Archives for October 2013

Monday, Oct. 14, 2013 – Lazy Rainy Day

Woke up to more rain moving in overnight, and, being a sort of holiday, we spent the day reading, on the computer and watching movies.

Sunday, Oct. 13, 2013 – First Ride Day at Honey Creek


Woke up to another sunny day, though a cool wind tends to whip by us, as we’re right at the highest, most open part of the campground. Nevertheless, we were ready for a ride today! So were the horses, they were quite raring to go! Saddled up and headed south near the entrance to the park, which was the start of what is marked as the Red trail, or A trail, depending on how you read it. Despite the two days of sun, there were still some spots that were pretty slippery. The trails were in pretty good shape, mostly wide enough for a group of horses to pass at one time, with just a few areas narrowing down to single file. It made for several nice opportunities to canter. A lot of it had the feel of riding around someone’s farm, as there were quite a few corn and soybean fields around. They had obviously just been harvested, and in fact, the first night we were here there were all kinds of heavy trucks and a harvester coming in and out late into the evening, so now we know why! A nice ride, though. Some of the trees are well into changing colors, while others are still quite green, some have gone brown, so not as pretty as last year’s east coast journey, but nice nevertheless. Weather was perfect! Had a nice watering hole not too far into the ride, and once we stopped along the trail to adjust Hubby’s sliding saddle blanket, only to discover a nice little stopping area just a hundred yards further along, with hitching rails and mounting stumps! Wished we had known about that before we stopped! A very nice trip, just under 6.5 miles long, a perfect length for us not to get too tired out. Quickly got everyone settled in for the evening, and relaxed until bedtime!

Saturday, Oct. 12, 2013 – More Work

A beautiful day today, lots of sun, but I still felt a bit tired from the trip, and still had work to do on the computer, plus we were a little worried about the state of the trails, since we had read on an internet resourse that the trails here were terribly slippery after a rain, so we decided to wait another day to ride. The sun all day today should help to dry out the trails for tomorrow, and it would give me a chance to really get caught up on some work before our trip the DC next weekend. Lots of day riders came in today, parking near us and down by the vault toilets further down the road, so I guess the trails can’t be TOO bad, but there’s no sense taking chances with our babies! So a relaxing day was had by all, the horses munching happily on the abundant grass supply and us parked in our recliners for the day and evening!

Friday, Oct. 11, 2013 – Rainy Computer Day

Rain came in last night, and kept us socked in most of the day. I managed to catch some water in buckets, though, so that will help with our water supply for the week. Spent most of the day doing computer work and preparing for our workshops in DC the week after next.

Thursday, Oct. 10, 2013 – Long Drive Day to Honey Creek, MO


Up at the crack of dawn, stops at the conveniently located dump on the way out of the campground (there’s one at the north equine camp as well), headed pretty much due east to catch the freeway as soon as possible, intermittent stops at BK, Tractor Supply and Walmart, and because they didn’t have a gas station there (the Sams Club did, but no diesel anyway), we stopped at a gas station just before getting back on the freeway. That turned out to be a mistake, as there was another truck stop at the exit where we got off the freeway, and their diesel was about 15 cents a gallon cheaper! Went straight to the camp, which also turned out to be a mistake, caused, once again, by misinformation provided by the main office of the Missouri DNR. I had called last week to confirm, again, whether there was water available at the campsites or not, and even though I was very specific, the girl I spoke to me assured me, three times, that there was a water spigot there. Of course, there wasn’t! So we had to go back to the gas station and fill up all our tanks, a process that took over an hour, making it after 5:00 by the time we got back to camp. We actually hooked the horses on the hitching rail before we went back for water, so at least they didn’t get thrown around in the trailer for that time. We finally got back and got set up. I put the horses on their anchors, because there is LOTS of grass for them to much on here, included some nice sections of clover, which they naturally devoured! Got the generator going, as well as the satellite dish and all other electronics, happy to see a good cell phone signal, though I’m not surprised being right off the freeway. That’s the other down side here, it’s a bit noisy from the traffic, and you have to park just so to get the RV level as most of the field area is kind of slope-y, but the upside, it’s free! Got everyone settled in, and had our usual travel day evening.

Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2013 – Last Ride Day at Brushy Creek


With just this one major trail in the southern half of to do, we headed out after brunch on the SE loop trail, exiting from the eastern trailhead for a change, the re-tracing part of the same trail we did Monday (because we had no choice), then finally split off on to the SE branch of the river. While it was a nice trail, a lot of it paralleled some open fields, so it felt a bit more like riding on someone’s farm rather than in the fields. Not quite as interesting as the SW river loop, but a very nice ride nevertheless. The horses have taken to the hackamores like real troopers, and Apollo only tried to rodeo me once, and only half-heartedly at that. The last bit of trail, Creek trail, was a little slippery, but nothing the horses couldn’t handle. There was a large tree that was being cut down, the ranger had talked to Hubby about that earlier, but the work was done, just the branches remained, piled up at the base of the trunk, which the lumberjacks decided to let remain. I’m sure it won’t take long for the forest to recover! Spent some time packing up and getting ready to leave tomorrow, an early morning and a long day ahead of us!

Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2013 – Casual Day

Spent the day mostly on the computer doing some work for our upcoming workshop, and recovering from our ride yesterday. Got a bit frustrated reading all of the news about how the National Park and Forest Rangers are having to take on the role of the Gestapo during the government shutdown, with stories about locking down hotels in Yellowstone and trying to close down 1100 square miles of ocean to prevent people from recreating on Federal property, throwing people out of the homes because they’re on the same, closing down a horse camp in Alabama in the middle of the night, kicking out hundreds of people and animals after a long trail BENEFIT trail ride run by volunteers, doing everything possible to make life miserable, which, last I heard, was the opposite of what the government’s job is supposed to be. If we hadn’t had the same kind of jack-booted experience in South Carolina earlier this year, I would have found some of the stories hard to believe, but after meeting up with that attitude first-hand, so I know they’re true. Hard to imagine how we got to this place, how far removed we are from our Founding Fathers vision of a free country full of people capable of governing themselves, to a nation where we can even decide for ourselves how to take care of our families and animals, and accepting responsibility for ourselves and even our neighbors. Now we’re creating a culture where we’re not allowed to do so. So sad!

Monday, Oct. 7, 2013 – Fantastic Ride Day at Brushy Creek



Well, today we truly discovered why this is such a popular horse camp in the Midwest, why everyone always asks me if we’ve been here. One guy last week told me he could live at Brushy Creek! I’m not sure I’d go that far, but I can certainly see spending several weeks here. I got up just in time to finish making manure piles, because here at Brushy Creek, men actually come around with a skiff and shovels and pick up after you! Never had THAT before, at least not without having to first wheelbarrow it over to a central bin somewhere! Here they actually come looking for piles, though they missed one of mine, so I guess they’ll get it next week after we’re gone. Anyway, after brunch we saddled up, again with our new bitless bridles, and headed out of camp on the opposite trailhead from last week. At first we thought we might have to trailer them down to the Lake Trail near the north equine camp, since we had had so much rain yesterday we thought they would closed the non all-weather trails, but in fact, we were told they were open, so we left straight from camp. The first section was a bit slippery, particularly on a few rather steep grades, but before long the trail started drying out a bit, and there were many sections that were more out in the open that had had a chance to dry. We had some fantastic canters across several fields pretty early on, which the horses seemed to love! Apollo seems much more comfortable in his new bridle, his transitions were much more gentle and smooth. We took the SW River Loop, staying on the outer perimeter, and the majority of the trail followed along the curving river bed, with several places to stop and water the horses. It was so beautiful! The trees are just starting to turn, and the river was so peaceful, it made for some beautiful pictures today! We did a lot of trotting and cantering, whenever the trail wasn’t too slippery, so even though we covered over ten miles, it only took us less than 3 hours. Apollo was perfect until very near the end, when we ran into a couple of cowboys galloping across a field, then he did one quick rodeo (probably just to show off, though they were out of sight by then), but otherwise everything was just perfect. A gorgeous ride in a gorgeous place! Thanks, Iowa!

Sunday, Oct. 6, 2013 – Cold, Drizzly, Lazy Day

Rainy, cold day, perfect for turning up the heat on the fireplace and watching TV and reading today. The horses had their rain sheets on since Friday, but this afternoon we put on their winter blankets, as it’s supposed to go down to 39 tonight. Trying our best to prevent the horses from growing too much of a winter coat, so that they won’t have clumps of hair dropping off when we get back down to warmer climes, which will be pretty soon! The campground had pretty much cleared out by mid-day, and by evening we had the place to ourselves (just the way we like it : -).

Saturday, Oct. 5, 2013 – Quiet Day in Camp

When we came back from errands yesterday evening, the first loop in camp was almost full of trailers, though our loop still only had one other trailer, and they apparently didn’t ride at all here, they came for a rodeo and just camped here. It was quite a bit cooler and somewhat damp, and we figured most of the trails were closed anyway after the rain yesterday and we had already planned on just relaxing today, so we read and watched TV and worked on the computer, a nice lazy day.