Got up again at the usual time, and was out by just before 8:30, arriving at High Country Horses by 8:45. There were already quite a few people there, but the staff was running behind, the horses were just being saddled, and everything was running late. They decided to get the short rides started first, so us day-long riders had to wait even longer. Hubby was assigned a brown gelding named Buddy, who was very gentle but very dead on his cues. Hubby couldn't even get him moving when the train pulled out! Fortunately, he perked up later in the day, but he was very slow to get started. I was given a horse named Goose, but when I went to get acquainted, something just felt off to me, and for some reason, I checked his feet, not something I would normally do with someone elses' horse, but sure enough, he was missing a shoe. Considering the terrain, that could have been devastating, so they pulled him out of the line and gave me Bertha, who was going to be the leader's horse, but she switched to another horse. Bertha was a compact former race horse who had a penchant for running full speed when she had the chance, and she walked just fine, but I'm not sure I can even describe the thing she was doing in the middle. It might have been a trot, might have been a pace, but it felt more like rabbit hopping. I've never felt such an uncomfortable gait in my life! Needless to say, I didn't trot much, but I did manage to get her into a very slow collected canter that kept us at about the same speed when we had to trot. So now for the ride. All the promos key into the fact the this horse trekking company was the ONLY one that had access to some of the LOTR filming sites, and that was a big draw for me when I booked it. It was a very expensive ride (I could have bought a cheap horse and decent saddle for what it cost for the two of us to ride,) and I was enthralled by the hills surrounding the area. There seemed to be many forest areas, very inviting, but the ride seemed to stay almost entirely along the riverbed, miles of stones and rocks and fording across the river. Other than a few sections of pasture-like trails and road, where we were given leave to canter ahead of the one woman (and thus the group leader, Yvonna, who had to stay behind with her), which was fun (Bertha would do her hop if she were behind anyone, we soon learned, so we ended in front, where she would take off in an effort to win the race, and always did :-), but almost 90 percent of the ride was along the riverbed, essentially up a valley to the end, where we hopped up the bank to a clearing and had lunch, an extraordinarily long one hour event, before heading back down the valley on the other side of the river. During all this time, not one mention of anything about LOTR. I had asked at lunch when we would start climbing, and was told soon, but that wasn't exactly true. Finally, at about 3:15, I asked about LOTR sites, and she seemed surprised that it was of any interest! She offered the excuse that "full-day riders" don't usually care about it, so that was why she didn't talk about it. It seems the 1.5 hour ride (which we were originally scheduled for, but opted for a longer ride) actually went to one of the filming sites, but the rest of the rides just got you in the general area, and were pointed out from a distance, which she promptly started doing. While it was interesting, it now seemed rushed, because it was almost the end of the ride. FINALLY, we got off the riverbed, crossed the road and headed into a pasture area that had a long gradual climb, where we were once again given leave to canter up the hill. Bertha and I took off with Dan, a corporate lawyer from Russia (who, I swear to God, took his shirt off very early in the ride) and Hubby bringing up the rear. There was another woman named Jeanette there, but she only cantered the first few times before she had had enough. She hadn't ridden in years, so was obviously sore after the first hour or so, so I didn't blame her. We raced to the top of the hill, with Dan only catching me when I stopped. Yvonna wasn't very good at instructions, she said go to where it looks like you're at the top of the hill, though it really wasn't, and stop. I stopped where I thought that was, but Dan kept going, practically until it started going downhill again. Hubby caught up and we waited for the others to join us, heard some more fun facts before descending again, then we were almost back on the farm, though we took some slightly more interesting pathways home, mostly along stream bed and through a few swampy areas, though the stones were smaller and gentler on the horses' feed than the riverbed. Along the final stretch, Jeanette pointed out an abrasion on Yvonna's horses' back leg, and when she got down to check it, the horse flinched when she touched it, so she ended up walking the rest of the way back to ranch. We arrived just before 5:00, tried to feed our leftover lunch apples to our horses, but they were obviously not used to such treats, and only the big dapple gray Corona was interested. After a little chat with Jeanette about our thoughts on the ride, I hopped back into the campervan, and Hubby and I headed down to Mrs. Wooley's in Glenorchy where we had planned to spend the night. Unfortunately, the last site was taken by a backpacker right in front of me. Apparently they don't distinguish between campers and tents, so there was an incredible amount of wasted space (not to mention lost dollars) by not doubling up on the tent sites. Once we discovered there was no room, we drove out of Glenorchy, through Queenstown until we hit Kingston (thank goodness for the long summer days!) and signed into the Holiday Park there for the night. I spent a dollar to get 200 mb of internet time, which I used up in half an hour uploading half a dozen pictures, and was soon off to bed, exhausted from our long and tiring day.

Woke up before the alarm, had a leisurely breakfast, then headed down to the station early, hoping to find a wifi signal where I could check my email without using cell phone data, but was disappointed no one had a free wifi anywhere. Evidently they have a purveyor here called Spark, where you buy a reloadable sim card for $5, though it starts out with $20 of wifi time on it, and it lets you onto any Spark wifi system, which is in a little cage next to the service station, and also at most of the other buildings in town. Not having time to mess with it, we decided to forget about it for the moment. Hubby suddenly couldn't find his back brace, which he usually wears for any of our longer rides, and we searched high and low for it with no success. He was convinced he had taken in out of the suitcase last night and put it with his clothes, but we looked everywhre for it with no luck. We can only think he must have knocked it off the bed during the night on his way to the bathroom, and then it fell into the door step of the van and got kicked out in the morning with no one noticing. A long shot, but we couldn't find any other explanation. Anyway, our ride leader showed up, a true Maori Kiwi, a young man of 22, whose father owned the business of Horse M Treks. Our original schedule was for the Fishers Track ride, which was advertised as bing 21 kilometers (12 miles), and 4-5 hours long with experienced riders, 6-7 hours long with novices. Jakob said the ride was really more like 27 kilometers long, which we really thought would really be too much for Hubby, especially without a back brace. After much discussion and suggestions, we agreed to take Jakob up on his offer of an alternative route which would be a bit shorter, around a different part of the forest, though he assured us we wouldn't be disappointed. Another factor was the weather, it had started drizzling last night, and was forecast to continue doing that all day, and the original route would take us up some altitude where it was bound to get much colder and wetter in the clouds. We were NOT disappointed! In fact, the entire ride was fantastic! After getting introduced to our pretty spirited horses, with Hubby on a paint named Memphis, would you believe, and me on a part Arab buckskin named Duffy, we pulled out of the driveway and up the road, following the railroad tracks a short way before crossing the road. We briefly went through a neighborhood before reaching the entrance of the wilderness area, following a gravel road for maybe a mile before crossing a bridge over a raging river, and maybe a mile or so more up the gravel road to a beautiful lookout and beyond, until we finally got off the road and into some pretty high grass like stuff, and finally into the woods, which were some of the darkest, spookiest woods ever! So cool! There was even a section Jakob called the Blair Witch section, where they used to pull practical jokes on some of the tourist, skeletons on strings and so forth. Even though it rained off and on, it seemed appropriate because it had a real rain forest feel to it. After a couple hours on the trail, Jakob led us to a spectacular spot for lunch, with a view of a stunning waterfall that apparently very few people have ever seen. It didn't even have a name, it was so remote. We enjoyed a wonderful lunch that Jakob brought for us, and chatted like old friends for well on a half hour, before mounting up and heading out again. Jakob did a fabulous job of catering to our every need, and we even did some incredible long canters unlike anything we've ever done before on a rented ride. We had one river crossing where the horses practically had to swim across (well, now quite, but it was definitely a boot-wetting experience, even though I put my legs way up!) Hubby's boots got a bit submerged since he can't lift his legs that high, I managed to keep one foot dry while the other got wet. Jakob offered to take us to a spot where we could actually swim the horses, and if it had been a hot day we would have jumped at the chance, but it wasn't that warm out, and we were already pretty wet, so we declined. We had another fantastic canter for a long way up the road, with Jakob staying behind us because his horse had a missing shoe and he didn't want to lame him on the gravel, but he gave us leave to canter as far as we wanted, just stop to let him catch up before we got back into town! Well, that was a great canter! Before we knew it, we were back to the railroad tracks and into Jakob's yard. He invited us for venison stew, which we would have loved to stay for, but we are on a pretty tight schedule, and the ride was about 5 hours long, we arrived back at 4:00. Since we still had a drive ahead of us, we had to decline, but I shared my GPS map with him (at least, it's in the email waiting to go out as soon as I can get a wifi signal again!), discovering the ride was just about 12 miles anyway, just perfect. And amazingly, Hubby's back didn't bother him a bit, despite the long ride! Guess we didn't need his back brace after all! We considered going back to the campground to look for it, but decided it wasn't worth the time on such a longshot, so we headed back to the park station, got a little fuel for the campervan, and headed south to another DOC campground I had found about 1 ½ hours down the road, which would leave only about a 2 ½ hour drive to Wellington tomorrow to pick up the Cook Strait Ferry to the South Island. Jakob was kind enough to fill up the campervan with water, which was very convenient as there was no water at Simpson's Scenic Reserve campground (which is why it's free), and we both needed showers. It was a lovely drive, albeit wet, off and on with rain, but we arrived just about 7:00, quickly settling into this offbeat little campground/parking area, having dinner, showers, catching up on the diary and reading before turning the lights out before 11:00, the latest we've gone to bed since we've been here! Must have recovered from the jet lag!

The last couple of days we've been slowly gathering everything we need to pack for our big upcoming trip, but today we just had to get a last ride in, to insure we're in adequate shape for our first 5 hour ride in New Zealand.  We just took a quick trip out to the gazebo again, since it was convenient and nearby.  We've completely filled the trailer with alfalfa and bags of food for the horses, wanted to make sure brother Jeff had enough to last for the entire 6 weeks we'll be gone, so taking the horses out anywhere to ride wasn't possible.  Anywy, it served it's purpsoe, we got a number of trots and cnaters in, and feel good about our condition.  Of course, the dogs came with us and enjoyed the walk as well.  Nothing exciting, but it was very pleasant, perfect temperatures and weather, precisely why we like to spend our winters in Florida.

Took our first ride together today with Hubby, though I did ride the same route back on Jan. 16 with brother Jeff and his boarder Amy and her retired racehorse Tommy. We just went back to the gazebo with the big tree in Hungryland, which is about an hour's ride at our usual pace, but it was well worth getting back in the saddle. Jeff did some great clearing of brush on the back of his property, and opened up a path to a gate which now opens up directly on to the canal, so we no longer have to go on the neighborhood roads at all! Very nice! Hubby and I are going to try to ride again later this week, in preparation for our big worldwind tour coming up. I can't believe it's almost here! We've been planning this for almost a year, and the logistics have been marvelously challenging, but I think I have everything pretty much worked out. Our first ride will be about 13 miles near Tongariro, New Zealand (Lonely Mountain, for you Hobbit and LOTR fans), so we need to make sure we're not TOO out of shape! I'll try to write more about our trip as we go, but internet will be intermittent, so stay tuned! We'll also be keeping tabs on our Facebook group, The Best (and Worst) Horse Camps Across America, which you're welcome to join if you haven't already. It's going to be a VERY exciting trip! It includes New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Honk Kong, so strap in! It's going to be a thrilling ride!

After a much-needed day of rest, Hubby and I were ready for a nice long ride today! After breakfast, we saddled up and headed out of the camp trailhead, with both dogs along for the ride. We realized that we had actually been on some of these trails before, as we had stayed at Ross Prairie Campground back in 2012, which is on the same Greenway just west of here, and when we rode to the Land Bridge over I-75 back then, we were on the same trails. Not that we remember any of them at this point, but when we reached the underpass between two sections, it did jog our memories. We had a nice leisurely ride, with my Apollo a bit tense for the first half hour, head high, looking for anything "horse-eating" thing to come out of the bushes, but he soon settled down. We saw a couple of deer and lots of birds and other wildlife, and it was a lovely ride. We arrived at the Land Bridge after about 2.5 hours, and rested there for a bit. It's a nice spot with a covered bench and a tub with a spigot of non-potable water for the animals. Then we headed back on Trail #1 for most of the way, before cutting over to get back to the campground. Near the end of the ride, little Billy dog was really having trouble keeping up (actually, we were all feeling it by then, we're all a bit out of shape after so much time not riding!), so I put him up with me on the saddle for a bit, something he'd never done before, and was somewhat tense for a while, but finally he relaxed and settled down. After a while, I moved him over to Hubby for a while, and the rest of the ride home was uneventful, though we were all pretty tired by the time we got back. Hubby was beat, so I got the horses washed, fed and settled down, and then we crashed for the evening. Cracked open a bottle of sparkly for New Years, but were in bed by 10:30 🙂 Good thing we only have a fairly short trip to my brother's house tomorrow!

After a busy couple of days, we set aside today to map out yet another section of the Skymont Trails, and learned from Ranger Dave's wife Ellen that Ike and Rebecca, the organizers of the SERA endurance race for which I had volunteered a few weeks ago were actually camping in the back, so I was looking forward to introducing Hubby to them when we passed by. After getting saddled up and riding through their camp, it became obvious they were all out on a trail ride, naturally, as it was a beautiful day. We headed out over the dam, this time heading north to mostly follow part of the orange trail. I had mapped out about 6.75 miles of riding, but got a little turned around, as most of the flags near where the buildings and other scout facilities were had been removed, and since they had the most roads and options because it was the most used and populated area, it made it a bit more confusing. Following my GPS, though, we managed to get on track after awhile. Once again it was a gorgeous ride. The leaves are starting to change color, adding to an already gorgeous experience. After about 4 miles, however, after cantering up a hill, we looked back and realized that our little dog Billy was missing! I asked Hubby when was the last time he had seen him, and he couldn't really remember, because he had been running lines of a one-man show he's getting ready to perform next month. So we turned around and headed back to see if we could find him, and after about half a mile and lots of yelling, Billy finally came bounding up the trail towards us. We figured he must have gotten distracted or tired somewhere, and because he's getting a little deaf in his old age, he couldn't hear us well enough to track us down again. Once he caught back up with us, though, we headed back on up the trail, as it was longer to go back than to continue forward, even with the extra mile of backtracking. My horse Apollo wasn't exactly thrilled at going back and forth (he tends to get bored easily, and retracing his steps is boring for him, he always wants a new trail!), so he got a little ornery for a few minutes, but settled down again once we got going. We were afraid Billy would have trouble keeping up (he is over 12 years old, and has tiny little dachshund size legs, after all!), so we slowed down and waited for him more often, which made what should have been a 2.5 hour ride into more of a 4 hour ride. But, of course, any time on the back of my horse is a good time! We finally reached camp, and by then, the other campers were back, and we stopped and chatted with them for a while, comparing notes. We knew from the fresh manure on the trail that they had been on many of the same trails as us, so we talked mostly about the orange trail What a great ride, though! Perfect weather, a gorgeous day! Got back and got everyone put away, gave Billy a baby aspirin because I knew he was going to need it, and settled down for the evening. Wonderful!

Finally got a ride in today! Can't believe our last ride was way back in June! The weather has finally become perfect for riding, low 70's, clear skies, gorgeous! After having met the new Ranger at local Skymont Boy Scout Reservation during the SERA Endurance Race ten days ago, we got permission to come and ride, and we volunteered to help GPS the trails to help build an accurate trail map, though the one SERA was really good. Anyway, we packed up the horses into the trailer and drove the quick 5 miles down to the camp, checking in with the Ranger and heading back to where the riders had camped during the race. We got the horses saddled up in no time. Frankly, I was a bit nervous about how the horses would behave after such along layoff, but they were perfect! Everything about the ride was perfect! We've had no rain here for a few weeks, so the trails were perfect. Mostly flat through woods, but with several hillocks that provided some challenge. Hubby got a lot of canters in to keep up with Apollo's fast walk, and we got both got some nice trots in as well. Fabulous, fabulous day, can't wait to come back! Hopefully, later in the week, we'll get another chance, while the weather continues to be perfect!

After another busy week of cleaning and repairing and running around, Hubby and I decided to take a ride around the "neighborhood," having been reassured by our nearest neighbor (whose trails we need to cross to get to other trails) that permission was given, we headed out the end of the driveway, through the gate, and off into the woods! We were pleased that the trails were all in pretty good shape, just a couple of limbs down, obviously newly fallen after a serious storm last week, where we had a fierce straightline wind gust that didn't last long, but was VERY strong for a few moments as a front came through. It knocked down a dead tree in our front yard, which I had to clear during the week because it crossed over the driveway, and several smaller trees were bent nearly parallel to the ground. I had also done some other chainsawing over the weekend as well, on trees that had come down since our last trip home and before. Anyway, we haven't ridden back here in such a long time, the trails all seemed new to us, which was wonderful! One trail we followed skirted the edge of an area that had been horribly clear cut a few years ago, but we were happy to see that a lot of new young trees were quickly filling it in. That, unfortunately, ended when we came across a log that was too high to get over, and too thickly shrubbed to get around, so we turned around, with plans to bring a saw to cut it or a rope to move it by horsepower enough to get by next time. We followed a few more trails, some of which looked familiar, some we had completely forgotten, and noted lots of side trails for another day. With perfect weather, it was a fabulous ride, everyone behaved themselves, the dogs loved being out in the woods, the horses were great (with only one unexpected hop from Apollo which was quickly corrected), and we had a wonderful time! First time I've ridden here and GPS mapped it, so it was quite a treat to see exactly where on the mountain we traveled. We most definitely have to clear that log, because that trail leads to the western edge of the plateau, where the views into the Nashville basin are stunning, and there's a place known locally as Sunset Point, which describes it perfectly, an overhanging rock that looks due west, with a creek/waterfall nearby. A gorgeous point I want to find again! Anyway, it was a great ride, we were out about two hours, just right for our first time out in nearly 3 weeks!

After a quiet breakfast and chores, the horses got saddled up and out by about noon, to finish off the final trail here at AH Stephens SP, the Orange trail. They have just about finished adding an extra mile to the Blue Trail that I rode yesterday, but I didn't want to risk getting lost, since it still didn't have markings, so I stayed on the main trail. The Orange trail requires you to go out the Red trail for a ways, but instead of going the long way to the right, I knew it joined at a closer intersection out to the left, so that's where we headed. It meant essentially going "backward" on the trail, so many of the markings were only on one side of the tree (opposite from the direction we were headed), but every intersection is well-marked, so it's kind of hard to get lost here. This was another pretty trail, but it did get closer to civilization, at one point paralleling the busy Hwy. 22, you could hear and occasionally see traffic through the trees, past a couple of park buildings, and you could hear lawn mowers on the move. It also had a couple of historical sites, including a baptismal pool from 1866 and a CCC outhouse from the 1930's, which they pointed out with signs. Nowhere near as pretty as the Blue trail, but still worth the ride. It was almost exactly 5 miles, so not a long ride, but pleasant, with perfect weather, just enough breeze to keep the real heat away, and, of course, the shade was excellent. Got back around 2:30, had lunch, then I took Lola out to the trail near the boat launch and she did some more swimming (again, we didn't take the dogs on the trail because I knew this one went near a road, and didn't know how close, so better safe than sorry!) After her exercise session, relaxed the rest of the afternoon, had dinner, took the dogs for a quick walk (I'm trying to get more exercise in order to lose some weight!) before settling in for the evening.

After a quiet day yesterday, and with only a couple of days left here, I decided to take the longer, Blue Trail, this time ponying Clio along just to see how that would go. I pulled out a long lunge-line I seldom use and once I had Apollo all saddled up, hooked her up and away we went! She was brilliant, staying up with us extremely well, jogging and trotting to keep up without being asked, at least until we got near the end, when she was clearly ready to get home. I had no trouble, except the lunge-line was so long I ended up stuffing a lot of it into one side of my saddle bags, and that helped. Towards the end I decided to try using Lola's retractible dog leash, and that actually worked wonderfully! I'll need to see if they make a horse version of a retractible lead, what a great idea! Meanwhile, the trail was magnificent! Big trees, great brooks, a couple of stream crossings, ravines, uphills and downhills, not to steep but enough to make if really interesting! We even got a few canters in! The weather was perfect, hardly any bugs, just spectacular! We were gone about 2.5 hours, a perfect length for an afternoon ride. I didn't bring the dogs, as I didn't want to try to handle two dogs and two horses, and there's a leash law here anyway, but I didn't get the impression it's enforced too dramatically (but don't quote me on that!) I did take Lola for a walk yesterday and found access to a lake next to one of the cottages, so she got her swimming. Also I took a drive around and found a boat launch and public fishing spot at the end of one of roads, next to a nature trail, so after lunch I drove down there with Lola and let her fetch and swim for about 45 minutes before coming back to camp and settling down for the evening. A great day!