Husband Ride

My friend Kathy was at High Knob camp this weekend.I contacted her this morning about riding with her and she said that her husband Ron had come to camp with her and he had agreed to go riding this morning with her. So, she was planning a shorter ride as Ron doesn't ride very often. So, I asked Fred if he would be interested in going riding with us. Much to my surprise and delight, he agreed to go. So, Marie got the honor of lugging him around It was great getting both my equine kids out and to spend time with friends and my husband. It was a really nice day and we had a nice ride. We rode for about 1.5 hrs. We dropped our husbands off and Kathy and I went back out again with Cathy and Anthony for a longer ride.

Chocolate... or Lucy

Went out with Delbert and Ruth today. It was such a perfect day. Delbert has a new mare that arrived at the farm yesterday. It is a mare he previously owned. A mare he bred for. She is a lovely mare and did wonderful today on our ride. Her name was Chocolate when Del and Ruth owned her previously. When she was sold, she was renamed Lucy. Delbet hasn't decided which name he's going to use.

I rode Lily today and she was a very good girl. We led most of the ride with Delbet taking the lead at the end of the ride. 

Mother's Day Ride

It was a beautiful day today. It was in the low 80's but low humidity so very comfortable. Today I joined up with Cathy and Anthony again. Lily was a bit fussy about loading into the trailer but only fussed for a few minutes. She was pretty good about being saddled up. I led her down to Anthony's as I figured they likely weren't ready yet. I was right so I tied Lily to Anthony's trailer and sat down to relax for a bit. It wasn't long before they were ready and we headed out. It was just the three of us today. We rode out the back of the camp and went south and then east on a trail I don't think I've been on before. We were heading to Double M Campground and meeting some of his family for lunch there. Lily was very good today other than stumbling and doing a face plant once. We rode through to Initial Tree and stopped to take a break there. Then on to Double M. We rode 9.48 miles from High Knob to Double M.

I'd had Anthony call Fred to see if he wanted to join us. Fred hadn't answered so Anthony left a message. When we got to Double M, Fred was there and I was pleased he'd come to join us. Cathy and I gave Fred quite the show as Anthony rode off to talk with someone as we were crossing the parking area and neither Lily or Cathy's mule LuLu wanted to be separated from Anthony's mule. We had all we could do to get either mule to walk to the hitching rails and I managed to get a horrid cramp in my leg from trying to get Lily to go! BRAT! Fred thought it was pretty funny. Anthony's mom and dad were coming as well as his daughter, son-in-law and their two young girls. So, we had quite a group for lunch! Any time with Anthony and Cathy's family is a good time. I think we were at Double M. for nearly 2 hrs. Lily wasn't overly impressed at being tied to the hitching rail that long but she wasn't bad either. Just a little fidgety.

We took a different route back to High Knob. Lily got sticky feet at a couple intersections on the trail that she knew led back home but again, didn't make any big fuss. We stopped for a break at NoNo Rock. I was playing around with Lily but not really asking her to do any big jumps. Anthony said he could show me an easy way to get Lily to go up on one of the rocks so I handed Lily over to him. Lily gave him a run for his money but he did get her to put two front feet up on a rock. We then rode back to camp. We rode 9.01 miles on the way back for a total of 9.49 miles. Lily loaded right into the trailer for the ride home.

Evening Ride

I took Marie out after work tonight. It was just such a nice evening. I knew I didn't have a lot of time so headed to Double M. Campground by the most direct route I know of. Marie was eager to go today and kept asking to trot. So, I let her where the footing was good. Though she cooled her jets after we went down the big hill and up the other side after crossing Black Ridge Rd. We rode back home down Thacker Hollow Rd. It was getting too late to go back though the woods and the road is easier on Marie. It was a great ride. Marie is such a wonderful horse.

Snake at the Cabin

I trailered over to High Knob to ride with Anthony and Cathy.  Roy and Beth Landers and Billy and Lisa Scott were also in our group. I went to the barn early to feed and clean Lily up as best I could. Lily was a bit of a jerk about loading. She put two feet in, looked over the divider and saw no one else was in the trailer and backed out and didn't want to load. It didn't take all that long to convince her though. When we got to High Knob, I tied her to my trailer to tack her up and she was all excited and wiggling back and forth on her lead. I put her saddle blanket on her just as a group of riders were going by and Lily bucked the blanket off. Sigh....... I settled her down and put the blanket back and. She stood ok for the saddle. I led her down to Anthony's and Lily was excited but behaving. She stood quietly for me to get on. But, that's one thing she is nearly always very good about. We had a bit of a wait until everyone was ready and Lily was a bit impatient but not bad either. I didn't have my phone or a camera today so didn't get any pictures. And I forgot my GPS so don't really know how many miles we rode. We rode to Blacks Cabin. Beth had an encounter with a fairly large snake when she went to do some business in the woods. Nothing poisonous but still a rather large one. The guys had to check it out and brought it up by the cabin. Lily only had one bad moment today on the trail. We were riding along the base of a bluff and it was fairly rough going and we came to a dead end and had to turn around. Anthony and I had been in the lead and we were suddenly in the back and Lily had a brief anxiety attack in fear of being left behind. And it was NOT a good spot for mulie anxiety attacks! I hopped off and led her though a rock squeeze so as not to lose any lower limbs and jumped back on her at the bottom. Lily was a very good girl all day other than that one moment and we had a great ride. We were out for around 5 hrs. Perfect weather, good friends, good mules... What more can you ask for.

Kentucky Derby Day Ride

I got up too late to join Cathy and Anthony to ride today. They were ready to ride out by the time I called them and I didn't want to hold them up so I decided to take Marie out. We rode over to Double M. Campground. Marie was eager and forward today. We met quite a few other riders along the trail. Marie talked to them all but didn't make any fuss. I stopped and had lunch at the restaurant. Marie snoozed in the sun on the tie rail. It was Kentucky Derby day. Heath had a TV out on the porch so people could watch the race. I had a lovely ride.