Saturday, January 8, 2011

Another Snowy Ride

Last night we got another 3-4" of snow in our parts of the state, though towns to the south and west of us got upwards of a foot.  It was that heavy snow that sticks to everything and makes the world look like a peaceful, yet cold, wonderland.  So after Saturday morning chores I layered up, grabbed Ozzy and headed to the barn.  I know it was below 32 degrees, but I was afraid to look at the temp so I drove to the barn with my nav system off so I couldn't see it lol.  

I decided to try using our Liz Graves sidepull.  It's been almost a year since we used it, but I thought he would certainly enjoy a trail ride without cold steel in his mouth.  He was super relaxed heading out, though there were a lot of slippery spots under the snow.  I was really pleased with his go forth and explore attitude.  Ozzy of course was having a blast running in the snow, he's such a great trail dog.  When we got to the field rather than temp fate with the footing we turned around.  


G pretty much forgot what pressure on his nose was all about and tried to speed up for home.  We had an interesting and lengthy non verbal conversation pretty much the whole way back to the trail head.  Once we got back to the farm, the conversation slowed down.   Needless to say when we got back to the farm, we continued to work.  I worked with the liberty ring for a bit, and just hacked around.   

One of the gals at the barn agreed to take a few pictures for me since I'm usually out on the trail with Ozzy alone.  It's nice to have pics of the three trail buddies! (thanks Sharon). 




Friday, January 7, 2011

New Years Day Ride

Since we had the snow I haven't dared trying to traverse down the backside of the Christmas Tree farm.  So day before yesterday we christened the snow up the hill through the woods and just looped around the top of the tree farm.  When we came back down I noticed deer tracks along the end paddock so I decided to follow them.  When we got to the corner of the fence I found quad tracks from their neighbors property leading out to the woods so we followed them.  It's not a very long trail, but it takes us out to a huge crop field.  We went back again yesterday and Cheryl rode one of the lesson horses out with us.  She tells me that you can ride clear into Massachusetts to the next mountain.  Come spring I think we'll have to check it out.  Today I took Ozzy back out with me and we just rode by ourselves.  We did the loop around the tree farm and then back out to the crop field.  Since we were on our own we walked around the perimeter about half a mile and turned around.  Hard to believe it was January 1st, as it was nearing 50 degrees.  Gorgeous day and a great ride with my pony and trail dog.  I took a short video of the rowdy trail dog....this was the first time he's taken off into the woods on us.  He usually trots right along side us, gotta love that bell!   

Wonderful way to start out New Year.  Wishing everyone a Happy New Year!


A short video through the woods...  YouTube Video