Mud Season Hack

Starting off my April goals with a long hack last night. It was high 30s, not windy, and sunny. Snow was melting, Tristan was fresh, and the sun was out! I jumped on bareback with his XC bridle.

I have to get a better picture of the house up on the left, because I covet it.

One of the barn owners' husbands repairs boats. In the winter the tarps flap
all around and provide an excellent desensitization tool!

LOOK MY TRAILER HAS TIRES STILL. WHEW.

This was supposed to be a photograph of the culvert & ditch fast
with runoff, but it turned into a neat optical illusion of Tristan the Dala horse.

In conclusion:

That max speed 8.9mph would be the moment when we tried to go up onto some back roads. I saw tons of sap buckets on trees and thought they would make a good picture, so I pushed him forward though the snow was still quite deep. He was less than thrilled.

Then we rounded the corner and the farmer and his family had a massive tractor they were using to collect the sap, and Tristan decided he was DONE. We had a little whirling stomping dancing fit, and then I turned him back at the tractor (which the farmer had helpfully turned off) and he realized it was going to be ok after all.

The farmer's two young daughters (maybe around 10 years old) were helping collect sap and it made their day to meet Tristan.

That said, we still turned back off those roads to head elsewhere, because there were some late season snowmombilers going to town in the fields and Tris was not thrilled.