Monday, August 17, 2009

Vacation so far

I left Arlington early on Friday am to head to my mom's house in Nixa, MO. I had planned originally to take horses so that we could ride in some new locations, but after thinking about my 8 mph truck and my 26 mph car, I decided to ditch the extended horsey road trip for another month. We are entering a lot of rides this far and as much as I would have loved to have ridden in new places for 2 weeks, I decided saving the cash for the rides was better...Peter was happy that I did that.

I got to my mom's mid-afternoon where she and Maggie were enjoying a quiet afternoon. Mom taught Maggie to cross stitch and Maggie had finished one picture and started another. Mom was going to make homemade ice cream to take to my brother's house for dinner.

It was great to see my brother and his wife and kids. My brother made ribs and we had a great dinner. Eric's grill got really hot for some reason though, and melted the lid on his grill. The meat was fine on the inside, but a little black on the outside. Maggie loved being able to play with her cousins as they have a great big yard and they have a lot of equipment. she played baseball and ran around fighting jedi knights with her cousin, Travis. Saturday we had a relaxing day and were able to read and watch TV. Maggie's cousin, Reagan came over to play and then we hung out with mom in the evening and ate her hamburgers, which are always great.

Sunday we headed to Warsaw, MO to ride with my friend, Eric Nelson, at Berry Bend State Park on the horse trails. He was telling me how rocky they were, and I didn't really believe they could be any worse than trails we have in TX, but they were so rocky. At one point, Eric asked me why anyone would ask a horse to go barefoot on trails like those and I confess, I had to agree with him. I have no doubt that Liberty could, but having seen them, I would definitely boot him.

Eric brought his stallion, Max to ride. Maggie rode Rouge, who I rode at the Cedar Creek NATRC ride 3 years ago and I rode Prima, who is Deli's half sister. I had a heck of a time getting on that silly horse. She's a full hand bigger than Liberty and when I adjusted the stirrups to the right position, even standing on the curb I couldn't quite reach the stirrup. She doesn't stand so well, and that didn't help either.

Max and Rouge were ready to run and Prima was at first, but the poor thing just couldn't keep up all the time. We did trot a little in the beginning when it wasn't very rocky. Her trot was so smooth, it felt like she was barely coming off the ground. Deli feels that way when she trots too. I had forgotten how nice it was! Toward the end of the loop, she began to wait and eat and puff and blow and then decide the other two horses were far enough away and go catch up. We came to a water hole and I thought she was going to take me swimming for awhile. But, she was happy to stand in the hole and let me sponge her off. We only did about 8 miles total, but I think it was all she was ready for that day. I was riding in Eric's Tucker. I had always thought they looked so comfortable, but when I got off I found that the top of my hamstrings and my hips hurt so bad that I'm not sure I could ride in that saddle long term. Eric says it's b/c we only walked and that could be, but boy, I'm still sore, even today. Eric invited us to go to KS to a MODTRA ride next Saturday and I think we're going to do it. He has someone else riding Rouge, but Maggie is going to ride Prima and I'm going to volunteer.

I was so impressed by how well behaved they were and how they let us each ride them and didn't even care they'd never seen us before. They were such good ponies, and I had a great day getting to visit with Eric, who I just don't get to see often enough.

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