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.

PRICELESS....

My good ole 23 year old Appy mare, Dixie, takes another person on their inaugural trail ride. This time it was my nephew Julian, who has ridden her in my yard for years, but this was his first venture away from the farm. You can't put a price on a horse like this.

A Step Backward ...

I had shoes put on Stylin's front hooves 2 days ago after she was barefoot for about 3 years. She has had some persistent toe cracks for well over a year that my Natural Hoof Practitioner nor I were able to resolve. They run vertically about a full inch up the front of both front hooves. I've had her on hoof supplement for about 10-11 months, I treated her with the recommended Lysol solution, shaped her hooves, beveled the toes...did everything I knew to do. I used good hoof boots to protect her feet, but the cracks continue.

I really do prefer to keep her barefoot, so hopefully we can get the cracks grown out and get her back to barefoot.

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.

Movie Night

I forgot to post that Saturday night I went by myself to see Avatar. My husband isn't a big sci-fi or fantasy fan but I have been from my teen years. So I popped some corn, filled a bottle of water and went to the local mall theater. My daughter and another friend talked me into seeing it at the IMAX in 3D and I am glad I did! I won't write a review - there are plenty out there - but will say that I think I have a new favorite movie. I sat there grinning like a fool right by myself and got sucked right in. If you have any inkling to go see it, do it before it leaves the big screen.