A Banner Day

First things first--today was an awesome day! We have a had a great weekend. First of all on Saturday, we went up Underwood. We found Lynn's crupper from when Ziggy broke it crow hopping and bucking in the bees. We walked down through that area and I sprayed a hole where they probably had been, but were no longer in. There was a paper nest on the ground and it could be that it had fallen out of the tree and the bees were still in it at the time. The crupper was actually right where Alisa and I went down the bank as we skirted the bees. So anyway--yay!

We didn't ride far, but it was fun nevertheless. We even got to see Wood Duck boxes that have been recently added to some trees down by one of the ponds we ride by. Picture the last pond we see before we get back to the trailer. It was fun to see them. I hope we get to see the ducks one day.

Today we rode up the Hennessey. Just past the first meadow, as we were starting up the road, we saw a rabbit! It jumped out of the brush and almost ran into Ziggy's back leg. Of course he didn't miss a beat, but the rabbit hopped as fast as it could go down the road away from us. Thankfully the dogs were all way ahead and did not see it, as they are much faster. It was the cutest thing.

Once we got to the top, we turned right and rode down to the big dirt flat that used to be a meadow. We turned right on the road again (always skirting those darn bees that are on our trails) and headed to where we drop down the mountain. However, today Lynn stopped and said, "Hold on. Let's try this." We went off on a trail to the right. She has said before that it leads to a dead-end road, but today she was up for an adventure. And what a great right turn it became!

It lead down and down and DOWN. :) It was a pretty clear trail--only a few near brush offs from swinging branches and thick branches that didn't give enough. At one point I said I had a whole tree in pants which got Shirley to singing, "I've got a whole tree in my pants. It makes me want to get up and dance!" to the tune of "I've got the whole world in my hands . . " Ha! I have a few more lines I'll have to add in later . . .

The trail widened into a meadow. There were upside down buckets on posts for cows. Is it some kind of molasses? No cows, but evidence that they must come up there. We rode to what we thought was an edge to look over, but it was more meadow. There we saw three turkeys run across and lift into flight. They were too far away for Haley, but she quivered as she watched them. We also saw two deer trot up the hill to our right (again too far away to be in trouble from Haley).

We did not see a house, but Lynn thinks it is Heidi Carpenter's ranch. Next time we'll keep going and ask for breakfast! Although it seemed like we dropped down a long way, going back up was pretty quick. We didn't go the whole way though, instead turning to our right along another good looking trail. We hadn't gone very far when it began to look familiar. Sure enough it comes out on one of our regular trails!! The trail we usually all lope up and then stop and eat some grass before heading up the steep, brushy trail that is a detour because of a tree that fell across the tight, wet area we used to ride. (I don't know if you can picture this or if it makes any sense!)

How cool is that? Now we have another loop to add to our trails. It was a very fun day.

Afterward, we shampooed the girls and both of them got groomed. Two beautiful babies.

5 days of good riding out of 10 Firs

I am always thinking of naming my house--like they do in England or Europe. People know a place by its name. In the US, sometimes roads/streets are named by the people who live there, e.g. Easy Street, or the people who have always described the directions to a place as such. For example, on Hennessey Road there is  Old Mill Rd, Our Road, and  Old Moss Mill. I have thought of calling my house something common like: Briar Green or Briar Rose (isn't that Snow White's name?). There's place going up Berry Summit that lots of locals call The Pig Farm (although Lynn never has) and there are not any pigs there that I can see.

When I describe where my horse lives (because everyone asks!?), I tell them he lives at Suzy Q. Everyone knows where that is. (I always wonder who she was. I should probably ask Shirley.) The old brown house that used to stand where Lynn's current house now stands was called The Place. Even though the "funny little house" that Lynn had built stands there, Shirley still refers to the whole property by that name. But one day, I counted the trees in front of Lynn's. There are 10 trees lined up--two rows of five. Her dad planted them I think. The name of the town in my favorite book series is Three Pines. The pines are symbolic of a safe haven to Canadians who were seeking refuge from their civil war. So I told Lynn she could name her house 10 Pines. She corrected me and said they were firs. So there you have it--Lynn's place could be called 10 Firs. Especially instead of Keyes' Peaches.

To be continued. . .

Well--this post was supposed to be about Alisa and Keota coming over to ride and it got off track a little and then postponed for a month. So hmmm. What was I going to talk about? We had fun. We rode our favorite trails. Keota was nearly perfect and as graceful as always loping along behind all of us. I say nearly perfect because he came down off the trail on to the road and bucked around--surprising Alisa for sure, but all of us, too. Alisa rode it out easily and in the process of getting him under control broke off some branches that needed cleaning out of path. So it all turned out good.

We rode up Underwood one of the days and we came down the steep trail near the pot growers, which always makes me nervous, but my pistol of a horse was really good and waited on Keota to come down. He didn't even care where Zigs and Buss were. He stopped and turned sideways and looked up the  hill until Keota was in his sight, then he would turn and head back down again. Lynn and Shirley rode off quickly so the dogs (mainly Haley) would stay close and not go over that way. I so wish those people would leave.

A side note on the downhill is that Lynn went over to Quincy and rode for a few days last week and Alisa let Keota have  his head and I guess he really moved down the hills at a quick pace. Zigs wasn't sure if he could keep up and that boy is downhiller.

I'll keep thinking. . .