Today we rode to the Woodstock Inn, just the two of us. It was a day filled with wild life! and a timed bike race. Sounds like my kind of anxiety and excitement!
It was hot and I was trying out the 'new' saddle, which is a saddle that he's had for years but barely ever used. It fits KC pretty good and I need to adjust some things on it to make it better suited for me and my style of sitting on the horse.
We parked on the horsey club's drive way. The horsey club was having an event and is off limits today. We came down the hill to Cub Run, under the bridge and walked down the creek. Where you leave the creek to enter the trail was a snapping turtle. And she definitely saw us!
We saw lots of bikers/hikers/walkers and dogs. One GSD pup was a delight! We stopped to chat with them and their young daughter got the opportunity to touch KC. He noticed that she had a small dog in her arms and we all know KC really does not like dogs, in the 'stomp the dog' manner of don't like dogs.
After we got past the pipeline on the 'white' trail the bicyclists started showing up, wearing numbers. We did not impede their travels, yielding to them instead of the way it is supposed to be. We allowed the boys to rest, eating grass, then moving along quickly before pulling over again and letting a dozen more riders get by.
While hurrying along a stretch where the trail goes left and right but ends up in the exact same spot, I usually take the right because I can get some speed up and he usually takes the left because he wants to beat me to the junction. I beat him to that point but a limb is hanging down, so while I'm ducking I realize we are going to travel right over a Rat Snake in the path! There's nothing I can do about that at this speed but we did manage to miss him and most of him was in the grass, but he hears me yelling and then he sees the snake too!
We pass the pit stop tent for the bikers and KC is looking at all the cookies and muffins and walks right up the bikers. No problem here!
There are plenty of horses already tied up at the hitching posts, but the $10 beer buckets don't start until 2:pm, so we wait. We see a friend's husband there, he said they just left and he is going to drive back to the event at the horsey club. We visit for a while and some of the riders come out and clear a hitching post for us to tie up.
We run into another friend on his wife's motor bike
On the way back, it is now pretty darn hot and we try to stay in the woods but end up in the open meadows near the nunnery, Bon Secours. I can feel my arms sizzling and KC is soaking wet. My pants are wet, too. We come into the meadow behind the nunnery and can see laterally into the next meadow with the creek ravine between. I can see a doe with a baby, she's eating tree leaves and the fawn is stumbling behind her. She has not seen us as we are still a long way away, but at the same level. As we approach the bottom of the hill she sees us and crosses the path at the top of the hill. The fawn does not follow her. We water the horses at the creek and travel up the hill.
The fawn is fresh, its joints seem too big for his limbs. He is unsteady on these stilts of his and turns back and crouches under the Barbary bush. He's no taller than a red fox. The doe is across the meadow, in the tree line, looking back at us and we travel between her and the fawn. I offer my congratulations to her.
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