Closing out April with lots of Riding, Starting May with Show time

I've been busy posting (in my farm blog and in my saddle ! ) .. So any of you who have already read news of our awesome end of April rides.. sorry for the redundancy. I'll just enter some of the highlights- more photo's and detailed news of the ride on my farm blog. :)

Our usual Saturday ride had to be postponed until 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-- Those came off about 15 minutes into the ride.. and Zoe and I ended up with sunburned shoulders by the end of the day.

Right off the bat, we find one of Denise's obstacles on the trail !

We rode up over Mount Ephraim again- but at the top took the right trail to come out onto a route which leads down onto Rasmussen Road.. beautiful views here.

There are a lot of these roads in Vermont, which are town roads to a point, but over the years have been abandoned- most of them are still connected by trails-- some you have to bushwack, some are lovely traveling. Makes for great riding - because you can make some great loops. My driveway is actually such a road- a dead end town road, but through the woods it does continue to hook onto other roads.

Rasmussen comes out onto Pleasant Valley Road, we cross that and get on Poppe Road, which again-- ends.. for vehicle traffic anyway.

At the other end of this trail, we come out in Chester- from there we trot and canter home. This was perhaps the best ride out of 2009 for us !

Thursday, we took Keri and OYY Ivan out on what we call the Pooh Tree trail. Last time I rode that trail by myself with Keri, I got lost-- so I wanted to tramp the route down a bit and leave some hoofprints as markers so I can ride it with Sweet Bee in the evenings without having to dial up Zoe on my cell phone to find out where I am. We start going up one of the roads I am busy building up my little mountain.

At the top, we cross the property boundary onto what we call the Silver Disk trail, into a pine wood.

Through the pine wood- and eventually we come out at the end of the road where Zoe lives.

Trot down the road and turn right onto the steep climb down-

It's on this climb down I always get turned around and take the wrong turn. About half way down the hillside-- here's the Pooh Tree.

From here, I can find my way home pretty easily by myself. Ivan is a super 'ring horse' - but like most Curlies, he loves the trail too. It's a big treat for the horses in training to get out and about in the woods.

The next day- Friday-- we decide to get out onto another trail I have trouble with.. we need to leave some hoofprints for me to follow. Keri and Teasel do this trip- down the road, onto what we call the Scott Trail.

Keri seemed excited about traveling this way.. so she took the lead with a nice trot, some cantering. Right about here, I was about to turn left-- she insisted... not the right way. Zoe yelled from behind... listen to your mare Mom she knows the way ! Keri knows this trail pretty well I guess.

The Scott trail comes out onto another road- where we can trot to the opening of the next trail- the Apple Tree trail.. which, by the way did not get its name from an apple tree because there are none on the trail at all.

Years and years ago- we used to be able to cross the brook on this bridge-- not any more, too rickety.

After the brook crossing, when I am by myself-- I often take a few miss-turns.. and it's been awhile since we rode here-- even Zoe got confused. Another great trot out.

Sunday, we got up early-- Show Day. Zoe had intended on bringing our little curly pony, OYY Salvadore, for the first show of the season but a few days before the big day, she got a call-- no studs allowed at this show. We decided since OYY Elektra already had a fairly current coggins test-- she's be the candidate- but not much time to get her "ready" other than 2 baths and a couple of practice rides in the ring. This was a CVDA sponsored show (Central Vermont Dressage Association) held at the GMHA grounds (Green Mountain Horse Ass'n). Typically beautiful Vermont countryside here.

Zoe and Elektra have to cross the brook to reach the exercise area.

Some of the horses had troubles here.

Elektra and Zoe did very well-- scoring a respectable 65.5% with little time to prepare. Here they are waiting for their turn in the ring. Good job girls ! They earned a Third Place ribbon.

That made for a great start to the month of May. Plenty more riding and showing ahead for us.

Enjoy ~