First Post of 2011

Over the past three years that I have been a part of the RAC I certainly rode many miles on many horses but never posted-last year I think I had one post throughout the whole contest. I always leave it up to my mother to post about our rides or even my shows, but with Denise's new addition to the contest and armed with a camera of my own for once I figured it was time for me to join in on the blogging adventure. For those who are new to the RAC I am Betsy Lirakis' daughter Zoe from Top O' The Hill Farm in Vermont, I am a therapeutic riding instructor at Dream On Curls Riding Center INC. using her curlies to provide therapeutic lessons and in my spare time I LOVE to ride-ring, road, trail or show I try it all and have different favorite horses for whatever the occasion may be although in the winter OYY Elektra gets to do both, once show season starts I limit her to the ring-I worry about injury on the trail.

Today my last lesson of the day canceled due to sickness so my mom and I decided to take advantage and go for an afternoon ride with her on Keri, me on Elektra. We started out with one idea for where we would go but changed our mind a little ways into the trip as we had a stop to make to chat with a friend and fellow horse person.



As we got a few miles into the trip we saw the hay
delivery man heading to the farm so mom stopped to chat for a moment.


Keri stood like such a lady, polite and perfect.

After a little bit Elektra decided it was time to get moving so decide to give Keri a little poke(Elektra loves to poke things with her nose, she is super nosy and curious)

It has been about a week since we had been in the saddle together so we were just moving along, chatting and enjoying ourselves and the beautiful back roads. At the change of each season we always say to each other how maybe this is the season that is our favorite for riding but I think it is just the riding itself-just recharges our bodies each and every time we are in the saddle.














My Mom getting ready to take a picture for her blog post.

























Elektra's pretty head and neck-I love to look down at the whichever horse I am riding. It is amazing the traits you can see from different family members. Elektra reminds me a lot of her sire The Mighty Quinn and her paternal grandmother Lilly but I can also see traits that come from her dam and she shares with her maternal siblings. Since I am able to ride so many different horses, many of them related in some way, I am really able to pick out traits they share and some that are all their own.

Back to our ride we stopped in to visit a friend for a moment, plowing through the snowbank to take a short cut to her front door then we hit the trail for the final part of the ride.




















We are the first to to break through the trail and it was hard work for the horses, as we have been hit with a couple of good storms, then had some warmer weather so the snow was a little crusty on top that they had to break through. Both horses were great about it but we were definitely not pushing them to trot and canter through this tough stuff.We came to a stand of trees that have really grown up over the years, when we first started riding this trail together this area was completely clear.

Having a little longer legs than Keri, Elektra was the first to blaze through the snow so it would be a bit easier for Keri. This caused us to get a bit snow covered, especially after that grove of trees.








We get back on the road realizing we had been out a lot longer than we thought-we come around the bend on the last stretch of road before home and see the sun setting in the winter sky.



A great way to end the day-a wonderful fun filled ride.