Romping Around the Hills

 There are horses like mine in the pasture who totally ignore you even as you are mangling their ears putting the halter on their heads. And then there are horses like Cody, seen here, who are so friendly and curious and interested that you had better be ready for big ole horse lips in your ear. Personally, I find this supercute.

After getting nibbled by Cody, I tacked my brumby up and headed out.

Oh my! What is that on the hillside? No wonder my brumby is nervous on this part of the road. That looks like a large rock....

...with gnashing teeth!!! Or is it a cranky pac-man roaming around the woods ready to crunch horse and rider into little pebbles? Oh dear.

This stump was another scary feature! Usually we'd be on the trail and not this road. But Bill said I was riding in "prime time" and it's bow season around here. So we kept to the road. Which is unpaved, hardly used and like a trail anyway. But for a horse, I guess danger is anywhere.

 On this particular ride, I left my comfort zone and decided to ride the perimeter of the Blueberry Pasture. No one is in it now and it seemed very appealing. Of course, I don't like riding in big open fields because I know Lilly loves to recklessly gallop through them...sometimes without really asking first.

But getting a view like this is extra nice. So it is worth mustering up the courage to get there.

 This long legged horse was also in the pasture. 

We were on our way out of the pasture when guess who was coming in???

Click here for a video answer!

Right across the road from this Blueberry Pasture is the Winter Pasture where a small herd of Bill's horses are. Naturally, we had to visit them.

That's Jodie (the fattest of the bunch), Yogie, Ruby and (not in the photo) QTee. Was there squealing during the visit? You bet.

Here's the kind of picture you get when your mare sends out a squeal right as you are taking the photo.

If you'd like to see video of the cute squeals, click right here!

There is no hunting on Sundays, so the next day I was back at the barn headed for the trail. But initially, the most exciting thing was that Lilly got to wear her fiery flames saddle pad for the very first time.




We started out on the New Trail and then decided to go to Carrot Bridge and back.

Uh oh. This hump of roots was rather alarming to my brumby.

 Signs of early man on Bill's property.

 One of the nice things about riding in the colder months is getting to actually see the layout of the land.

 Lilly was moving sooooo slowly that it felt like it was taking hours to get to Carrot Bridge. Click out this video to get a feel for how it was going: Just click here.

Is she ever slow! Sometimes I have to get out the crop and give her a little pop.  Over an hour later, we made it to Carrot Bridge: celebratory video seen here.

The truth is that we can't even walk across Carrot Bridge because a horse's hoof will probably go right through it. So we go into the creek. But because of this big dumb log, getting into the water is harder than it should be. This is all my own opinion of course.  In any case, I am always trying to saw this log out of existence.

And I fail at it because my saw is too small. So I kick at the log a few times. In the end, I get on my brumby and we go around it. Lost the battle but not the war as they say. I will be back! One day, that log will LOSE!

Here's a spot on the trail where we must go right or left. Right will take us to over to Bill's property quickly and then we can be on the New Trail and home in no time. Going left will also get us home, but via Sunset Trail and the road. Going left is what we usually do. Lilly wanted to go left so badly.  She is attached to her habits!

As we neared the very end of our journey, we came across Bill and Cody just coming up the hill. When Lilly first saw them, she clearly was not expecting it because she spun around and took off running in the other direction! So much for being afraid with all four feet on the ground. What a fright! As we were galloping away, I thought I was going to fall for sure. But get this:  I was able to do a one rein stop! (Which I probably could not have managed in an open field, one of the many reasons why I love being in the woods). In any event, Bill had his GoPro on and got some of it on film! 

If you want to see it, just click here! You can just see Lilly's white fur in the video.  

After all that, it was time to get Lilly brushed and fed and ready for bed.

Until next time, dear blogging friends!