Gorman Ranch Road, Foresthill, CA.

Monk and Ambrose were cleaned up a little, Monk had his Glove boots installed and were loaded into the trailer about 11am.  These boys both just jump right into the trailer and get tied side by side, no partition, in a 3 horse slant load.  I picked Kathie Ford in Auburn and we continued on to Foresthill where we hit Mosquito Ridge road.  You go down into the canyon on this narrow windy mountain road for about 6 miles.  On your left is a road called Gorman Ranch Road which goes to Michigan Bluff, which is a little town on the Tevis Trail about 6 miles from Foresthill.  The reason for this trip was to check out the uphill portion of this road to see if it was long enough to use for conditioning and to see how the "Boys" went together.  The road is gravel and is used by vehicles, although we did not encounter any.

We started off at the trot with MONK in front tying to keep Ambrose back some.  That did not work all that well so we ended up almost side by side, with Ambrose in front by a head,   a race horse thing I guess.  Any way MONK was not happy about it but it worked.  We averaged about 9.5 miles an hour for the 5 uphill miles.  Little snow here and there when we got close to Michigan Bluff.

Actually I was very surprised that Ambrose could keep up with MONK at the trot, but that he did, and he did it well and with conviction.  He is a little of a high stepper and his trot is not all that comfy but you get used to it quickly.  He has a very nice canter which we have done very little of, but in future rides will let him work in that mode more.  We did maybe only a mile or so of cantering, all of it on the uphill trying to keep both boys happy and not fighting to go faster and faster.  We actually cantered that stretch from Michigan Bluff to Chicken Hawk, for those who know the trail...

On the way back down the hill we just took our time, trotting fast at times and walking at others.  I started to laugh like crazy when my watch vibrated and beeped at a too low of a HR, MONK's HR was 54 at a strong 4+mph walk downhill.  I really wanted to have a monitor on Ambrose but forgot the transmitter, next time.

Kathie ran with Ambrose some, right side, then left side, stopping and starting, he caught on quickly.

When we got back to the trailer Kathie did a quick trot out for me which I videoed.