A Weekend Treat Of Good Weather!

With the tempatures in the high 60's and low 70's I planned a weekend filled with riding!
Started out Saturday morning with Jane and her horse Val coming over with Sharon who running the baording stable where Jane borads Val. With Sharon on Sadie and me on Seven, the three of use rode for two and a half hours.

As we headed out and across the back fields I saw something big and bird like on top of two light poles. As we got closer we realized that they were Vultures sitting on top with their wings held out. Spooky looking! When we came in we had some rasberry tea and lunch provided by Jane. We relaxed on the side porch in the sun!

That is when Billy my Cousin from Alabama called. He was in training at Fort Bragg with the Army Reserves and did not realize that I am only about an hour away from there. Jane and I went out for another short but fast ride while waiting for Billy to come. We cantered and troted the big loop again. Both Val and Seven worked up a sweat!

Billy arrived and it was so nice to see him again! It has been years! We hopped on the mules again and out we went! We rode until the daylight sent us back in! Sadie was her usual good but sneaky self. Trying to wait for the second Billy was not paying attention to stop and grab a snack! She even did her trick, trying to turn in to the yard with the apple trees, only problem, it is the dead of winter, no apples! Billy told me about his life, great family, their house and his two tours in Irag. I got to see a bunch of neat photos. He also showed me some photos from then his Army unit was sent to Montana to learn how to ride and pack! It was at the base of the snow capped mountain. I am Jealous! Jane headed home and Billy and I went out for a nice dinner, then he headed to a friends house to go Mountain Biking on Sunday.

Seven looked like he needed a cup of coffee the next morning while I was grooming him!

Sunday AM found me heading with two mules to Howell Woods, a part of Johnston County Communittee College where we had a reservation to ride for the day. I came across a major probelm when I got close! The bridge is out for repairs so I had ot take a 15 minute detour that lucky for me worked out!

We met Claudia and Jack and Jane. Seven was already tacked up so I helped get Claudia started tacking up Sadie. We took off for another nice ride! We did a 9.2 mile loop in about two and a half hours. At one point we saw hundreds of Vultures all in one area. We found they had left some boars that had bee killed the day before out in the field. There was a camera set up near them, some kind of study? It was spooky to see Vultures for the second time in two days!

Once we got back to the trailers, we rested Mules, horses and people. Had some snacks and a lunch! Jane and I plotted our next ride and Claudia and Jack headed back home. I decided that Seven had been ridden three times yesterday and Sadie only twice so I would leave Seven in the trailer with hay and water and ride Sadie out for a Trot/Canter ride. Well, my normally calm Seven wanted nothing to do with this and hollared, pawed, knoked the water over and spead the hay all around. Jane and I had another great ride. We even switched for a few miles so that Jane could See her horse being ridden! I find it always fund to see what you own horse looks like going down the trail! It was a little hard to get used to the different swing in his Walking Horse gait but fun!

All in all Jane and I figured we rode about 25 miles in 2 days!

Home by 5Pm but chores to do!

I think the mules danced a little JIG when I went to work the next morning instead of riding them!