Saturday Ride on Monday - with a Sunburn

Our usual Saturday ride had to be postponed until this past Monday. (Saturday we were busy Jousting ). It worked out that we had almost the entire day-- and a good thing too, because the trail we had mapped out for ourselves and our steady mounts was going to be a LONG one !

As we saddled up it seemed like it was going to be slightly cool on the trail so we began with light sweatshirts--

Turned out, we took those off about 20 minutes into the ride and the temperatures continued to heat up through out the trip. Both Zoe and I were wearing tank tops and we both got pretty red by the end of the day. At the beginning of the trail, we found one of Denises's obstacles in the woods !

We rode up over Mount Ephraim again, past the little beaver pond.

We came down the other side of the mountain on a different trail - taking a right at the top. This route leads out onto a road called Rasmussen- where we have beautiful views.

As the trail turns into a road- there is farmland on either side and gorgeous hay fields.

Here's the farmhouse owned by some people who only visit the farm a few weeks out of the year.

Rasmussen Road continues down to Pleasant Valley Road where we cross over onto Poppe Road- another short dirt road that turns into trail at the end.

More scenic pastures and hay fields

The end of the road again and back on trail.

This trail crosses over into Chester and comes out onto Roach Road. From here, we ride the dirt roads homeward- taking a brief trot onto another little trail, cross a bridge in the woods.

Once on the road home, the horses got their second wind and had a nice refreshing gallop. It was a great ride- but as I said... our shoulders were sunburned when we reached home base.

Sunday, Zoe's children- Rena and Dominic, wanted to try the jousting since they were pretty impressed with our little show on Saturday. We dressed Keri up again and led the kids through the course.

Here's Maid Rena and Lord Dominic

I made a short video of the affair.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpriKYIPXGc

Right before our Monday ride, our favorite little pony Pal delivered her curly pony colt- a darling palomino sired by OYY Finnegan. Other than the fact that he gave us all colts so far- I am pretty pleased with the results- I still need to snap a few photo's of the new fellow.

Yesterday was spent grooming and bathing various horses. We moved some horses around again, which always results in a lot of whinnying while they make new friends and look for their old ones. A few of the horses settled right in and I can tell they were wondering what took so long for us to figure out that's where they preferred to be.

The past few days have been unseasonably HOT- and it seems I may have to mow the lawn this week ! Yikes.. seems early for that.

Sunday is Zoe's first show of the season, so she is getting ready for that. This week is the close of the RAC Obstacle course mini contest.. We might get in a few more if we have time.

enjoy the day ~