Poker Ride

Today Double M Campground was hosting a poker ride to raise money for the Wounded Warrior Project. I missed the ride last year so was determined to make it this year. So, I got up early and headed to the barn. I had not told Delbert that I was riding this morning so he had opened the gate to the big pasture and of course that was where Lily was. I walked out to the gate with her halter and called to her. Her head came up and she nickered to me and galloped right up to me. I gave her a treat and held out her halter.... and she galloped on past me on up to the barn and waited there for me. Well, that was fine.

I have not clipped Lily's mane for quite some time so she was looking pretty shaggy. I got my clippers out and clipped her mane off and neatened her all up. She was absolutely filthy from rolling in the mud and I cleaned that off the best I could. But, short of giving her a bath, she was not going to be white. I had to settle for a soft yellow. I did a practice trot out before mounting up and she did it perfectly. I mounted up and headed for Double M Campground. I decided to ride there by way of the road as it is only 1.5 miles from the barn that way. If I went by trail, it would be quite a bit longer. I was a bit apprehensive as Lily is not the steady Eddy on the road that she is on the trail. But, there is only one way she will get better is by exposing her to it. I rode down Cedar Bluff Lane to Thacker Hollow Rd. Right away we met our first car. It was my neighbor Shirley. She approached slowly and stopped to say hi so Lily had no issue with that. A 2nd car passed us from the rear and also went by very slowly so Lily wasn't bothered by that one either. When we got to the bridge, which usually bothers her, she did pretty well with it. She hesitated but then went right across. Lily was pretty relaxed over all and wasn't walking in the middle of the road snorting at the bushes on each side like she usually does. She was walking quietly on the side. Then we met with a white truck coming head on. It was not going overly fast and did slow more when I signaled it to but Lily still got worried about it and did a spin. UGH! But I got her moving again in the right direction. She did the same thing when the next truck passed us. UGH! When we got to camp, I rode into the driveway by the pavilion and right away Lily froze up and got all super snorty. I had to push her pretty had to get her moving again but I did get her going. And then it was flinch, snort, flinch, snort all the way to the restaurant. I don't know why she is such a dork about riding through the camps. Apparently we need to do it a lot more. I tied Lily up at the hitching rail and went to the restaurant porch to sign up for the ride and get my card sheet. Card were going to be drawn at 5 locations. At the top of the camp, at the spillway of Pounds Hollow Lake, Initial Tree, Black's Cabin and the final card at the restaurant porch. I was also told to keep an eye out for bandanna's tried in the trees. If one was found, you would win a prize.

 Lily danced and snorted the whole way to the top of the campground. We drew our first card there and then we were on the trail. Lily was now in her element and the fun began. The first thing was to decide which way to ride the loop and what trails to take. Black's Cabin was going to be the tricky stop as that is right near home and either way I rode the loop, we'd have to ride away from home from that spot and I didn't expect Lily to like that much. I decided to head east and go to the spillway first. So, I took trail 188 and headed there. There were a large number of people out riding again this weekend. It was hot today but not at all bad in the woods. Though the mosquitoes were once again pretty vicious. I drew my 2nd card and decided to take the trail that goes up beside the spillway. Not Lily's favorite spot but she went hugging the left hand side of the trail trying to keep from getting to close to the spillway itself. And there, half way up, was a bandana tied to a tree! I didn't know if I could get Lily to stop and stand long enough for me to get it but she was actually pretty good about it.

We rode up over the dam and took the trail alongside the lake. Where the trail turns to follow along the lake, there is a muddy spot full of tree roots. Lily got a rear leg sunk and caught last week and she definitely remembered that. She didn't fuss about turning onto the trail but at the muddy spot, she would NOT walk through that mud and dodged right up a slope into rocks and very heavy brush. She didn't care about the rock and brush but I was going to get knocked off her so made her stop so I could stop and untangle myself from the trees and lead her though the bad spot. She proceeded to crash though the brush along side the trail in that one spot but she went. I got back on and all we proceeded on our way. There was a pretty big group at the top of the long steep climb heading away from the lake. I let Lily stop and take a breather there and chatted with the other riders for a bit. Then we headed out along 183 and 106 out to Black Ridge Rd. Then we rode down along Indian Paint wall Bluff to Initial Tree. I passed 3 riders at one of the caves along Indian Paint Wall. One riders was an a lovely loudly spotted Appy mule. I stopped to chat for a moment. I told her mule mule had looked like her mule when I brought her up from the pasture this morning. Only my mule wasn't supposed to look like that. Then, they asked me if Lily was a champagne (color) I went with my, she's a cremello story. No one wants to admit they are simply riding a dirty white mule. There were a LOT of riders there. It was pretty crowded so I drew my card and kept going. I rode out 105 and now we were heading towards Black's Cabin and home.I took a short cut up a hill which didn't turn out to be the one I thought it was. I came out close to where 183 crosses Black Ridge Rd. I've seen this trail and wondered where it went. Now I know so that's a good thing. I decided to just ride right down Black Ridge Rd. to the Black's Cabin trail. There were quite a few riders at the cabin.

 I drew my card and headed right out. This is where I thought Lily would give me a bad time. She did express her opinion about heading away from home, but didn't make any big fuss about it and we were on our way back towards Double M. When I got back to Black Ridge Rd. I headed north and then took the T-Lick trail. I took another short cut that again didn't bring me out where I expected but did bring me out onto the wagon trail and that was as good a way as any to ride back to camp.

 Lily made a minor attempt to turn and follow a group of riders heading back towards home. But, it was a minor fuss and we were quickly going on our way with no more trouble. And soon we were back to camp. Lily was wonderful the while time out on the trail. But, as soon as we entered camp, she froze up and did NOT want to walk through camp. She spotted a covered wagon with a pair of gray mules and she wanted to go hang out with them. I think she thought it was our neighbor as they have the same kind of wagon and a pair of gray horses. It took some work to get her feet moving again but eventually I got her going and she snorted her way though camp down to the restaurant. I pulled my last card there, had a lousy poker hand but turned in my bandana to claim my prize which was a box of strawberry cupcakes!! Wooohooo!

I decided to ride the road back home. Lily was not at all happy with this decision. A couple riders were going a short ways down the road to get to their campsite. Lily sucked right in behind them for safety. When they turned up their camp road, Lily insisted we needed to follow them and we had a bit of a discussion about that. She was pretty adamant about it. I did eventually convince her to get moving down the road towards home. Lily walked along nicely and I was extremely grateful to not meet any traffic along Thacker Hollow Rd. And that the Alpaca's were not down near the road when we passed that far. The we came to the bridge that she had crossed quite nicely in the morning going away from home. She froze up again and just could not work up the courage to walk across. Now this is a very wide cement bridge that doesn't look, on the surface, much different than the road. But she knows...... I finally got her to cross that. I turned up Black Ridge Rd. to cut across my property to get back to the barn. A car passed us there and Lily paid no attention to it. But........ when I asked her to cross the little creek on our property that is dry and full of grass so you can't see the ground....Oh, no, she wanted nothing to do with that. Lily, Lily, Lily. Eventually, she did cross it and the rest of the way to the barn was uneventful.... well there was the dog kennel with the blanket hanging off it in Sally's back yard that was worthy of one snort. Once back in the barn yard, I asked her to side pass in both directions and she did good with that. I dismounted and did a trot out with her and she did that without hesitation. It was a great ride and overall a very good day. Lily and I had some challenging moments in places were Lily does not feel confident yet but we worked safely though them all.