Last minute, cold 2pm Ride with Hershey, Sheila and Tango

Duchess was on the walk ride. I like when she is on the rides. She is such a beaufitul large horse.

Sweet Hershey & Horsee Mumps (Boger)  I real sweet horse.  Hershey was a great ride!

Crazy day for a ride.  Not sure there was time, next weekend is Christmas but Id like to ride as much as possible.  I waited to hear from Colleen but she didnt write.  She said she was havin lunch and couldnt ride. I had wanted to ride at 3pm but I know the farm tries to get the horses out with one ride or larger rides so that its worth it for the farm.  I rode into the dirt road at 2pm on the nose.  Ran over to Bobby. He looked as though he had done some real hard work today.  He had on his dirty work coat. I gave him a hard time about not having his Santa hat on.  He said he got his Christmas present today, His favorite kitty returned home. He pointed to him laying on his Lazy Boy chair sleeping with the santa hat on the kitty.  It was nice. Anyway. I was ready.  The guides said that we needed to wait for 8 more people.   At 10 past a car of 4 asian people pulled in the farm area.  There was a girl and 3 guys.  She was all dressed up special boots. She was kind of amusing.  There was a man with a stylish suit coat on and they looked under dressed as far as riding in the cold.  Still we had to wait for 4 more.  Again at 2:20 the other Mercedes showed up.  They signed in. I was getting pretty cold.  I should have been pissed but I was happy to be there.
Anyway. The others were loaded on the horses. I wanted Foxxy but its ok.  I was lucky there were no large men.  Duke, Midnight, Andy, Boger, Duchess and some other really nice horses were on the ride.  I was happy to finally be on Hershey.
The trail ride was crazy. The team of riders from Asia were kind of wacky. The girl walks up to the gate where the horses were waiting and asked, "What is the fastest horse you have?".  It made us laugh.  None of the guides answered.  She seemed to be the gang leader. She was the only one that spoke english.  That made things exciting. She translated everything that Sheila said.

There was a small girl on the ride that was excited to ride. Her boyfriend went on the walk ride and she went on the trot.  Her Mom and Dad stayed in the car.  This girl didnt seem like a problem at first. She rode Foxxy and she had riding experience.  The 3 others behind me seem like they may have the problems.  They spoke a foreign language to each other the whole ride.  Well less than half way through (and we were having a great ride. Sheila took trails and short cuts that I had never taken). We went up many hills, with soft leaves, rocks and on the higher sides to avoid the regular trail. The ground was pretty cold and partly frozen.  The girl spoke that she couldnt feel her toes. She also whined for a while. She talked about her feet were so cold she couldnt ride.  Sheila felt bad but its cold but you really need to dress for the ride.  Anyway we ended up going most of the way around the lake then we went back the way we came to the trail. And Sheila asked the girl if she would feel better if we trotted. So we were on one if not the longest trot I had ever been on.  Funny thing at the very end, one of the horses spooked.  When I looked back Duke was racing toward the rear of Hershey.  I was worried. Sheila yelled to pull back.  The man did. I saw that Foxxy had also felt frightened.  Sheila took the girl and Foxxy up front and we headed down the hill of the farm. The backway.  The girl behind me and her friends did ok with the spacing and the animal controlling. We got back and it was a different sort of ride.  I was worried about them but it was an interesting ride.  Cathy and Sarah took the walk ride. We got back sooner but we took a different trail. The backwards one. I went into the barn and petted Duke and Tango.  It was a great ride.
Funny thing, we needed to get back quickly because the girl was making crying noises and wanted to go back to the barn.  While we were trottig backwards, Sheila said she told Tango to take the trail that was the fastest and he brought us up through the middle of the woods and cut over.  He found a great path.  Sheila said he was a great guide horse.  They know exactly the fastest way to get back to the barn everytime.

Took the trail today then took it backwards to farm Blue

Today's ride was different in many ways.  Colleen made cookies and bought an xmas has for bobby and I had a card for him  Colleen wanted to put him in good xmas spirits. Colleen was wearing a hand made hat  that had 2 pompoms.  Id say she was spirited and she was sharing the spirit. The weather was warmer that we thought. The weather man said thirties this morning. By the time we came back to the farm it was almost 50.  Today's ride was a 9am.  I love 9am.

Enja was our guide and Sheila took out 2 girls for an on trail lesson. Those girls needed to go on the trail.  One of them was tailgating Blue wicked bad.  He even tripped a few times.  Blue is a great horse.  We chose to do a trail that the horses cantor on and he wanted to run.  I mean run, Enja was surprised and I was that I had to disappoint him with pulling back the reins.  It was a great ride.  He tried to cantor or run a few times.  Enja said he probably wanted to run. Wow, Blue wants to run.  Its a great day.

Bobby at the window

Anyway the girls were with Sheila and then ended up joining us. Jewel was Sheila's horse and she said she was tailgating lately and going to have her do better after a "guides ride".  I think she'll be fine.  Blue has a beautiful face. I think he has the prettiest face in the stable.

Oreo for Colleen (Sheila said switch it up) and Blue for me.  Sheila says, the bumpiest horses in the stable.  Its good for us. I have ridden Blue many times this summer and fall.

Here is my friend Colleen.  She is so full of Xmas Cheer.

Beautiful Blue --  Pretty Face (You can see Hershey in the back being a sweetheart). This shot is behind the Barn.

Here we are heading back to the farm the backway. Thats Beautiful Blue's pretty fur.

Halfway through the ride we turned around and came back to the farm on the trail that we take. Sheila said the trails on the left were washed out.  Blue was pretty happy about the decision.  He hated the puddles yesterday.  So we turned around and came back on the outward trail. Pretty cool.

Duke getting his new shoes! Young Bobby is doing the shoein. 

When we got back, we heard that Duke needed a shoe.  Bobby was in the barn shoeing him. I took a couple of horse shoeing shots.  Then Bobby said I could come closer if I wanted to.  I wanted to. I took some shots of Duke and was able to talk to him and pet him a bit while Bobby shoed him.  It was wonderful.  Winston Enja's horse was in the barn and Shiela was giving many people a group lesson.  Like 8 people including a mom.  The farm was very busy it was nice to see all the activities.

Put on your seat belt . . . - Duke

Colleen on the trail that runs along the edge of the farm.

Vew from Duke's back as we came around the boarder barn.  Great ride. The girl in front of me was a drag though.

Thats what Colleen said when I got in the car today. We were really late leaving. She was doing some errands in Burlington and at about 12:40pm she was arriving at her house where I jumped in as she rode by.  Well almost.  It was exciting. As we got to near the exit I called Bobby's and Sheila answered and I said we were on the way. She said no problem and we ended up pulling in the driveway at 1pm on the nose.  I told Sheila that any horse will do for me. I did mention Foxxy. She was resting so I said, whoever wants to ride.  They got my horse Duke.  He is a sweetie.  He loves to run.  Too bad he has to hold back so much with the trots.  He was in front of Andy this time and still Smokey gave him the stinkeye too many times.

Grizzley's harness got caught on Andy's horn on the Saddle. It was crazy as they tried to walk together in the coral.  Sarah and Sheila got them untangled fast.

Smokey should move up to where Jewel was but the young girl seemed inexperienced and would pause as Smokey turned each time. This held up Duke even more.  Bobby said that he sold more horses this week. Strawberry, Wasabi, 2 boarder horses.  It make me realize that the farm is a business and Bobby knows what he's doing.  I felt worried about losing my favs, Duke, Domino, Tulsa, Oreo, Blue, and sweet Hershey.  I heard that Bright Eyes was going to a theraputic farm to work with the children.