Superb!
I’m just back from an awesome weekend riding with a couple other women up north!
Okay, so it wasn’t exactly horse camping. We stayed in this incredible cabin — a place called Went North.
The horses were right outside, where we could see them from the dining area.
I loved this — corrals with shelters for each horse. I get to put off my phobia of tie lines for awhile longer…
There was also a bigger area where we could let the horses out to stretch their legs and graze. Luke took the opportunity to get in a good roll as the cloud cover encouraged the gnats to come out in all their glory. The horse with Luke is his pasture mate from where we board so it was like home away from home.
We arrived when the sun was setting Friday night. Fortunately, we had bright moonlight and our trailer lights to help us get set up. We got the horses settled in with some hay and water, brought our things into the cabin, and spent some time visiting. It had been a 3 hour drive up to Went North, so we were pretty tired and didn’t last long before we went to bed.
It had started raining sometime during the night and was misting while we cleaned up corrals and fed the horses. By the time the horses and humans had their breakfast, the rain had stopped. The clouds looked questionable but we were optimistic.
It turned out to be a great day for riding. Bow hunting for deer and grouse hunting were open, thus the orange vests.
Trees were starting to change and there was quite the pallet of color — bright red, yellow, lime green, and rusty orange. We skipped crossing the river as it was too high. It would have been okay on a warm day but it was too far from the cabin to risk getting soaked in the cold.
We oohed and aahed over the colors, the sound of horses’ hooves crunching the leaves, and the damp-rich-earthy smells. I laughed at Luke, who seems to quite enjoy splashing through water, giving the surface a couple extra WACKS! with his right front hoof. My friends learned to keep some distance away from his puddle playing. I wonder if he learned that from Java?
We rode about 4 hours in the morning. We stopped for lunch break after a couple hours and I made the mistake of giving Luke a taste of my peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Grass was no longer good enough. He wanted more. He got half my apple too. A begging horse is way worse than a begging dog…
We stopped back at the cabin to give our bodies a break. But then decided we wanted to go out again for an hour before going into town for dinner.
An hour trail ride turned into two hours when we had a few issues with a dead end trail and a puddle that seemed to go on forever. We went through quite a few puddles, some pretty deep, but we didn’t feel like tackling one that had no sides to escape to and that we couldn’t see the end of.
We made it back before the sun set, fed the horses their dinner, then headed out for ours at Companero, a Mexican restaurant in Dorset. Good margaritas, good food, good fried ice cream. Early bedtime again.
Sunday morning, same routine — feed horses, feed humans, ride. This time I got to be the hunter alerter in my red sweatshirt jacket.
We got in 3 hours before we had to get ready to head back home.
Yeah!! Sounds like a wonderful weekend of friends, horses and fun!! The place looks beautiful and love the corrals with sheds!
Maery Rose…you have finally arrived!
What a set-up! I’ll bet you did not think you were going to feel like this a few months ago. Great post.
Just think…you have a house, a fenced in yard, new friends and an opportunity to do something like this.
I’m jealous!
Sounds like it was just what you needed!
What a fun relaxing weekend! Nothing like hanging out with the girls and a great horseback ride!
So jealous. Sounds terrific.
Lori – Well, I’m shooting to be as rich in friends as you are.
Jill – When I asked the other women about whether they ever went on these horse excursions with their husbands, they said, “Sometimes”, but it appeared they liked having such time to spend with other women. No bashing to their husbands intended, but girl time is something we all need I think just as much as men need their guy time.
What a beautiful place and an exciting time! (I can’t say no to a horse begging either…plus they usually just take it!): )
Oh it sounds like you had a great time up here in my neck of the woods..we often go to Companeros for supper..Dorset is a great little bump in the road.. ( Great frozen Margaritas!!) The Antique Shops are pretty cool too! That little berg kind of shuts down for the winter..in a week or two only the Broasted Chicken Place will be open. Huntersville State Forest should have been a great place to ride! The colors are almost peak here today! 🙂
Far Side – It was the last evening Companeros was open this season before they head for Hawaii. Lots of people were there. As far as the fall colors, we seemed to have hit the timing just right. It even seemed to get more intense from Saturday to Sunday.
Good for you Maery. It sounds wonderful. Girl weekends are so different than outings. Once a year a group of women I know have a sleep over in a hotel. We have the best time being totally silly. When you know that you have the whole weekend, you talk about different things than you would if it is just an evening. You let your guard down and the bonding begins:-) We have had hula-hoop contests, made masks of our faces with paper mache, all kinds of goofy things we would never do if we had just a few hours. It sounds like the horses are a wonderful reason for you to take the time to play and they play too. I’m happy for you, and I”m looking forward to playing this weekend:-) Kathleen
Bliss…..Pure Bliss!
~Lisa
Kathleen – Okay, I can’t say anything here but the conversation did take some rather unusual turns. Not as hilarious though as our menopause conversation, which I won’t elaborate on here either…