Mountain Trip
Hauled to Halfshire and swapped trailer out to Missy's bumper pull. Dan loaded right up without hesitation even before indy was on. But then proceeded to eat her chest bar en route! Doh.. gonna have to replace it.
Got to Leatherwood mountain and it was a very nerve wracking haul once in the resort area. Very twisty/turny narrow roads with rollbacks. Definitely glad I was warned to NOT bring the gooseneck. Also tough because we weren't sure which house was hers, but luckily we found it. It was labeled, but the ones before weren't so we got confused. She also warned us to park on the road, unload, and then park the trailer at the top of the driveway. Apparently someone took their trailer down the driveway once. Um.. no!
Lovely place... two stalls, paddock. Boys settled in and enjoyed themselves. But didn't eat dinner. Put them in stalls because it was pouring buckets, and we thought they might eat, and.. bears. Went to dinner at LookOut Grill, which was not a fun drive to get there.. straight up (well not straight... twisty turny up) a mountain to the top.. in the rain.. but yay for not having the trailer attached and the food and view was worth it. Once the rain cleared out. Trip home was worse because we went to get food and went to blowing rock instead. Good gravy!!! Gravel narrow roads, no light... 30 mps top speed.
next day slept in, turned ponies out, then back in to "eat"... spoiler.. they didn't. then tacked up and hit the trails. Tried to do the "easy peasy rainy day trail" and.. it started out okay. Just with all the rain the ground was so wet and muddy with pretty deep mud. the boys were nervous but kept each other brave. They slid down some of the hills and then dan kept walking on the edge of the trail.. on the side of the cliff because he was trying to avoid the mud. Dude... we're gonna fall off!!! then he was trying to run down the hills because it was too hard to stay slow and balance. We had fun though and the trails were pretty. But hard work. these are not the flat easy trails at ashland. We got lost and somehow ended up on the path home that our friend said "do NOT take Robinson trail DOWN.. it's grueling and super steep, especially when it's wet out... " and.. that's how we went. It felt like at least a 45 degree decline. I felt like I was practically laying on Dan to avoid sliding over his head. We got about 1/2 of the way down and decided to get off and walk because it was getting a bit dangerous feeling. We made it to the bottom and we were all relieved. I still think we should have taken my way but Missy's phone said her way. Which was more direct, but... ha, straight down! No gps so no way to track. we let them drink in the creek and snack a tiny bit and then took them home. So hot and sweaty so a rinse and then turned out to eat hay, drink and rest. Then we had lunch. Then we sat in the hot tub. then went for a walk to see the pickleball court. Then decided to go to dinner at the local restaurant at the bottom of the resort.
hung out on the screened in porch for a bit then went to bed. Saturday we slept in again a little, turned ponies out... tried to get them to eat.. then eventually after we ate, tacked up and went for a ride. mike had showed me how to use the satellite map and I had tried to find a path that was going to not be so difficult. Some of the trails were closed too. had a pretty good ride. Spent some of it on the roads instead of in the trails because I couldn't figure out how to merge. Did another fairly hilly trail with steep cliffs. dan wanted to start bucking down the hills. Dude.. no!! Like... why on earth do you do that? that's terrifying! crossed a cool bridge. Then let them snack for a bit on some grass and let another couple pass us. Then when we went to go to the next trail they were lost and ended up falling in behind us, which freaked indy out. So we let them go in front... execpt that made Dan anxious so he jumped the creek and then indy did too and flung his scoot boot off. We stopped and got it but he lost the strap so while missy got it back on, she was afraid she'd lose it. So we continued on but then when we came to the road, she wanted to stay on that vs take the wooded path home so she didn't risk losing her boot. I was tempted to try to ride some more, but.. we were on for two hours and they did work hard with those hills. So we hosed them off and then hand walked them down to the creek to drink and graze. Dan jumped the little creek and the soft grass sucked his hind shoe right off. Dangit... eventually took them back up and they spent the day in the paddock. I went on the bike with mike for lunch. much better drive to Almost on the Lake restaurant. Got rained on again. but nice pretty ride. marty cooked us dinner and we just hung out and listened to the storm. put horses in for the night again, cause bears...
sunday, packed up and had to head home.
proud of them for being brave on those hard trails and figuring out how to maneuver in the mud and the hills. proud of them for being so sweet to each other. Although apparently on the way home dan chewed on indy some.
photos; Leatherwood
Videos
Finally got home with dan and turned him out. before i could pull his halter off Funny squealed and kicked him.. right in the right stifle. heard a solid crack/thud. dan held his leg up and was trotting on three legs for a good two minutes. Terrifying! but then put weight down on it but pretty lame. sigh..vet appt tues am.