Hey Sweetie!
Another good night sleep, woke up to a beautiful morning, started the day off with a load of laundry so that I would have nice clean sheets tonight. Did my usual morning chores and breakfast, and Patsy arrived just after 10:00, so we saddled up and hit the trail forthwith. Another gorgeous ride! Flash was much more sedate for the first several miles, we took turns on the lead, and he actually didn't pull my arms out too much, at least at first. We started on the Blue Trail which parallels the river, one of my favorite trails up here, then took the big purple loop before taking the speedy yellow back to camp. While Flash was more sedate at the beginning, once we were warmed up and started moving faster, he did his best to make out like it was a race. He was slightly more under control today, though, possibly because I tightened up his snaffle bit a little yesterday, but it was still a thrilling ride! Once we got going, we trotted/gaited for many miles, though I was able to hold him back from his strong desire to canter most of the time. Not that I mind, he has a lovely canter, I just didn't want to leave Patsy and Atlas (her other horse today) in the dust! We did just under ten miles, and enjoyed every minute of it! Rinsed off their well-deserved sweat and put them away, then chatted for a bit with Patsy before she headed out. Another wonderful day on the road! Brought in my laundry, took Apollo and Lola for a walk around the camp, and brought out Lola's pool and filled it, as she's been panting like crazy lately, even though it hasn't really been that hot. It made a difference, though, she's been much more settled this evening. Last night she was very restless, took her an hour to settle down for the night. My usual routine, off to bed soon! Good night, baby! Love you!
Sunday, October 12, 2025 – Quiet Day in Camp
Hi Babe,
Had a good night sleep, and normally would do my laundry today, but the forecast looked so dire and it was quite cloudy and threatening, I decided to wait for a nicer day, though in the end, about six raindrops fell in the afternoon! Whatever, I had a nice relaxing day, a tiny bit of housework, mostly reading, took Apollo for a walk around the camp loop, etc., before settling down to binge-watching TV. Plans to get to bed early as Patsy is coming again tomorrow to ride, and I want to get up early enough to start my laundry beforehand. Good night, my darlin'! Love you!
Saturday, October 11, 2025 – Fabulous Ride with Friend
Hiya Darlin'!,
Well I did manage to get to bed reasonably early last night, and still slept until just after 8:00, so I guess my body clock is doing it's own thing! Nevertheless, I had to get up right away because my friend Patsy was coming down to ride with me, so I got my chores and breakfast done, and had just pulled Flash out of his paddock when she arrived, so the timing was perfect. We got saddled up, chatted with some neighbors who wanted to say hello to the horses, as well as a volunteer group that was putting in new corrals across from my site, tearing down the old wooden corrals and putting in pipe corrals with an 8' gate, which should be more convenient. I like the wooden ones, but they are rotting, as my repair job the other day proves. We finally got on the trail around 11:30, deciding to do about ten miles (turned out to be about eleven), so we took the orange trail, then a bit on the brown trail, until we picked up the yellow trail back to camp. We did very well for the first mile and a half while the horses were getting warmed up, the Patsy's horse Hero started a nice breezy trot, which Flash took as a challenge, and next thing I know, he's go, go, going again! I ended up having to get in the front or get my arms pulled out, but Patsy didn't seem to mind, she said she needed someone to push her, she's just been moseying all summer. We did a steady gait (with Flash doing a lot of bunched up canters, like a dressage horse!), and when we finally hit the yellow trail going south, I just had to let him run. So much energy! He's definitely ready to go! I'm almost tempted to enter him into the ride at Sandhills, just to give him a good workout. I'm convinced he could lead the pack! There's a lot of nice sandy trails out there, I'll just let him run when we check the trails. Once again, I kept an eye on him when we got back to camp, and he showed no signs of lameness or weakness of any kind. Despite it being a cool cloudy day, only in the mid-sixties, he had worked up quite a sweat, so I rinsed him off, of course, and Patsy did the same with Hero. After putting them away, we sat and chatted for a few minutes before she headed out and I settled down for the evening. This horse, Flash, is so much fun to ride!! What a great day! Love the trails here, loved the company, and love this horse!! Life is SO GOOD!! Good night, sweetheart! Love you!
Friday, October 10, 2025 – Quiet Day in Camp
Hey Sweetie,
Despite my best efforts, I didn't get to bed until late because it takes so long to load pictures up on my diary with the weak signal here, and then couldn't sleep for quite awhile, so I ended up making up for the deficit by not waking up until 9:00! Took care of chores, then cranked up the generator and washed my bath towels and a few other things and hung those out. Spent most of the day reading, took Apollo and Lola for a walk around the camp, which is practically full on this Friday, so I'm expecting a busy weekend, probably mostly of hunters, as it's muzzle loader season and I've been hearing some gunshots go off in the morning. Other than that, a nice quiet day. I have no excuses for not getting to bed early tonight! Good night, babe! Love you!
Thursday, October 9, 2025 – Fabulous Ride on a Healthy Flash!
Hi Babe!
What a fantastic day! Managed to get to bed reasonably early last night, had an excellent night sleep, read for a short while in the morning, then saddled up Flash to take a longer, faster test ride today, to see how his leg really is. He was so full of energy, he was like a different horse! After the first couple of miles as he got warmed up, he suddenly decided he wanted to go, go, go! I don't know if it was the cooler weather, the long layoff, or just that he was feeling frisky, but he insisted on gaiting and cantering for nearly five miles! Considering the trails here are mostly single track, hilly, windy, curvy and right through the forest, it was all I could do to hang on! I can't remember the last time he wanted to move that fast, but it's definitely been awhile. I didn't want to discourage him, he seemed to be having so much fun, and so was I! To make it even better, when I got him back to camp, I kept a careful eye on his weight distribution, and not once did he favor any of his legs. So happy, and relieved! I've got my old horse back. Whoohoo! Rinsed him off, then left him at the trailer for a few minutes while I fixed the gate on his paddock. The top gate screw had come out this morning because the post is rotten in the center, plus it was too high for the bottom bracket to fit into the lower gate screw, so I drilled a new hole farther down so that it would set on the bottom gate screw properly. Once that was done, I put him away, still keeping an eye on him, but there seemed to be no side effects to all his speediness today, thank goodness. So enjoyed myself! After awhile, I got Apollo out and took him for a walk around the camp loop just for exercise, and did the same later with Lola, who didn't bother to come with us the first time. At least I'm getting some walking in these days! Finally settled down for the evening to a new BBC series, Monarch of the Glen, based in Scotland, which is a lot of fun. I had started another fantasy series, Wheel of Time, but it was so violent and gory, I decided to pass on it. Anyway, planning on another early evening, and hopefully another good night sleep, now that the cold front has come through. Back to the perfect weather I always seek, seventies during the day, fifties at night! Loving it! Good night, my darlin'! Love you!
Wednesday, October 8, 2025 – Shopping Day
Hey Darlin',
Didn't have the best night sleep for some reason, so I was a bit tired this morning. It was supposed to rain today, but all we had were a few sprinkles. I did a few extra chores in the morning, then went into town to pick up the one piece of mail that Amazon actually sent USPS, then Tractor Supply for propane and joint stuff for Apollo, finally Walmart for fuel and a few things I didn't get the other day. Got back by 2:30 and just chilled for the rest of the day. It's been warm, but a cool front is supposed to be behind this so-called rain, and the forecast for the rest of the week is cooler and lovely. Looking forward to that! Not much else to report! Good night, sweetie! Love you!
Tuesday, October 7, 2025 – Test Ride on Flash
Hi Sweetheart!
Had a great night sleep, a slow morning, and then a short, three mile ride on Flash, just to see how his leg did. What a ride! He was fine and normal for the first couple of miles as we started down by the river just to see how it looked after last year's flood (it was fine!), then headed up the yellow trail. I just wanted to do a short ride, so we did yellow, then purple. At the last mile, though, as we were heading back to camp, he suddenly became very excited and started wanting to canter, even though it was woodsy, twisty, windy and hilly! Don't know what got into him, except that he wanted to get back to camp as quick as possible! I had to stop and circle him a few times just to get him to settle down. Guess his leg wasn't bothering him, was it? We got back, I rinsed him off and put him away, keeping an eye on his right rear hind the whole time and didn't see any indication of anything being off. Yay! Next ride, we'll go a lot farther and see how it holds up. Very glad it doesn't seem to be anything too serious, though it's probably too early to tell. Spent the rest of the day in my usual routine, though I took Lola for a couple of walks around the camp loop just for exercise, to keep from doing nothing but sit all day, and to give her a little remedial training. She's hasn't been coming when I call very well, so we did a little work on that today. Settled down for my usual evening, heading to be soon! Good night, babe! Love you!
Monday, October 6, 2025 – Travel Day to Woods Ferry, SC
Hiya Babe,
Didn't bother to set my alarm since the trip today is so short. In fact, it turns out it's only about 35 miles, not 75, so we got there in less than an hour. Loading out was no problem, and we left about 10:30, the drive was straightforward, and having been here several times before, the load in was even easier. I learned last time that I needed to go clockwise, against the one way traffic on the camp loop in order to get situated correctly in site 5. The only problem with this site is that it's on a considerable grade, so I had to put every board I have under the front jacks just to keep the first step out of the trailer from being dangerously steep. Having two corrals made the horse containment easy, and being close enough to the spigot that my hoses easily reached both the trailer and the horse buckets. Wasn't too long before we were all settled in! We had a little rain in the afternoon, just a few sprinkles, so I didn't get much solar power stored, but I have plenty of propane, so it's all good! Fortunately, this site has a pretty good cell phone signal, so I was able to reorder all my stuff from Amazon and am having it sent to my friend Patsy, who I will see at the Sandhills ride, and perhaps sooner, as she mentioned she wants to come here to ride. So now we have another two weeks to enjoy here. I'm thinking about taking Flash for a short ride tomorrow, just to see if his leg has improved. Settled down to reading, watching TV, and my usual evening TV. Good night, my darlin'! Love you!
Sunday, October 5, 2025 – Laundry and Packing Day
Hey Darlin',
Had a regular Sunday today, did a couple of loads of laundry, got most everything packed up in preparation for our short move tomorrow, over to Woods Ferry, which is only about 75 miles away. Horses were on their lines grazing most of the day, Flash is mostly getting the hang of it, though there was one time when I had to go rescue him, but Apollo, as always was brilliant. Did some housekeeping as well, so pretty much back to our usual Sunday routine. Never been much for routine, but it does seem to be taking over at the moment! Heading for my shower and bed soon! Good night, sweetie! Love you!
Saturday, October 4, 2025 – Just Killing Time
Hi Sweetie,
Today was pretty much a repeat of yesterday, just killing time before moving over to Woods Ferry on Monday. I guess I didn't realize how much time I spend riding every week, and now that I'm not doing that, because there are no decent trails here and because I'm hoping the Flash's foot will recover with enough rest (it's been getting much better, it seems, but I won't know until I do ride him), it seems there not much else to do but read, play computer games, and watch TV. I'm afraid my life is pretty boring at the moment! Can't wait for my next challenge, whatever that might be! Guess I'll have to look for more adventures, now that I'm fully recovered from my Yellowstone trip. Time to start planning next year's vacation! Meanwhile, I'll just every day as it comes, and be grateful for every minute of it! Love you, babe! Good night!