Blue Skies and Great Friends

Stylin stands tall after hearing a gunshot

We had a wonderful 5 hour ride on the other side of Jennings State Forest on Saturday. After the cold weather of the last couple of weeks - a sunny 65 degree day was perfect. Six of us had a blast, walk/trot/cantering through the woods and playing in the puddles. It was me, Jenny, Marilyn, Susan, Mustang and Shelly. Traci was all set to come as well, but had a flat tire on her truck at the last minute.

Jenny and Maybe

Here's a link to the great pics that Mustang took for us.

Bonnie and Clyde

Mean People

I enjoyed another great 4+ hour conditioning ride on Maybe this past Friday, but returned to the parking lot to find my passenger window smashed and my purse stolen. Same thing happened to my riding partner's truck as well, but she had taken her wallet with her on our ride. What a way to end a ride.....we didn't let it ruin our day though. The mean people that got my purse went right to Walmart and got about $500 worth of merchandise and gas before I could cancel my check card. Still working through the red tape to get my money back and all my identification and stuff replaced.

On a good note, we had an awesome healing prayer service at our church tonight - I should have prayed for those thieves.

Baby, It's COLD outside !

We've had a week of record breaking cold here in North Florida - I'm not really whining too hard because I know other parts of the country are a lot worse - but enough is enough. We've got at least 4 or 5 more days of 20 degree nights and 40 degree days.....that's not what most of us live in Florida for. :-)

My daughter has decided to participate in the Florida Cracker Trail Ride this year so I'm gonna to help get her pony in shape by riding her on my Fridays off. I took her out for the first time yesterday and met my friend Marilyn for a 4+ hour ride in Jennings State Forest. It might have gotten to 40 degrees but it was misty and rained lightly on us a couple of times. We did have a good time though and I was bundled up enough to keep warm. I only took one picture with my cell phone at a potty break stop.....this is Maybe dressed up in my saddle and gear. I figured if I was going to put hours on her, I wanted to be comfortable and she is close enough to her mom Stylin's shape for the saddle to fit her fine. (oops..didn't realize till now that I didn't get her cute little head in the picture).

I was supposed to ride Stylin today, but I just couldn't get motivated to ride in the cold today - it's still in the 30's.

Family, Friends and Fun

Mom, KD, Robbin and Shelly

The Tungett family at home (Robbin, JT and Tim)

Shelly and KD on a hike

I've had a wonderful Christmas holiday! My neice, Melinda came down from Nashville the week before Christmas and it was fun to have her around the house again. (She stayed with me a lot when she was attending college at Flagler in St. Augustine several years ago.)

Bo, Shelly and Melinda

Then, her mom (my sister Shelly) and her youngest brother Bo came down Christmas eve and stayed for almost a week. It was so great to have all three of us sisters together for the holidays.

Shelly on Dixie - Bo on Maybe

We spent a lot of time just catching up, and had a wonderful Christmas morning and traditional Christmas dinner at my sister Robbin's house. During the time that Shelly was here, we were able to go on a couple of nice walks, visit a local museum and go riding.

Shelly on Dixie

I skipped church on the Sunday after Christmas, joined my daughter Jenny and left the family to their own devices to join my riding friends for a 5-1/2 hour ride at Guana River Wildlife Management Area. It was a cool day and just perfect for a long ride with old and new friends.

Mustang, Pinky, Cathy, Traci, Susan, Me & Jenny

View of Ponte Vedra Lake

After all the family had left, my hubby Bobby and I joined our good friends for a New Year's horse camping trip to McCulley Farms along the Withlacoochee River. Bobby hasn't gone camping with me in a while and it was a blast to have him there. He doesn't ride anymore, but loves to tend to camp and keep the fire burning. We had so much fun riding and spending New Year's eve on the farm dancing to the DJ's tunes, playing pool, hoola hooping and hanging around the pot belly stove. Richard McCulley and his father TC converted their old chicken barns into horse barns and one is set up as a "party" barn where the food is served, tack auctions and get togethers are held. We always have a great time when we camp there! We didn't take many pictures, but I love this one of a little girl and an old dog that I snapped with my cell phone.

Happy New Year !

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!

Have a Merry Christmas!

A little Christmas card I made years ago modeled on a cute little baby John Mule named Missouri Jim.