A Good Week of Riding !

This week we got a few excellent rides in, along with all the usual choretime and training. It's surely moving into Vermont's Fifth season.. mud ! Along with celebrating Maple Syrup time. The weather is warmer most days - and I have even been burning Balsalm in my outdoor boiler-which amazingly enough actually made heat !

Our peppy pair- my Keri and Zoe's Teasel, best buddies and the perfect cruising companions had a nice trip out on the 7th.

The roads were somewhat squishy, but gorgeous sun and blue skies made for a most enjoyable trot out.

I bid on and won a second treeless saddle on e-bay. I love my Barefoot London- enough so that I wanted try a different model. The Barefoot London has- as typically a dressage saddle does- long flaps which makes fitting to a small pony difficult. The treeless saddles have long billets- and finding a short enough girth for a 12 hand mount is nearly impossible. I studied other treeless models- and since I already love my Barefoot, I went with the Cheyenne. I was anxious to use it.. hoping I would also love it. So- on the 13th, Zoe and I found a window of time to trot out again. Zoe chose to take Elektra and .. surprise-- I rode Keri again. Here's Keri reluctantly posing for a quick photo with the Cheyenne before we went out. She is also a bit peeved because she sees that Teasel is not accompanying us on the ride. OYY Elektra (named after a great aunt of mine on the Isle of Crete) is a superb ring horse, but she does love to go out on the road and trail as well, being just as nosey as the rest of us- she likes to get a glance of the world and neighborhood.

The roads are alternately firm and

smushy.

We backtrack on our previous hoofprints.






Our best ride of the week was Saturday- we had more time to plan a longer trip. We decided to do the "Cummings Road" loop. Cummings Road has an entry and an exit-- but for some reason the middle part was abandoned and is no longer a road-- now barely a trail. We thought with all the melting that has been going on lately-- we could get easy access to the trail part and make the loop home.

The trip starts out traveling over Flamstead Road, actually one of my more favorite routes- over Crow Hill. The views are some of the best in our area.

We pass by lots of maples and sap buckets. One of the quintessential Vermont sights in spring. Although mostly people use a maze of sap line all intertwined through the woods, there are still buckets hanging out as well. I read it takes 40 years for a Maple tree to reach tappable size ! Seems pretty amazing.

And here is a wonderful example of why we can't boil maple sap inside the house ! The collected maple sap is about 90% water- it takes approximately 10 gallons of sap to

make a mere quart of the delicious pancake topper. You can see all the evaporating water pouring out of this sugar house. Vermont is apparently the biggest US producer of this sweet liquid treat.

I, myself, prefer Vermont-made over all the other produced. All this "steam" is the water being boiled off.

As we come down off Flamstead Hill, Zoe and I decide to take a quick detour over the bridge into Chester Depot for a quick trot. Keri and Teasel are excited as they seem to love the "in town" excursions the best !

We pass by the Yosemite Fire House, built in 1878-79, trot across the highway and cross the railroad tracks.

We pass my local grain store which is right next to the railroad tracks- they get all their deliveries by truck now I think and the train is mainly for tourist sightseeing trips. Right next door is the Chester Train Depot - which is why this part of Chester, Vermont is called "The Depot "

The best part of the trip is coming up and the horses know it--

Sidewalk trotting !! We all like an animated sidewalk trot- and both Zoe and I have come to rate our horses in training as to whether we believe they could, also, be sidewalk trotters.

Over the past couple of years-- Keri and Teasel have learned to eagerly anticipate the sidewalk. We pass by an outfit where the owner does outstanding chainsaw carving and other neat arty projects. A scarey pit-bull by the name of Buddha jumps out and threatens us briefly-- I know there are probably plenty of very nice friendly pitbulls out there, but I still don't relish meeting one.

OK-- back to our original plan-- off to Cummings Road -- There's plenty of mud-bogging here. We reach the end and find..

UH-OH, not so much melting as we had thought... We will have to hang on and climb this snowpile to get into the trail section of Cummings. I won't get much chance to take photo's in here-

We'll have to concentrate and pick the right spots to direct the horses safely. The snow in here is deeper than it looks..

After some hard work, we make it through to the other side-- back on the road ~ where we walk the horses quietly as they worked up quite a sweat from navigating the nasty trail. We get up on the highway to head home-

We take a left onto Lacross Road- which leads directly back to the farm. My farm is on a hill, but the top of Lacross Road is an even higher hill.. as you can see- we look down onto the farm on our approach.

On the way up the driveway, I snapped a photo of the brook cutting it's way through the snow, mostly because I thought it was a pretty sight. This is the brook featured in several of our "brook walks" we like to expose the horses to.

It was a week of some super rides - Saturday's of course was the best adventure. As usual, while we headed home- Zoe and I were planning our next long trek out-- We have not ventured into the main town of Chester yet-- the "Green".. so I think next weekend if weather permits.. that's where we'll go.

And- by the way-- I am quite satisfied with my new saddle !!

Enjoy your day ~