8 days into the New year.. we went from below zero degrees to yesterday's 47 degrees. My daughter and I have been able to ride every day but one... definitely motivated by Denise Conroy's RAC (Ride A Curly contest). Always the dilemma-- work or ride?

On the super cold days, we experimented with different "outfits" to stay warm and dry. On the second - we went out for a quick trail ride with OYY Mercedes and OYY Nimue in between scheduled therapeutic riding lessons. We went out on a trail that we have not ridden since summer-- it went great until we got to nearly the end of the trail and neither horse wanted to step into the frozen brook to cross. We had to get back by a certain time, so in the end, we had to dismount and walk the silly goofs across-- no time to fight and fuss. Yesterday, we returned-- and both horses did cross the brook nicely. On the third-- I rode a lovely very naked mare I purchased from Erica Frei specifically for the riding center. Camilla is about the sweetest horse you could find and lots of fun to ride. She has not been used other than lessons (in the indoor) in over a year however-- and the whole ride was-- trot a bit, stop, look around, trot a bit, stop, look around.... at one point she jumped sideways (for what reason?? I am not sure- ) and we ended up in a deep snow bank on the side of the road. Once she was in the deep snow with her short little legs... she was not sure what to do-- so she SAT down like a dog. Another silly goof-- Since that ride ended up being slow and boring-- upon return, I grabbed my favorite Keri-Orla and went for a real ride. My daughter rode Teasel Obi, who is Camilla's son (sired by Erica's Tanjobi). Teasel is another very naked horse-- but again-- sweet, forward, fun-- outstanding riding horse. With these 2 horses, we were able to cover ground!

Our best ride so far was Sunday. I rode Keri again. My daughter was on OYY Wassee-- who is fast becoming super horse. We wanted to give Wassee his first taste of the highway so we headed up to one of our favorite places-- MT Ephraim and the location of the Stellafane observatory. In this photo taken from my barnyard, you can see the general location of our destination by the furthest snowy roof in the trees--

Keri has crossed over to this trail hundreds of times.. this was Wassee's first time.

For part of the ride, we had to travel on the snowmobile trail. Here we are approaching the state highway-- it is early Sunday, so not a lot of traffic. We were kind of hoping we don't meet up with the snowmobilers... I am not sure if we are supposed to be riding on their trails-- and parts of the uphill winding parts are narrow. We did have a "convoy" of about 8 or 10 of the noisy beasts head on-- thankfully the horses did not care and the riders were polite to slow down for us. Since we left some horse poop on their trail.. I am glad all they did was wave.

Once we got off the groomed trail, we got into deep snow and the horses had to work hard. Here we are at the location of that snowy roof-- looking across at the farm and my new indoor. A few more shots of the view.

From here, we rode over to what I call the "pink house"-- another of my favorite places. This little house is part of the Stellafane group.. built in 1924 as the "clubhouse". It has always been pink. Inside this adorable clubhouse, is a Polar Cassegrain Telescope, a Transit telescope, a solar telescope (all operational except the Transit) and on the South wall of the house, is this sundial-- it is about 52 inches by 55 inches and accurate enough to set your watch by it.

There is also an observatory - a unique 12 inch f/17 equatorial telescope, built in 1930-- the world's only reflecting turret telescope. I don't think they use this anymore-- they have built a large very modern one to replace it. This area has been hosting annual conventions since the 20's and people come from all over to view the skies. The group of Springfield Telescope Makers is the oldest group of amateurs in the country and Stellafane and the observatory and the pink house are National Historic Landmarks. The work Stellafane is a combination of 2 Latin words-- Steller , meaning "star" and Fane, meaning "shrine". It's a kind of magical place-- and I love to trail ride up there.

I hope you are enjoying your days ~