Hangin' in the Hills

Samantha and Peaches with their charges.

Oslo and Peaches at the Artesian Well.

Took the opportunity to load up the ponies and go for a ride in the hills. My middle child has started to enjoy the trails, and we hunted down our friends, another mother/daughter riding pair (Terry/Emma) who is often on the trail during the weekend. My middle child rides Peaches, a clever trail horse and we also brought Samantha, as Emma's horse was a bit lame today. So, friend Emma rode Samantha- also very clever on the trail- for the first time. Emma did rather well, by the way, not that Samantha is particularly complicated, but she is different from Emma's usual mount. I rode Oslo. He was wonderful, amazing, dashing, graceful, and perfect (if you can't yet tell, I'm a bit over-the- moon about my horse). I found him, after years of looking, last spring, and we are still getting to know one another. He doesn't seem to have much experience outside of an arena, so trail riding can be very exciting for us both. He is also a bit bigger than your average horse, so trail riding involves a good bit of ducking. I don't mind. He also isn't very familiar with horse flies. He bucks when there are horse flies around. It is a bad year for horse flies. I don't mind. He's brave about most things, dashes right into water and over bridges, and will even chase deer with me. He's gonna be my huntin' horse. I'm teaching him to jump and that is coming along nicely too. So first, trails and jumping, then the chase! Hunt season begins soon....

A sweaty Peach back at camp.