Still Going Strong

Got to take my old girl Dixie out on Saturday for a nice 3 hour tour.  Her sight seems to be getting a little worse, but she is still going strong.  A nice walk through the woods was just what the doctor ordered for both of us old gals.  Thanks to our buddy Shelly for joining us on a relaxing ride.

Me and Dixie 

Shelly and Willy

Happy Hoofwear Shoes

I'm so pleased with the poly shoes by Happy Hoofwear that we are currently using.  Stylin moves out so confidently since she's been wearing them and we just completed the Florida Cracker Trail across the State of Florida in a pair that was already 14 weeks old and had been reset 2 times.  Here's a video that Sylvia Norris, CEO of the company made with me, my daughter and our horses.

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.

Getting Ready and Enjoying the Weather

We been riding almost every weekend and trying to get some conditioning in.  Stylin and I are joining some friends to participate in the Florida Cracker Trail Ride again this year.

Our group of friends enjoyed a Christmas camp out at the Spirit of the Suwannee Campgrounds where we meandered the trails along the Suwannee River, played games on horseback including musical feed bags, relay races and broom polo, enjoyed campfires, awesome food and fantastic fellowship.

Stylin and I warm up for the games

Shoe tree along the trail

Jenni & Anna demonstrate how to pee from horseback

Busta shows how much he trusts Cathy

Partial group shot 

We had such a good time and have ridden together many times since December, but I haven't been taking pictures.  We've been hitting Jennings State Forest pretty hard and riding the 16 mile loop to get our ponies in shape.  Here are a bunch of pictures that Mustang took during the Christmas Camp Out.  PHOTOS

Photo Shoot

I love these pictures that my daughter Jenny took of us recently.  When she gets more downloaded, I can share some of her and her pony along with my buddy Cathy and her horse as well.

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!