Horseride

Aubrey on Dolly, Mindy on Blaze.

Two days ago, my Aunt Renae took Aubrey and I to a nearby forest area for a horseride. This was Aubrey's first real trail ride out in the woods. When we came within minutes of the trail head with the truck and trailer, we just about drove over a snake. We got out to see what kind of snake it was - it was a 5 foot rattle snake. We hadn't run over it and so we watched it slither off from a distance. Renae commented how of all the many times she's been out in that area, she had never seen a snake before.

So off we went on our trail ride -riding through beautiful trees and little canyons. Ten minutes later, we heard a rattling sound again...right in front of us in a cluster of rocks by the trail. All we could see was a rattler sticking straight up and shaking wildly. Renae was in front and upbruptly stopped her horse. The snake was too close to the trail to pass safely and yet there was a stream and thick, tall bushes and trees on our other side. We crossed the creek onto a small patch of grass just big enough to fit all of our horses. Surprisingly, the horses didn't freak out at all. We sat there while this second rattle snake wound it's way up the small slope and into some trees. We couldn't believe we had already seen two snakes in 15 minutes.

Aubrey taking Dolly for a gallop.

The rest of the trip was wonderful - lots of beautiful scenery, the horses were well behaved (I was on Blaze and sometimes he's a stinker), and we didn't see anymore snakes after that. We rode for two hours and had a 20 minute lunch break. Aubrey started feeling pretty saddle sore after the first hour but she did great and had an awesome time. She says her favorite part was riding through the creek.

Lunch Break.

Aubrey's ready to get going again.

We reached the top of the mountain - awesome scenery!

Thanks for the trip, Renae! Let's do it again soon!