After recovering from the night out at the ball park, we took Friday off and did yard work, poison ivy control and tree and bush trimming. Clean the barn and dry paddock, mow the grass.
The heat and humidity is back in full force. We originally had planned to camp out this weekend, but with family in town, and the heat wave, we decided to take it one day
We live so close to the club grounds, that driving there and back is a non-event. The boys really wanted to go, jumping into the trailer, ready to go!
The major undertaking to camp out with three kids is hugely incredible. The planning and logistics is a daunting task, getting the horses, tack, food, clothes, sleeping accomodations, camping equipment; it exhausts me just making that short list! Glad they aren't my kids.
After we tacked up it was decided we would go to EW Beck's in Sykesville. This is a 10-mile round trip, fairly easy, but with some ride down a quiet road, then onto Main Street. We have a couple slightly green horses and three kids, making that a total of nine riders. With this crowd we can literally stop traffic.
Because this is only a 10-mile round trip, we decided to take a left, making an extra loop and back to the river again. In total we traveled 13.6 miles, top speed: 18 mph
On the way we were told that a very large Sycamore was down in the path, on one of the steepest parts of the trail. Sure enough, the tree is huge, AND it is sitting along the trail, in a deep crevice with no apparent go-around.
I originally thought I would ride KC down this seriously steep incline, but when I got to the edge, peering down the cliff, I decided to completely wuss out and lead him down. This is also hard; he wants to put his feet where I am putting my feet. If I trip, he'll walk all over me, like a floor mat. The dirt is dry and loose, rocks are coming loose, I'm sliding, he's sliding, rocks are sliding. He's walking sideways, so am I. Yikes!
We all finally got down to the bottom. This was not easy, and will go down in the folk-lore of trail legend. Really.
On the way down the road we saw parked cars on the side, with families fishing in the river. We successfully got across the bridge and onto Main Street, opting to ride down the sidewalk. People can't help but notice nine horses with riders coming down Main Street.
Of course we needed to get back up that treacherous hill on the way back - I chose to ride KC up the incline. He did an awesome job! So proud of him. I set him to the hill, gripped his mane and let him go at his own rate. He lurched, dug in, stopped, lurched again. It was a rocky trip, trying not to get impaled by the saddle horn, and staying out of his way.
Half way up I hear him call out, " I lost my hat! " , " I lost my glasses!" Great.
I told him I would walk back down to find his hat, he said the glasses would be near the hat. Same branch knocked them both off. I wanted to hurry back down the hill to find them before they got trampled by the next horse and rider. Two of the girls were walking, actually crawling, up the hill. I saw the hat, then saw the glasses. Saved! Now I was crawling up the hill with the kids. We need to build a sustainable go-around, this is not going to be a good route.
Sunday, Sunday: First Day of September
We had so much fun Saturday that we came back for more! This day we went to the Woodstock Inn. Only one road to cross, and no treacherous, hat-eating hill to traverse.
It was starting to heat up, I wanted to stay in the shade as much as possible, they wanted to hit the meadows as quickly as possible so they could GALLOP! O.K., then. And so we did.
We were one less today, probably missing the most level-headed rider, so we just let the kids do what they wanted. Sometimes we did say 'no' because we know the trails and know what is coming up, or what we are going to do, and the kids traded horses back and forth. We started out at 10:00 a.m, getting back to camp around 5:30 p.m., but actually rode for 3.5 hours because we had a lot of 'sit' time, relaxing in the creeks and rivers, top speed was 15 mph. It was hot, but the horses did everything they were asked.
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