Velvet’s Trail Ride Journey

Two days of trail riding with bow hunters in the same park.  Are we horse riders crazy?  Yes, absolutely, without a doubt.

Saturday, I rode Velvet alone in the park. We were destroyed by a run-away quivering cameo tent.  Yes, one of those little tents that practically erects its self was tethered to brush besides the trail.  It quivered in the wind.  We were rescued by another rider who rides in the park for 3-5 hours three times a week.  His mare is bomb proof.  So, we rode together on the trail with Velvet insisting on being the leader.  His horse wasn’t gaited so, it was easy for us to pull ahead and then we had to wait.  We rounded the corner an spied the quivering tent. Velvet stayed in the lead until we got directly beside the tent. Then she allowed the mare to pass her.  They went over and sniffed the tent.

They guy had alread rode the extreme perimter of the camp, and just did us a favor to ride past that tent.  We followed him back to the parking lot.  I couldn’t take any more quivering tent experiences alone on Velvet that day.

Saturday afternoon, I rode Nova around my home area.  The neighbors were practicing their shooting.  My horses no longer react to rifle fire.  Since my new neighbors moved in and started target practice, my horses are desensitized to rifle fire.  I got on Nova and headed away from the shooter neighbors place. We rode over to the turf farm neighbor and rode around beautiful grassy areas and three lakes. We even went up to the Skate Board park and rode across the skate board area.  Nova was nice and didn’t pee or poop there.  It was unusual to not have skate boarders flipping around in that big piece of metal.

  Life is good!

Today Hope and I rode together at the park. I took Velvet again.  It was her turn again.

We rode quite a while and came up to one of the lake and the parking area. There were several cars and no one fishing.  I knew hunters were somewhere.  We came to the lot and I spied a new log in the grass.  I was looking at it envisioning a mounting block log.  I could get off, disappear in the woods and get some bladder relief.  How timely this log was too…right in the middle of the park..midway.  As I went closer, the log turned into a man.  He was invisible because he was covered in cameo.  I thought he was a log, but really he was a sound-asleep hunter!

What the bow hunters do is come out to the park really early when the deer are moving around. They sleep during the afternoon and then hunt again when dusk comes.  Trail riding is very educational!

Sometime later on our journey we spied a black garbage bag or something out in the field.  It was very out of place.  I’ve never seen trash in the park.  I walked by and then Hope walked by. That’s when we discovered it really was a turkey.  They must hunker down and cover themselves up with their wing.  Since Chip was right beside the emerging turkey, he did move sideways a few steps. The turkey didn’t explode up, it just emerged and ran off.  We were speechless in amazement.

Finally, we walked by a tiny hut that had green branches and leaves all over it.  It wasn’t all that far from the park entrance. The sign inside the tiny hut said Handicap Hunter.  We managed to ride right up to the hut, but when both horses got even with the hut and saw the inside, they were a bit nervous.  Hope was talking when her speech moved sideways.  I’ve never heard anyone speak while they were traveling sideways.  Of course there was a bit of hoof pounding sounds too.  Hope’s body tried to stay where it had originally been which resulted her pushing Chip more sideways.  

Hope loved her girth after those two experiences! Her girth was responsible for her saddle staying on the top of the horses, rather than sideways.

Yep, a hard day at the park with the bow hunters.  Yes a lot of people rode in the park on Saturday and Sunday. Both days were sunny and warm. 

We don’t know how many bow hunters were out there, because they are invisible!