Riding is FUN!

I've spent the past two days in the most delightful company. My Horse Crazy Niece (HCN) came to visit Thursday afternoon and we've spent our time together riding horses, or hauling them all over Jones and Monroe counties to ride with Carol and JoAnna. I brought Babe, the world's most dependable horse, back for the weekend and the HCN has had a great time riding her again. I bought Babe for HCN four years ago and Babe introduced HCN to the joys of trail riding.

Here they are yesterday.

It's deer hunting season and even though we were riding on private land where no hunting is allowed, we know better than to head out onto 500 acres without wearing blaze orange.

Me on Asia and my HCN on Babe.


The fall leaves are beautiful this year and I tried to get a picture of us near a dogwood. Of course, I didn't have this thought until we were almost out of the woods and had passed by dozens of gorgeous dogwoods in full flame. All I could find was a small one. Still, it's gorgeous.

We spent a lot of our time in the Tahoe together as we traveled between Macon, Bolingbroke, Juliette, and Wayside and my HCN can now navigate all the dirt and gravel roads between them. She knows the shortcut on Taylor to Pea Ridge; that although the Garmin will tell you to take 5 Points Road to jump between Hwy 18 and Hwy 11, that you're better off ignoring that and go via Howard Roberts, Cheehaw, Dye and Green Settlement roads. We did take 5 Points once just for the heck of it, mostly to make the Garmin happy (I'm sure her robotic innards jump for joy when she doesn't have to recalculate the way ;), but I did it when we didn't have that trailer behind me as 5 Points is very narrow in spots and washboard most of the way, so not good for hauling a trailer. Still, it's pretty. Click on that link to see!

The other thing I did was subject the HCN to my music. Her parents listen to a lot of Jimmy Buffet and hey, I love Buffet, in fact, I was listening to Living and Dying in 3/4 Time a lot in September and October, but lately it's been a lot of John Hiatt. And John and I go way back, late 80's when we first met, and I don't think we'll ever break up. So, HCN got to listen to a lot of John Hiatt, but NPR did a story about songs that you have to crank to 11, and I agreed with Led Zepplin's Cashmere, but was surprised that Iron Butterfly's In A Gadda Da Vida wasn't mentioned. HCN had never heard of In A Gadda Da Vida. Ok, sad, but not surprising for she is young, so I plugged in my iPod and we listened to not one, but three versions of In A Gadda Da Vida

Other artists that the HCN had never heard or didn't know who they are, before today or yesterday: James Taylor, Lyle Lovett, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Tift Merritt, and John Hiatt. Thankfully, she already knows John Prine. She certainly knows all about In a Gadda Da Vida now.

So, not only am I educating her about horses, I'm indoctrinating her in my music. She's a good sport and never goes "ICK!" even if she's thinking it.

Sparky went with us both days and she gets to run around the barn, but when we go out on trail, she stays in the Tahoe. I worry that she's too old to be able to keep up and since she passed out on my bed both nights, I think that worry is well founded. She's one tired puppy.

Hope you got out into the woods and also have heard some really good music!