differing amounts for each of them, plus MSM supplement for Red), they're now getting beet pulp plus plain oats (what they were both eating at home, and a favorite combination of mine), and Rhio additionally gets stabilized rice bran.  So hopefully it's still not too complicated or too much mixing!  I try not to be one of *those* horse people that boards her horses and makes all sorts of demands.  This stop let me make up a tub of goodness for Rhio, so that as we rode out, he had deliciousness to occupy him.  I am not sure if I'll try leaving Red behind or not - he has a history of panicking when left "alone," and I can't guarantee that the herd would stay close enough to the fence to keep him company.  Rhio may not prefer to be left alone, but especially with food in front of him, he seems to handle it just fine. 

After encountering a camouflaged (buried slightly under freshly disturbed dirt) coyote trap right along the trail - thank goodness M. told me what it was - I'll be a little more careful in guiding my horses around anything that looks like that in the future.  (The trapper is on their land with permission, by the way. So no concern there, but it is nice to know where the traps are so I can stay away, and certainly not take Kelso out there with me.)  Red was more than happy to show Twister the way to go about the business of getting down the trail, and the inch or two of snow from Thursday night just made for a delightfully quiet, soft ride.  We got the occasional dump of snow in our laps from overhanging branches, but mostly it was really quite lovely to ride in.  I'm not sure how I feel about day two of snow this early in the season (really, it should just melt this time of year), but it was pretty. 

We did a little exploring along the way, generally covering the trails I've become familiar with in my solo outings.  After a few hours, and with swiftly approaching full-numbness in my toes, we opted for an excursion to town.   The trails connect to the town park, and just a bit down the road from there is a friendly little local bar.  This IS Wisconsin, after all!  This bar conveniently has a hitching rail, and we took ourselves inside for a beer (and, yes, to use the ladies room, and thaw out our appendages.)  The presence of horses outside the door lured about 1/3 of the bar patrons out for a look-see (and a few asked permission to go pet them, and feed them sugar lumps.) 

At the hitching rail

We hit the trail for home with just enough time to arrive before sunset.  Nothing can beat an afternoon spent astride a good mount, with the trail bending away ahead of you, and excellent companionship.  A beer along the way doesn't hurt, either. 

Rhio waits for his brother to return.

Cutie pie knows I've got his supper.