Last year, Eryca and I did the Huntingdon Valley Hunt Black Friday hunter pace at Foxheath in PA. it was a beautiful course and we had a blast. We agreed to make it our Thanksgiving tradition. We went back this year, even though the weather didn't look very promising. The short version is we got caught in a huge group of yahoo riders and kids were getting launched left and right. This slowed us way down and led to some exciting moments. It was still a lovely day, though.

 The weekend before Thanksgiving, Sandy, Terra, and I went to Round Valley for a ride. Sandy was planning a NACMO ride there for December and wanted to see if the trails were clear. We were originally going to meet in the earlier, but I had found a run in shed, and was having it delivered first thing that morning. We pushed our meeting time back to 11am.

A beautiful view at one of my favorite places.

 My annual tradition. And this one will probably be a doozy. (Not to mention I'm not even caught up on November yet!)

 The Saturday before Thanksgiving was extremely windy, but the temperatures were relatively mild. The trails at home are basically unusable right now, but Eryca and I wanted to get out of the ring. We hauled over to Horseshoe Bend. This has sort of become our default for windy days because of the wide open fields. We stay in the north part of the park, out of the forest. 

We wound up doing almost six lovely miles and there was nothing exciting to report. 

When we arrived back at the parking lot, there was a truck waiting for us in the grass behind our trailer. It was the park steward and we waved a friendly hello (as we always do). Imagine my surprise when it turned out he was there to yell at us!

"It's very windy out here," he barked. 
"Yes, we stuck to the open fields."
"You girls really need to THINK about where you choose to go riding on days like this."
"We... we did? That's why we chose this park?" We have been to HSB on much windier days than this one. We've even seen the same park steward on those visits. It has never been a problem.  
"I should have closed the gate earlier. I'm going to do it now. You girls will have to move the cones to get out."

This was honestly a bit mind boggling to me. For starters, if the park is not open, the gate should definitely be closed. But also, you better post something about it on the park website. I would have been pretty upset if I followed the narrow, winding road to the park entrance only to find that it was locked with no way to turn around. 

Of course, we were perfectly pleasant and thanked the man for his concern, then packed up pretty quickly to head home. There were a few other cars in the parking lot (people hiking and walking their dogs) and the park steward stayed behind, presumably to chide them too. 

I guess we're knocking HSB off our list of windy weather riding spots. 🤷

It wasn't even that windy. The rest of the post is a photo dump.

 I am in my frantic year-end scramble, where I try to get the blog caught up before my annual review. Not looking likely. It helps that it is a whopping 6℉ out there right now. 

The day after the cow clinic, Sandy and I got the fox trotters out together. Sandy had recently broken her ribs (ouch) and was looking for a low key ride. We agreed to ride from her house, which backs up to Hoffman Park (not to be confused with Christie Hoffman, which we also ride in). Despite the fact that Sandy and I have been friends for over a decade, I had never ridden in this part of her back yard. 

Hoffman Park used to be a working cattle farm. The owners also owned Hoffman Beverage Company, which eventually sold to Pabst. After the husband passed, the wife sold the land to the township for preservation and park space. It was super fun to ride some new trails! 

We did a slow six miles, which was lovely. Along the way, we saw lots of airspace activity, including hot air balloons and formations of small airplanes. There were beautiful views and lots of laughter. The rest of this post will just be a photo dump.

 After I took Lucy to Broken Arrow Ranch to play with cows, I knew I wanted to go back with Booger. For starters, I was pretty sure she would love chasing cows. I also thought that going somewhere with a ton of horses and then having to just. stand. there. would be really good for her. The November cattle play day was the last one of the year. I loaded Booger into the trailer and headed over to Pennsylvania. 

My endurance horse in a different element.

 Spoiler alert: everything turned out ok in the end. 

Content warning: this post contains graphic photos.

I'll open this one with a picture of Chip taken earlier this week as proof of happy ending.

 The post you've all been waiting for! (One month later...)

The day after my birthday, I took the day off so we could bring the new baby home. I was both very excited and super nervous about this. For this entry, I'll just stick to the actual move-in day, which went very well.

I love his mane in this one. It has since grown out quite a bit.

 Alternate title: Birthday NACMO

The Turkey Trot CMO at Lake Ontelaunee fell on my birthday this year and I couldn't think of a better way to celebrate! Dodie has been driving Willow, but Bee is out on maternity leave (the foal should be coming any week now) so Dodie did not have a horse to ride. Luckily for both of us, I have spares! I loaned her Lilly for the day and we entered the long course together.

 So I got caught up on October posts, but I haven't touched November yet. What are the chances I get the blog caught up before the end of the year? Zero. The chances are zero. 

I still have to blog about the Jersey Devil CTR, Chip coming home (and subsequently needing his first e-vet visit), a NACMO ride, baby updates in general*, taking Booger to sort cows, riding with Sandy and Tot, riding Lucy at HSB, riding Booger at Round Valley, and another hunter pace.

*I am struggling with keeping things chronological. The baby hasn't come home on the blog yet, but he's been here for three weeks already and I have sooooo many photos!!!

Visiting Chip two days before he came home.

 The next morning was the Covered Bridge Trail Association fall pace. Eryca and I did this one two years ago and loved it. They weren't able to hold it last year, and I was excited to see it back on the calendar for 2024. These are Terra's home trails and we invited her to join us. 

 The last Saturday in October presented with beautiful weather, with clear skies and temperatures in the mid 60's. I found myself without any plans, and none of the usual suspects were available for a last minute adventure. 

Any time this happens, Mike offers to come ride with me, which is very sweet. I appreciate this, but I also know Mike would rather ride his bike than a horse. You may remember that he accompanied me to the Assunpink this way when I was setting up my NACMO course. That time, I rode Lucy. This time, we decided to take Booger and Mike's bicycle and revisit the Columbia Trail. He has been wanting to ride there, and Booger had enjoyed our outing with Sandy earlier this fall. Plus a rail trail is a great place to take bike and horse together. 

We wound up doing almost eleven miles and it's definitely something I would do again. 

 A short while after Sandy brought Tot home, she asked if I'd be willing to come ride Fina with her. She had gotten the new girl out for a few trail rides with friends, but she specifically wanted to get her mares out together. Nobody was willing to ride Fina. I love Fina and was happy to oblige (poor Fina). We met up on a Tuesday after work (this was before the time change, obviously). Sandy suggested Vetter Farm, which is private preserved land accessible by permission. This was too good for me to resist. This will mostly be a photo dump, but it was glorious.

Not my usual set of ears.

The day after the cow clinic was the The Essex Fox Hounds fall pace, which is always one of my favorites. Eryca was not available to do it this year, so I reached out to Tor and asked her if she'd like to come down. I told her she could have her pick of horses.

"Well, you know I love Booger best, but I'll take whoever."
"You can have her!" 

This was the first time I let someone other than me ride Booger at any kind of event. Tor was the first person other than me to ride Booger, and has done so on several occasions since. She was also the one to accompany me to Booger's first pace, so this felt fitting. The two of them get along really well. My biggest concern was that Tor was going to make her look easy and I was going to be left second guessing my ability as a rider. (I already know most of Booger's problems are, in fact, my problems.) 

Short version: it was an awesome day. I loved getting both mares out together.

 Every year, one of my goals is a vaguely scribbled "lesson/clinic/something new" with the horses. For the last several years, I've had a concept of "something with cows" in that category. This year, I finally made it happen!

There's a farm just across the river in Pennsylvania that does cow clinics and a team penning/sorting buckle series. I'm not sure exactly when Broken Arrow Ranch came into existence locally, but I've been aware of their presence for about a year and I've heard a lot of good things. 

When I saw an October Cattle Play Day come up on Facebook, I added it to my calendar. I was delighted to see that I had nothing else planned that day! 

Lucy worked cows in some capacity in Texas (plus we had cows at home for a while) so I knew she would be fine. I have zero background in working cows, but I love to try new things. 

New Friend Sarah and I chatted  about the cattle day. She competes in the buckle series at BAR and had lots of nice things to say. She told me the ranch owner, Diana, was our kind of people and that she was sure we'd hit it off right away. She also assured me that nobody would judge me for my tack or attire. In fact, one of her fox hunting friends, Linda, was bringing a horse who was scared of cows so I wouldn't be the only one in English tack. (It's funny, when I go to English events, people think I'm in western tack. When I go to western events, people think I'm in English tack. #enduranceproblems)

So even though I didn't know anybody who was going and was completely outside my usual realm, I headed over to check it out. Short version: I am hooked!

Something new ✓

 Things were too peaceful around here so I decided to upset the apple cart and throw a foal into the mix. As one does.

Chip at three months old, the first time I met him.

 The day before I went to meet my new baby horse (sorry if you thought that would be the next post, I have a lot going on right now) Eryca and I got together for a ride. Because we haven't been riding together as much this year, I've been encouraging Eryca to pick her adventures. On this day, she chose Deer Path Park, which was a great idea. I hadn't been there since the NACMO ride in April so this was a nice change of scenery. 

We've been in a pretty serious drought so the trails were remarkably dry. I was also pleased to see that they've done some trail clearing. This was the best the trails have looked in recent memory. 

We had no goals for the day except to get out and enjoy the nice weather. We agreed we weren't feeling like riding all the way to the general store or doing any super rocky trails. Instead, we took a detour down the dirt road and headed to the preserve to canter around the fields. 

The only interesting thing that happened on the ride was that the buffalo were turned out in the back paddock along the road, which meant we could ride right up to them. After reviewing the map later, I realized that you can probably ride all the way around them! Of course, I thought this was very cool. Lilly, on the other hand, was not into it. She rarely spooks at anything, but she was on red alert about the giant alien cows. We hung out until her adrenaline came down, but decided not to push it that day. 

We wound up doing seven beautiful, peaceful miles. I took many photos, which is why this wasn't in my monthly recap, but there was nothing amazing to warrant a longer post. 

My favorite trail in the park has been cleared!

 When we last left off, Sandy and I were plotting...

Sandy has had Fina for almost a decade now. (Where does the time go?) In that time, we have been on some truly fabulous adventures. While Fina doesn't show any actual signs of slowing down, she is getting older. Sandy has casually been thinking about her next horse. Her unofficial plan was to maybe get a young horse for her 40th birthday (next year). 

In the process, Sandy has been talking about the things she does and does not want in her next horse. The abridged version is that she was looking for a young horse, preferably a mare, preferably gaited, with a pretty blank slate. 

Sandy has loved Lucy since the first time they met, and the more we talked, the more she was pretty sure she wanted a fox trotter. I have to giggle at the number of fox trotters that seem to come into my life these days. Before I met Lilly in 2012, I had never met a MFT before! Now I own one and a half and Lilly is still very much in my life. Sandy and I even talked about going to Missouri to try some (this would have been an epic adventure, I am sure.)

As all my readers probably know, horse shopping can be a real roller coaster. Sandy sent me ads for potential horses, and I dutifully looked at them with scrutiny. I nitpicked and weighed pros and cons. Some of them, I flat out typed "NO" to. 

Then Sandy sent me a handful of photos of some fox trotters that were about four hours away in Pennsylvania. There was a breeder with a handful of horses for sale, ranging in age from six months to seven years old. The photos were mostly of the horses hanging out in their pasture, but there was something that drew us both in. There was a black pinto mare, five years old, that specifically got my attention.

"I think they're worth looking at," I encouraged Sandy. "It's not that far of a drive and there are multiple horses to make the trip worth it."

When we rode the Columbia Trail together, we were both looking for something to do the following weekend. Sandy agreed to go home to see if the MFT owners were available to show her their horses. 

Coincidentally, the Moshannon State Forest is near the farm the sale horses were at. There is equestrian camping at Moshannon, and it was on our list of places to check out. On Thursday, Sandy and I were still hemming and hawing. I checked the camping website and found that the sites at North Run were wide open. Sandy was still on the fence.

Finally I texted her. "I just booked site #4 for tomorrow through Monday." That was all the encouragement Sandy needed. 

So, with less than 24 hours notice, we went into the forest for four days with a side of horse shopping along the way. It was brilliant.

A change of scenery in more ways than one.

 As I mentioned, I was supposed to do the Chautauqua ride with Booger, but opted not to. This meant I had an unexpected free weekend, which left me feeling sorry for myself. The rainy weather didn't help. Sandy ended up coming to the rescue, and we agreed to meet at the Columbia Trail in High Bridge. We wound up having a ride that was (in a word): epic:

Sandy and me in front of the Solitude Dam.

 I still have one more September post to go. Then I have to talk about camping at Moshannon, Sandy's new horse, riding at Deer Path Park, cattle sorting with Lucy, two hunter paces, conditioning with Mike, and a CTR.

Oh yeah, and I bought a foal:

This is Chip. He's a grade Morgan colt. He comes home for my birthday.

 My first foray into the world of mounted orienteering was at the Fingers Crossed ride in April of 2023. This year, Fingers Crossed was held in September and I got to go back to where it all started (plus camping.)

 The last (only) time I did Hector was in 2015. That was my cursed season. I rode Wendy's lovely Asgard gelding, Fleuron. It poured rain. We did 55 cold, wet, miserable miles. At the finish line, the vets (who were new to the sport) played 'not it' while Fleuron stood around waiting to be vetted. By the time someone drew the short straw and came out to vet us, Fleuron had cramped up. Mike and I worked hard to work out the knot in Fleuron's hindquarters. When he represented, we all thought he looked good. The vet disagreed and we were pulled at the finish. It was honestly such a miserable experience that it took me nine years to want to go back. 

I have to say I'm super glad we went. Booger and I had an absolutely brilliant experience and Hector is on my do-again list (assuming the weather is good).

Photo by Kelsey Eliot.

 The weekend after Labor Day, we had a rare free weekend. I reached out to Eryca to see if there was anything she wanted to do. She quickly suggested Christie Hoffman, which is always lovely. It was Booger's turn and she hadn't been there yet. This was perfect. I figured we would do some little jumps and get a few easy miles in. We ended up doing a little over six miles. I was having a brave jumping day, and Booger took me out of my comfort zone successfully, which was awesome.

I really need to invest in a jumping saddle. (Add it to the list of expensive things on my wish list at the moment.) I also need to shorten my stirrups about nine holes. Booger does a good job making up for my failures though.

 Last year, there was a NACMO ride at the Tuscarora State Forest. We did not manage to go, and I was sad to miss out on camping and new-to-me trails. When Dodie invited us to go camping with her and Melissa at Tuscarora over Labor Day weekend, I was all over it! Then Melissa invited Sandy and Sandy invited Emily. As luck would have it, there are only five campsites at the equestrian campground, so we had the whole place to ourselves! Dodie put the trip in her calendar, only she misspelled "camping" as "Xamping". By the end of the weekend, we had turned xamping in to a whole thing. 

 The day after my Stephens adventure with Sandy, I met Dodie and Jen at Green Lane to pull pie plates from the NACMO ride back in June. It was Lucy's turn, and she happily volunteered herself when I pulled in with the trailer.

 The year is rapidly winding down. September was packed. I still have to blog about Green Lane with Dodie and Jen (though that was technically August), fun camping in the Tuscarora Forest, an awesome jumping day with Booger at Christie Hoffman, another endurance ride, another NACMO ride, and an epic adventure with Sandy. Here are a million other things that have happened recently, but won't make it into their own blog posts. 

 The weekend after Fair Hill, it was Booger's turn for an adventure. Sandy and I were overdue for some shenanigans. We have been wanting to go up to Stephens State Park together for a while so when Sandy asked if I wanted to do that trail, I replied, "Sure, send me a pin to the parking lot."

She did. Then she added, "Don't panic when you see the ninety degree turn over the one lane bridge into the parking lot. If I fit, you'll fit."

Now. Sandy and I have been on some Adventures together. She has never given me any kind of warning about parking before. 

I checked out the street view. Not so bad:

 Originally, I was planning to do the Horseshoe Bend Boogie in August. I was going to take Lucy and try the LD. Christine and I planned to ride together, like we did at the CTR. 

As the ride grew closer, however, neither one of us was feeling particularly gung ho about it. It was a lot of prepping, planning, and pressure. The more we chatted about it, the more lukewarm we felt about the whole thing. 

Finally I offered, "Or we could just pick a quiet spot and go fun camping instead..."

SOLD. 

We quickly decided to do Fair Hill. We made last minute reservations. I booked the same stalls Sandy had last time. I was looking forward to a weekend of just relaxing with no concrete goals or timelines. 

The week leading up to our trip, the forecast looked abysmal. It was supposed to rain pretty much the entire weekend. I was fine taking our chances. Worst case, we would leave the horses in their warm, dry stalls and hang out in the LQ, drinking and snacking and chilling. 

The weekend wound up being a great time.

 At my NACMO ride, my new friends, Sarah and Joe, expressed interest in coming out to help me take the course down. They referred to it as their chance to get a redemption ride. They wanted to see the plates they missed and learn more about how the sport works. I was all for it!

Originally, Sandy and I were planning to go on Monday, but the day got away from both of us. We rescheduled for Thursday, and included Sarah and Joe in those plans. Then Sandy's camping trip up to Bear Springs got moved at the last second. She was leaving Thursday night! I decided I would go with Sarah and Joe anyway.

"I might bring the Bad Horse™," I said in my message to Sarah.
"I want to bring my young stallion," she replied. 

What could go wrong?

It turns out, nothing went wrong. It was a perfectly glorious night with people who I really want to ride with more!

 (aka the Peer Pressure Ride)

The morning of the NACMO ride dawned with glorious weather. Cool, clear, sunny. The entire reason I planned my first ride for August was because I would be guaranteed to have no desire to ride in the sweltering summer heat. Joke's on me. I was thrilled nonetheless. 

Short version: the day was a success over all. There were a lot of ups and downs, but I would totally do it again. Most people seemed to have fun.

Eryca and Bryce ended up cancelling their trip to DC at the last minute. She came out to help me with registration, which ended up being a godsend since I had a much bigger turnout than anticipated.

 A Post in Three Parts

I had one weekend between Muckleratz CTR and my NACMO ride. This meant I had to buckle down and set my course, finalize my maps, and tie up all the loose ends. Of course, because this is me, the forecast for the following week included a hurricane. I knew I would need to check the course the day before to make sure nothing blew/washed away. The good news is I now know this half of the Assunpink really well.

 Oh hi, it's another month. I don't even know where to start. I set up, hosted, and took down my first NACMO ride. We went fun camping TWICE. I made new friends. Life spiraled on. Here is a photo synopsis. 

Here, have a photo of a buck we saw on our way to my NACMO ride. Entry coming soon.

The weekend after Vermont was the Muckleratz CTR. Spoiler alert: I did not quit horseback riding. 

Mike and I agreed to being the photographers a year ago. Even before his camera died at the endurance ride, Mike was encouraging me to bring a horse. His logic was that we had to bring the trailer either way. Might as well pack a pony. 

"Plus you can get a hang glider photo with both mares," he reasoned. 

Sold!

I decided to bring Lucy and do the CDR (one loop) and just have fun. It was frankly genius.

And, honestly, after this photo, do I even need another shot at this site?

 The second Booger completed her first 50 last year, I started day dreaming about rides I'd like to do with her one day. Moonlight in Vermont quickly went to the top of the list. Long time readers know how much I adore this ride. When I started planning the 2024 season, Vermont became my secret goal ride. Well, spoiler alert, we got there! There were a lot of ups and downs along the way, but Booger completed the 50. Details below (a month later). 

Photo by Ben Kimball.

 Here's a post that should have just been part of my July photo dump, but I just missed it. Because I'm neurotic, I can't just put it in with August photos, and I can't just forget this handful of images. 

On Booger's birthday, my gift to her was leaving her alone. (In all seriousness, I was giving her some down time between the 30 at Muckleratz and the 50 at Vermont.)

I basically spent every free weekend day in July (there weren't many) scouting trail at the Assunpink for my upcoming NACMO ride. On this day, Eryca and Sandy joined me. This was the first time in a long time that we trailered Lilly out for a real trail ride. She had done the AVTA hunter pace, but that was only four miles and on our home trails. Before that, we went to Christie Hoffman in June. And before that? I think the winter NACMO ride was the last time Lilly really worked. 

It was brutally hot on this day. My only goal for the day was to find the confounded graveyard. I was dying to put an objective up there, but I had failed repeatedly to find my way there on purpose. Well, long story short, we failed our mission, but we did six miles and I started to have a pretty good idea of where I wanted to put pie plates. I also cemented the most direct route from the road to the bowling pin. The good news about hosting a NACMO ride at the Assunpink is that I now know the WMA much better than I ever have before. (I still need to do a refresher on the west side of the area.) 

The highlight of this ride was that I accidentally swam Lucy. We stopped at the boat launch early in the ride and I let Lucy wade in. She quickly wandered up to her belly and drank. Then she kept creeping a little further. She got up to her withers, like she had at Green Lane. The she glanced over her shoulder at me and flicked an ear. 

"Go ahead," I chuckled.

She pushed off, swam a little circle, and exited the lake. She has clearly gone swimming before. I wonder if she had a pond in her pasture in Texas. As I've mentioned in the past, she really wilts in the heat. I've often wondered how she survived in Texas. Having a access to and taking advantage of a pond would make sense. (Of course, it's also possible she swam with a rider. Or maybe she's just a natural. I will never know.) 

After that, we did several little mini laps around the lake. I was sopping wet, but it felt awesome on a hot day, and I was dry about halfway through our ride. I keep saying it, but I really need to get Lucy down to a proper swimming hole to take advantage of her willingness to swim. It's one of my favorite horseback activities. This also took me on a pleasant trip down memory lane. I used to swim Ozzy here, many moons ago.

Ozzy, 2010.

Same spot, different angle. Lucy 2024.

 Before Julio's e-vet visit, I had taken a few extra days off around 4th of July. We already had Thursday off. We were heading to Muckleratz for the endurance ride Friday. I took that Wednesday off as well. The farrier was coming Wednesday morning, and I figured I might as well take the whole day and get a five day weekend. My original plan was to head to the Assunpink both Wednesday and Thursday to get the trail finalized. 

After almost losing Julio, however, I lost my motivation to do anything. I met the farrier Wednesday, then spent the rest of the day mostly catching up on sleep. I almost pulled my entry for the endurance ride. Christine and I were planning to do the 50 together, which I had been really looking forward to. However, the heat index was in the 100's for that weekend. Mike was photographing the ride so we had to go either way. I would decide what I was doing on Friday.

In the meantime, I still had Thursday off, as do most of us in the corporate world. Jen and I had originally made plans to scout trail together and she had bought her WMA permit. She approached me with just the right mix of persistence and empathy to get me out of the house. 

In the end, Jen brought Kricket down with the cart to see how she would handle a longer drive than she's used to. I'm really glad she "dragged" me out. It ended up being a delightful day despite 84 degrees with 62% humidity. 

 A. I cannot believe it is August 2024. Like, what?

B. I was wondering how I got so far behind on blogging. Then I started loading photos for this post and realized that I did two endurance rides and a CTR in July, and like... it makes sense.

July means the wineberries are ripe. This year, I went berry picking alone. It was still a beautiful ride.

 The day after the hunter pace, I met up with Terra at the Assunpink. 

As I may have mentioned on here, I got peer pressured into hosting my first NACMO ride in August. I've been thinking of putting one on at the Assunpink since I did my first CMO last year. There are so many good clues and hiding places and beautiful trails. The downside to the Assunpink is that there are no formal maps of the WMA, which means I need to make the actual map on top of coming up with clues and putting out objectives. This means I've been riding at the Assunpink every chance I get. Not that there have been many chances. I feel like Mike and I have been away more weekends than we've been home this year. I'm not complaining, but boy does the time fly by.

I was originally going to make one big mega post about scouting trail and hosting a NACMO ride once it was over, but I can't seem to make myself blog out of chronological order (mostly because I'll lose my place and never find it again). I'm two weeks out from the ride date and over a month behind on blogging. 

This will probably be mostly a photo dump. I took a billion photos of different potential clues and hiding places, but I don't want to give anything away. 

The short version of this story is as follows:
Perhaps if I get lost while scouting the trail, I shouldn't be the one responsible for designing the course.

Here, have a photo of Lucy herding a flock of geese.

 On the last Friday in June, the Amwell Valley Hounds held their annual "moonlight" hunter pace. They held it at a private farm on the other side of the Valley, where we have not ridden before. I knew it would be a short course, but our trails are so far gone that I was willing to pay for the opportunity anyway. I figured I would take Booger for a change. A short, easy ride would be a nice change of pace for her. Eryca and I met after work and had the girls trailered around the corner in no time.

 I have been having a lot of good adventures this year, but my favorite one so far was the ride Sandy, Hannah, and I did for the summer solstice.

This photo was taken at midnight, beneath a beaming full moon, with the river glittering to the horizon and beyond. I want to go back right now.

 I am soooo behind on blogging. Like, a full month behind. Ugggghhhhh. 

Ok. Enough whining.

In the last year, Christine has become one of my all time favorite people. The only downside is that we live over two hours apart, which is inconvenient. We had so much fun riding at the CTR together that we really wanted to do it again. 

The next ride on the calendar was Muckleratz. I was planning to do the 50 with Booger. Christine and I slowly hatched a plan. When we rode at Green Lane together, Booger went really well. Christine pitched the idea of starting the 50 together, to see if Booger would be better with calm, steady company right from the start. We agreed that our best bet was to take Gracelyn and Booger out for another conditioning ride together. My hope was that Booger would start to recognize Gracelyn as a buddy, which would inspire her to wait for her friend at Muckleratz. 

We agreed to meet at Nockamixon on the 16th. We wound up doing almost 14 miles and it was lovely.

 July is off to a rough start, but let's not talk about that just yet.

I am very behind on blogging. I still have to post about taking Booger to Nockamixon with Christine, a beautiful night ride that we did for the solstice, a hunter pace, and plotting the course for my upcoming NACMO ride. But first, it's time to dump all the photos that don't warrant their own entries.

We have had some wild skies around here lately. This was taken with my cell phone.

 The weekend before Father's Day, Dodie hosted a NACMO ride at Green Lane. Of course, I was in! This NACMO ride also featured camping, which I was extra excited about. It turned out to be a stellar weekend. Highlights included dunking the ponies in the reservoir, riding bareback at night with fireflies lighting the way, and doing the long course with friends.

Truly my happy place. Lucy was also very content, and was giving a series of happy grunts.

 After Booger ripped my arms out and would not walk for 30 miles at Rabbit Run, I decided I was just going to enter her in a 50 next. I took Lucy to Foxcatcher and No Frills got cancelled. That meant New York Adventure would be the next ride on our list. I did the 30 with Booger at NYA last year and struggled with her pulse. I told Mike, "Either she'll have her first pull, or we'll get year two of our decade team under our belts..."

I'll say one thing about this ride. It was New York Adventure. Emphasis on Adventure.

Photo by Carien Schippers of ImagEquine. Used with purchase.