This and That

I've had a great May so far!  Went camping with a couple of my "girls" for a quick weekend.  Went to McCulley's on Saturday and came back home Sunday afternoon.   It rained ALL day on Saturday, but we had a blast hanging out in the barn, chatting and then riding our horses bareback in between showers.

Gotta love my sexy get up, huh?

Cathy and her big boy Busta

Shelly said to heck with riding bareback and she took pictures of us playing around instead,  

Stylin and I having fun cantering around the barn area.

Staying out of the rain and solving the world's problems

The rain finally quit late Saturday night and we woke up to a cool, perfect day.  We got a good 4 hour ride in along some of our favorite trails.

 Shelly on Willie, Cathy on Busta

 Stylin stepped out the whole ride

 Along the pink trail

This bridge on SR 6 is pretty scary for some of our horses when the big semi trucks go overhead !

Last weekend for Mother's Day, my daughter and I went hiking at Goldhead State Park with our dogs, then hit a great little farmers market in her town and had lunch at her place.  It was a perfect day except for the dang red bug (chigger) bites that I got.  

Her pup Teak is growing every day

Fun with Dogs and Zombies

A couple of weekends ago, my friends and I went to the Florida Horse Park in Ocala for some camping and fun riding the Marjorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway.

We were happy to discover that they were having Jack Russell Terrier races at the park that weekend as well.  It was so much fun watching the little guys running over the little obstacles chasing the little fake critter.

While riding on Saturday, we crossed over the I-75 Land Bridge

Then at the 49th Ave Trailhead.... were we stopped for a snack and potty break...we ran into ZOMBIES

As we go ride through the underpass we go through a lot of the brain eaters.....they were filming a movie

You can see me in the middle talking to them...making sure they were not hungry  :-)

We rode thru some beautiful winding trails

and then rode around on the FHP property, looking at the cross country course and enjoying the wide open spaces

We enjoyed an relaxing evening around a fire in Cathy's new fire pit

Life is good!

Here are the rest of the pictures that Mustang took.

Number 2

I got to camp again this month....2 in 1 month is stretching my financial plan, but this trip was pretty inexpensive.  I am debt free other than my home, and am in the phase of saving enough cash to cover me for 3 to 6 months.  When I reach that number, then it's to pay off my home and be ready to semi retire in 2014.  Anyway, a few of us decided to camp at McCulley Farms the weekend AFTER their big fall ride.  Good decision!  We had a blast....there were only about 5 other trailers besides our group.  It was like the farm and trails along the Withlacoochie River  and Twin Rivers State Forest belonged to us.  :-)

We got to ride when we wanted, for as long as we wanted, slept in as long as we wanted and ate want we wanted.  We had fun around the campfire.... we played headbands, but ran out of headbands so I put my card in my glasses.

Stylin was still a little off from the previous camping trip so I rode my other mare Dixie.  She is such a a good old gal.  She is still going strong.  We do not have the same easy connection that Stylin and I have, but it was fun to ride her this weekend.

Cathy's horse Busta was still lame as well, so she rode my daughter's mare, Maybe.  She always enjoys little Maybe....she'll go anywhere and do almost anything  you ask of her.

From Friday thru Sunday afternoon....I relaxed and had an awesome time with my friends and horses.

Here are links to all the rest of the photos I took and that Mustang took.  Group 1   Group 2

And a parting video......  you can't see me, but you can hear my southern twang and see my mare's ears.

First Camping Trip of the Season

My riding buds and I went on our first "official" horse camping trip of the fall/winter season.  We were like little kids getting ready to go to summer camp!  This was a place that we had never ridden before and was for a good cause as well.  We went to Rock Springs Run State Reserve for a fundraising trail ride for the Children's Miracle Network.

Although the charity ride was just for Saturday, we went down on Friday to set up camp and scout out the trails.  The camping was primitive (just no electric sites) but they had a nice bath house and a barn for those who got there early enough.  We didn't, but we were able to set up around a nice oak tree and high tie the horses.

It was a 2-1/2 hour drive door to door, so that's not bad at all.  We do that occasionally for a day ride.  The trails were fun...not too much different from those at home, but we did have a little excitement.  I saw my first black bear on the trail.  We've always seen a lot of scat when riding in Central Florida, but never the actual live animal.  Cathy and I had split off from Marilyn and Mustang and were riding a parallel trail where we could just see their heads bobbing above the brush.  We heard Mustang give a squeal and wondered what she had seen or stepped in.  About that time we hear the movement in the brush between us...thinking it was just an armadillo or something small.  The noise continues and the bushes start moving...way bigger than an armadillo.  Now Cathy and I are getting a little nervous because we had seen a lot of hog sign.  We think some pigs are about to crash into the trail so we start hollering "go away.... get back....shooo".  It didn't work, but it did divert the beautiful young black bear from running right into us.  He crossed about 20 feet ahead of us and kept gettin' it across a big field of brush and palmettos.  Our ponies were champs; they didn't even care. It made my whole weekend seeing that critter and made me appreciate what I get to do with my friends and horses even more.  I am truly blessed.

As you can see by the picture above, Cathy rode my other horse Dixie for the weekend because her big guy Busta is still lame.  My 25 yr old Appy is still going strong - I was very proud of her.  She's only been camping twice before.

Here's a bunch of   PICTURES  that Mustang took during the weekend .... enjoy!

Jonesing to Ride

I am sure missing my ride fix..... but all for good reasons.

My sister Shelly and her son Bo came down from Springfield, Tennessee for spring break and visited for a week, so I didn't get a ride in last weekend. I did get some good quality family time in though and family DOES come first. Shelly took Mom back home with her yesterday and Robbin and I will go pick her up on Mother's Day weekend.

Bus driver Bobby

This weekend, Bobby and I visited the Florida United Methodist Children's Home in Enterprise, FL. Bobby drove one of the church buses and I came along. They have a wonderful ministry there for children who have had abandonment, abuse, or other issues and a beautiful campus.

Beautiful stained glass in chapel

The children sang for us and showed us their cottages.

Each cottage of 6 to 8 children has house parents who try to make the group living as close to a home environment as possible. I came back very blessed and knowing that our dollars are sponsoring a very worthy cause.

Boxed picnic lunch under the largest tent ever!

We didn't have to decide where to eat after lunch today after church since Robbin bought us tickets to the church spaghetti dinner.

No spaghetti sauce on my shirt :-)

I was hoping to get a short ride in today after church, but the weather didn't cooperate. Since it's going to rain all day, I've donned my jammies and am going to pull out my new director's cut of Aliens and enjoy. I got the Alien quadrilogy for Christmas and just watched the director's cut of the first one, Alien, last night.


Next weekend is Bobby's and my 6 anniversary so we'll head down to St. Augustine and stay in a B&B Saturday night. Should be relaxing and a nice reminder of our honeymoon. Maybe Stylin and I can get out for a ride next Friday. :-)

Mystery Ride

Stylin ready for bed

We had a great time this past weekend at the Rodeheaver's Boys Ranch in Palatka. A local group called the S.H.A.D.O. Riders put on their annual Mystery Ride and this year the theme was nursery rhymes.

Tucker helps Stylin "jump on the bed"

There were obstacles along the 7 mile trail; Billy Goats Gruff had some live goats and a wooden bridge obstacle. The Three Little Pigs had hay, sticks, painted piggies and a wolf trying to blow the brick house down. The Mad Hatter served us tea on horseback. Five Little Monkeys had a mattress for our horses to jump on. I think there were 10 different obstacles - we had a blast!

Our buddy Cathy brought Busta but wasn't able to ride him this weekend - she has to have corrective surgery on some discs due to a couple of hard landings. She kept the party going during the evening for us but we missed having her along on our rides.

Busta has the place to himself.

The next day, we rode along the Florida Cross Florida Barge Canal down to the Rodman Dam before packing up and heading home.

Here are a pile of pictures that Mustang took of our fun.... PHOTOS and the rest of PHOTOS that I took.

SUPERSTAR !

Said while doing a deep knee bend and both arms up in the air! I'm so tickled........ The Ride America manager of the Paint Horse Journal contacted me a few months ago to get some information on trail riding in Florida and of course I obliged and sent her some photos. I just got a copy of the March issue a couple of days ago and guess who's featured in the trail riding section..... that's right.....c'est moi avec mon cheval. Me and Stylin baby! Well....it's not all me, there is a gentleman from Florida who also contributed - but how cool is it to see your name and photo in a national nagmag? If you subscribe to the Paint Horse Journal the trail section starts on page 90. If not, here's a LINK to a copy of the article.

Charity Ride and Camping

Cathy, Mustang, Shelly and I camped at the Florida Horse Park to participate in the Horses for Hospice Charity Ride benefitting Hospice of Marion County. We got there on Friday before lunch and stayed until Sunday afternoon enjoying the park and the Greenway Trails.

Cathy on Busta and Mustang on Linc

We rode for a couple of hours Friday afternoon just exploring close trails and the beautiful park itself. We got to play around on their cross country field and obstacles. Of course we didn't do any jumping but did climb up and down a hill and practiced stepping off and back up some drop offs.

Volunteer Sheriff's Posse

Saturday morning was the charity ride and it looked as if there were well over a hundred riders participating. Another riding buddy, Susan and 3 of her friends joined us early in the morning to do the charity ride and camp with us. After a very short group ride, we enjoyed a catered bar-b-que lunch and instead of hanging around for the demonstrations and festivities, we headed out from the park over the Landbride Trail and almost to the 49th St trailhead and back. I guess we rode for about 3-1/2 hours through some really nice trails with switchbacks and lots of hills. Stylin got a little amped up when her friends got out of sight which is not like her. I'll be putting her back in the snaffle for a little while so that I can work her properly on the trail when she isn't focused.

Susan on Apache and Curtis on Chester

After a fun evening of story telling and adult beverages by the campfire, we woke up early Sunday and packed our gear and horses and drove down to the Shangrila trailhead which is only about 15 minutes away by vehicle and would take more time than we had to ride to and back. We really like the Shangrila trails - there is a lot of variety - single track trails, wide sandy ones and the ability to challenge your pony and yourself working around trees and a little hill climbing. After another 3-1/2 hour ride, we all packed up for home - tired and happy.

Shelly and Dawn

Here are the rest of my pictures and here are the ones that Mustang and Susan took.

Me - yapping about something.

New Trail (new to me at least)

Cathy, Jenny and I hooked up with Dana and her friend Lanette to ride from Diamond D Ranch to the borrow pit in Jennings Forest.

I met Dana several years ago and we recently reconnected on Facebook. I was happy to finally get to ride with her again.

She showed us some different trails in Jennings State Forest - we rode to a borrow pit and had fun climbing the hills and playing in the water.

On our way back, Dana's horse almost stepped on a beautiful corn snake. Jenny jumped off Maybe and caught the snake so that we could admire it for a few minutes before letting it go again.

Here are the rest of the pictures............ PHOTOS.

Moses Creek Ride

Cathy took a personal day from work and we went riding at Moses Creek Conservation Area. I haven't been out there in a couple of years and thought it was time to check it out again. Other than some rocks that the management folks put down in some wet areas and along the first part of the trail, we had no problems. Busta was tenderfooted from just having his pads removed that Cathy had put on him when we went to the Georgia mountains.

We took the shorter trails since we got a late start and rode for about 3 hours. It was breezy and cool - just right for a nice trail ride.

I was able to use Stylin's cool Renegade Hoof Boots after talking at length with Kirt Landers, the creator of the boots. I was having some fitting problems so Kirt had me send him some photos of Stylin's feet then talked me through some trimming adjustments. I trimmed her up Friday morning and the boots fit much better and hung with us through our ride. I really like the way that they don't alter her stride nor come up over her coronet band. Thanks Kirt!