Horsing around

Fall is the BEST time to ride.  With all of the scouting activities I was able to sneak away and ride as often as possible!  Which was more often than I thought I'd get to.  What a gift!!  The crisp air and the end of the biting flies.  The foliage and great friends made it a fall to remember.  I love it when the wind blows his mane around.  I can still feel the wind on my face just looking at this photo.

One day we explored trails for a few hours.  None of us had been on these trails before so this is where the snowmobile trail headed out across a swamp....hmm.  Maybe not an issue when there is ice but we were not up for a wallow that day.  Here is the group, "regrouping" for a moment before we headed back on this dead end trail.  :)

Friends.  Hey, do you have trouble keeping your white coat clean?  Me too...

The foliage was stunning for the moment in time it happened.

The horse is thinking, "Can I have some grass now.  C'mon, the red headed girl is eating grass...how about me?"

Nice views from the top of the ridge.  This ride was a joy to see a new sign for "Joy's State Forest".  This place is a blueberry field and it's now protected from development and part of the state forest system.  I hope to enjoy this view from horseback for many years to come.

Someone was thinking, "Hey mom, can I have a cookie too?"  Good thing Nancy is flexible!  This ride was in the rain mostly but it was a warm rain.  :)

Where to ride when turkey hunters are everywhere?  Sue knows, the sweet little camp roads around Lake Ivanhoe.  The summer folk have all gone away leaving a quiet road--hunter free--and beautiful views of the lake along the way.  Ahhh.

These are out of order but...send out the hounds! The fox is done.  We had a blast being the fox for Piscataqua Hounds one sunny Wednesday.  I have not figured out how to cell phone and ride yet.  I can do one or the other...

This is us out on the trail spreading the scent that the hounds follow.

They found us!

We waited in one of the remote fields to watch the hunt go by.  This is as they entered the field.  So cool to watch.  Such beautiful coats on the riders and the hounds were so happy.

This horse was not so happy at first.  I pulled the scent container out of my pack and got the hairy eyeball from King.  He didn't like the smell, the sound of glug-glug in the bottle or the sight of me dripping fox pee onto the ground either.  Nope...not his idea of a good time.

But he got the hang of it pretty quickly and was even game to have fox thoughts--we left the trail behind and spread scent right through the woods in a number of places.  This little gelding is great for just blazing trails through the woods.  :)

I also went on a Poker Ride.  Never did that before.  I didn't win any prizes but I did win something in the raffle and a very nice gift bag too.  

I also went on a Mystery Ride and that was a blast.  Didn't figure out "who done it" either but just a really fun time out there checking the clues off the list.  

What a great time it's been to ride this fall.  My camera is now acting up and for the last 6 or so rides it chooses to not work more than it works.  I get fuzzy photos or I get "battery exhausted" screens although the batteries are new.  Sigh.  I haven't had the greatest of luck with cameras over the years.  Might be time to replace this one.  I suppose the bit of tape that I use to keep the batteries from falling out (I broke the door for that part of the camera...) is more of an issue than I want to think it is!!  LOL.