Dam That Trail

I did already post the photo's and news of our recent Monday trail ride through beaver country.. but here is the abridged version for the RAC'ers who might have missed my farm blog entry.

Zoe and I -- Teasel and Keri - headed out onto some new territory for an exploration. We crossed the mountain, trotted by Zoe's house, crossed the highway.. and found a series of trails at the end of Fletcher Road. It was our plan to circle up around the 'pink house' at Stellafane, the observatory site on Mount Ephraim. So- we had a general direction to aim for... now to get there.

There were so many options.. we will definitely trot back over here for an indepth trail expedition. We did take a few 'wrong' turns.. a couple of dead ends-- but eventually.. we followed a trail that would take us to Pleasant Valley Road- which we would have to cross in order to reach our destination.

Once we found ourselves behind this beaver pond, we knew where we were. We've been on the other far side many times.

And here we find those industrious beavers have been, indeed.. busy ! They are building a new dam across the trail. Unless you looked carefully.. the trail would be hidden from view, because of the newly forming pond-- but we could see the trail opening on the opposite side.




Today-- Keri was not truly feeling the enthusiasm for hopping the dam and wading through the pond... but she did anyway.. we found the trail.. trotted down Pleasant Valley Road to the turn into Mount Ephraim.

I have posted photo's of this farm and its view before.. but it's so pretty !

Trot and canter over the mountain..

We reach the site of the old observatory.

According to the 'clock' on the pink house-- it's time to trot home. The sun dial reads Noon, but it's really one o'clock, there is that little problem of setting the sun back for daylight savings.

We had a great time out.. and will absolutely head back over there soon !

Tuesday evening we went out with Keri and Elektra... the days are becoming noticeably shorter now.. and we repeated our night ride again-- this time with an almost full moon !

In person-- the moon was orange, quite large, low in the sky-- and you could see the old man's face perfectly. My camera did not properly catch all that.. but I think I would have had to had a tripod with a very slow shutter speed... and not be on horseback :) At any rate-- it was a really fun 'night out'. Today- Thursday- I think is the official full moon.. so maybe we'll go out again tonight.

A week ago Sunday.. Zoe and Elektra had a long day at Dressage Days at GMHA (Green Mountain Horse Ass'n). Many were competing for the big stakes. Zoe's ride times were 9, 11, 2, 5. They did well- large classes and stiff competition. Most of the riders and horses bring their trainers with them-- they get coaching while they are warming up in the exercise area... or for the high level riders and horses... they bring their grooms who ride and exercise the horses. Stacked up to the others-- we are like total country bumpkins :) with our farm bred, farm trained, farm ridden horse. At this show, they even measured the length of the crop !

I did already post the news of the show on my farm blog-- Zoe and Elektra did pretty well.. training level 1 and 2, large classes- Zoe earned a fourth in one. She rode the FEI test for 4 year olds and got great comments.. (once Elektra is on the bit consistently she'll get all 7's and better for scores).

The last ride was Equitation Dressage- for which Zoe won First place ! After your ride, the judges give you your critique, which is also written all out for studying later ! Pretty helpful and always nice to know when you do well too :)

I made Zoe hold up her prize so I could take a photo. As I mentioned on the farm blog...

this lovely award will make a perfect juice cup on a good day-- on a bad day.. perhaps a super big shot glass ! Anyway.. a long day but a good one.
We are on our third day of sun here !! WOW ~

Enjoy your day ~