Hello

Well hello there! :)

I just feel like writing today, but for no particular reason.

I've been riding quite a bit this summer, and it's been so nice getting back to my trail riding roots. A part of me (a big part, I admit) does miss ring riding and the like, but for now, I'm happy with what I've got. I'm blessed to have it, too!

My mom and her horse Lady are doing so well together! Lady has turned out to be a beautiful trail horse, she is steady on her feet, honest and just a pleasure to ride! She is a real keeper, that mare.  She is a bit of a floozy, though. She and her pasture mate, Stormy have been having a sordid love affair (of the gelding/mare variety). One of them isn't fully equipped, but that doesn't stop them from...ahem...trying. Heh heh heh...tmi, you say? Sorry.

On a side note. My mom has come across a harness and cart. Kind of like this one:


It's fancy, yes it is.

Anyway. What in bejeezus is (are) she (we) going to do with a cart like that? Oh my word. Well, she's going to (with help) train herself AND her horse to drive.

I'm divided on this. On one hand, neither my mom nor I have any experience driving, let alone training a horse to drive. I don't even know how to harness a horse. The horse is NOT broke to drive. She's calm and pretty unflappable, sure, but she's still a big honkin', behooved horse.

I don't want to be fugly fodder either, I admit.

ON ANOTHER NOTE: I do think, that with an experienced trainer's help, this would be totally awesome! TERRY,  what do you think? ;) I also have visions of my distant future self showing a Morgan in Carriage classes...even though it's my mom's carriage, she'll share!

So, there's that too.

Let's see, what else?

Here's something cute!

Josie is just over 1 years old now. My future cowpoke!

...ain't she cute?

The Longest Ride

Happy day before Friday! Woot!

Two weekends ago, I, along with my mom and Gail (owner of the Missouri Fox Trotters) went on a long trail ride to Brighton (Chilson) Recreation Area I think we went a total of 9 miles (that's really long for me, anyway).


The ride to the recreation area is about 3 miles, comprised of trails, dirt roads and one small section of precarious paved roads.

The mare I have been riding, Lady Jane, is spooky. She's pretty easily contained, but she does spook quite a bit. Most of the time, she sort of missteps during a spook; and they're easily ridden. Once in a while, I can feel that she would like to bolt; again, she's been easy to stop. She's just a nervous nelly; but a good horse nonetheless. I enjoy riding her very much!

Anyway, the ride went really well, but there was one moment where my life flashed before my eyes. The section of the ride that is paved roads upsets me. In fact, in the future if we want to ride at Chilson, we've all agreed to trailer the horses there as opposed to riding them.

Here's why.

The portion of road that is paved, also has a rail road crossing. The railroad is down a slight slope; to one side of that slope is a small farm butted up the road. That farm has a very vocal Emu, and a gorgeous, gorgeous Quarter Horse mare that enjoys galloping up to the fence line to visit with the strange horses walking (or freaking in my case) past.

The other side of the road is a sharp incline up to a rusted out wiry fence, staked with metal stakes.

Like this: (but rustier)

Just before the portion of dirt road turns paved, there is a very busy camp ground. Many recreational vehicles travel to and from this camp ground, even in late September! So, there we were 3 horses and 3 riders. A galloping horse, a screeching Emu, train tracks, slippery paved roads, 1,000 gigantic monsters zoning in on us (campers and trucks from the campground), a rusted out metal fence and a horse on the verge of a panic attack (that'd be Lady Jane).

At one point  my life flashed before me. The horse was just a ball of energy. She wanted to bolt, but there were campers and trucks impatiently passing us only about 2 feet from the narrow patch of hilly grass we were on, which added to the chaos of crossing the very scary railroad tracks.  I could sense that because I was holding Lady Jane back, she was thinking about rearing which would have sent us both careening (falling) backward onto the paved road.  <---this is hard to explain, actually...ha ha ha.

I rode her through it; safely, thank goodness, but I don't think I want to venture that way any longer.

Other than that, we had a great ride! We saw quite a few other riders at the recreation area, and a most beautiful chestnut Morgan gelding (which made my day).

In other news, the Morgan Grand National Horse show is this week. You can check out classes and watch the live feed of the show here.

 Now, the fun part! Pictures!!!