Graveyards and Buzzards

 I didn't have a lot of time today but it was such a beautiful day that I just had to get out for a ride, even if only a short one. So, since it was an unplanned event, Lily and I were heading out solo. When I got to the barn, Lily was out in the big pasture. Good girl that she is, she came to me when I called her. I saddled up and she was overall pretty quite about it. I mounted up and headed over to towards my house. This is the first time I've mounted up at the barn and ridden off alone. I've always led her away from the barn for a distance before mounting. Lily did not even hesitate for a second.

She did however, booger a bit at the decorative horse head in the horse shoe figure at the end of Sally's fence. But, she did go by it without too much fuss. We rode down Cedar Bluff Lane and went right on Thacker Hollow and then right again up Black Ridge Rd. At the top of the big hill, Josh Cross has some shadow figures on his lawn near the road. Well, that was a big mule booger too but after a bit of snorting, Lily did go by. Just as we got by that a motorcycle came roaring up the hill. Lily tensed up a bit at that but made no fuss. At the trail head, there were several groups of riders. Lily didn't pay any attention to the groups and cruised on by then without so much as a glance. I was very pleased about that. We took the Black's cabin trail to the cut off for Thacker Hollow Cemetery. Lily has always been snorty about the stone bench there. Today I asked her to approach it. It didn't take long to get her to go up and investigate it.

We went down the hill to the creek and headed south on 185. There are multiple trees down on 185 that are obnoxious to get around. When we got to 184, we took that back towards home. We were on a switchback watching some riders below us. They were staring up at the sky as there were multiple turkey buzzards flying low near us. Just as we got by a little cave in some rocks, a turkey vulture exploded out of the little cave right behind us VERY close. It startled me and spooked Lily. She bolted forward down the hill. Thank goodness she stopped just as soon as I picked up on the reins.

All was well until we got on the trail from Black's Cabin to home. Just as we were approaching the last corner of the trail around the big pasture, we could hear what sounded like loud dirt bikes down in the hollow to our left. Lily was definitely a bit concerned about this but kept going. The, she stopped dead got really worried. It took me a minute to figure out what the trouble was but realized that she has spotted a fire on the edge of the woods. It was Delbert burning leaves. Lily didn't like the looks of that at all. But, we still got back to the barn all in one piece. It was a good ride.