Archives for November 2013

With the forecast indicating just a couple of nice days followed by some cold, rainy weather, we decided to ride every day, back to back, rather than skipping a day between rides, just so we can get the rides in before we have to hunker down against the weather. We saddled up after breakfast and headed out,this time to the east and northeast to Trail #4, then south to hook up with #2 and then the section of #3 we didn’t ride yester. What a great ride! #4 is a bit wider, almost like a carriage road, but still single track, and still shaded by trees. It runs along a perimeter fence with beautiful pastures on the other side, and a few cattle grazing, which startled the horses for a minute, but they moved on with little trouble. Had a few great places to trot and canter, and still perfect dirt/sand footing. Even though it was the second day in a row, the horses didn’t mind, as it was a whole new trail, and we only went 6 miles yesterday, so they were still pretty fresh. This place is really great, and the weather has been excellent, in the upper 50’s and 60’s, partly sunny. Enjoying it while it lasts! Love the gates here, they’re specifically designed to be able to open and close on horseback, easy chains, just the right height and balance for opening and closing, perfect! Came across some very interesting mushrooms, shaped like stars, don’t know what they are, or whether they’re edible, but they certainly are fascinating to look at! Got back by 3:00 or so, and since this was the warmest day so far, gave the horses a much needed bath at the convenient wash rack they have here. Gave the dogs a bath while we were at it, too, just to get everyone on the same page. The breeze started getting a bit chillier, though, so we put the winter blankets back on the horses before bedtime, settling down for another restful evening.

Getting used to the shorter days and waking up earlier, we both had a better night sleep out here, it’s so quiet for a change! No planes, no trains, and hardly any automobiles, even though we’re right off a pretty good FM (Farm to Market) road. We were out on the trail by about 11:30 or so, heading out what appears on the map as the Pink Trail, or Trail #3 as it’s marked. We took the extended loop, and fell in love with the footing! After so much rocky terrain, we were so happy to at last have dirt and sand footing, with just a few roots occasionally, as you’d expect in a forest. Despite being part of the National Grasslands, there’s nothing grassy about this trail, it’s all through woods, with only one short stretch in the open that looks like a utility track, but no poles or wires, just a narrow stretch of field. Loved it! The horses started out expecting something else, and we could just feel them relax as the trail went on without incident. We were finally able to do some trotting, but other than the short field I just described, there really wasn’t any place suitable to get in a good canter, though we did a little on short stretches up small grades. The trail winded around the northwest corner of the park, then dropped south to a river, which then flowed into a lake, with the trail followed east and finally back to camp It was just 6 miles, so we were back within a couple of hours. Just the right length for our first exploratory ride, and apparently about the same length as most of the other loops out of the campground, making this a perfect place to ride for a week, maybe more. Hoping the weather holds out for that! Might even retrieve the parkas from storage so we can ride when the weather is cooler, this is so nice here! Plus, since it’s a national forest, with a Golden Age passport, it’s only $3 a night. Just our kind of place! As we were putting the horses up, a guy we had seen earlier on a tractor, drove over and asked if we minded if he parked his tractor next to us. He and a partner were cutting up a downed tree and he didn’t want to have to keep trailering it is. Of course, we said we didn’t mind (though I did mention I might want to take it for a joy ride later : -), to which he said the tank was full, have a good time! I like the folks here, everyone has been really friendly so far. Must be Texas! Anyway, had some chores to do in the afternoon before settling in for the night, wishing we had gotten here a week or two earlier so that we could enjoy the weather longer. Fingers crossed it’s not as cold as they’re forecasting now for next week!

Woke up with the alarm and headed out by 9:00, although we didn’t get finished at the dump until almost 9:30 doing a long overdue an extra flush. An easy drive, with stops at the Red River Farmers Coop in Hugo just to pick up a new hay bag, another old one gave up the ghost and fell apart a couple of days ago. Another stop at Walmart for groceries and other essentials, as well as to top off with fuel, and off we went, arriving at the LBJ National Grasslands Bois d’Arc horse camp right at our scheduled tim of 3:00. A quick drive around the campground was all it took to decide site 21 would be most suited for us. Surprisingly, there were a couple of other sites taken, but after a brief but helpful and friendly conversation with the folks there, learned they were just there day riding, though when they did camp, site 21 was their favorite! We quickly got set up, horses on a highline. While they provided some metal posts for that, I didn’t really like the layout (one set of posts got in the way of another hitching rail), so we decided to use a couple of well placed trees for a nice long highline, more space than they had even in the corrals at the last couple of places. Hubby got the satellite dish set up in record time, the first time it’s been easy in quite some time, especially considering how much of this campground is shaded, he managed to find just the right spot. As we’d only been snacking all day, we quickly got the animals fed, then fed ourselves dinner and settled down for a nice, quiet evening. This place feels really good. Odd, the last couple of places felt heavy, like it had too many unquiet souls there. Both of us, as well as both of the dogs, seemed to have fitful dreams during our entire stay at both places in Oklahoma, but in particular at Cedar Lake. I know that sounds weird, but that’s how it felt. Now we’re in Texas, we’ll see how things go here! Good news, the footing is all sand here according to the locals, and I have just enough of a cell phone signal to be able to get on the ‘net with my antenna booster. We may even decide to stay two weeks, depending on the weather, it seems from the trail map like there are enough trails to keep us busy for that long! Unfortunately, the weather forecast isn’t boding too well for later in the week, more cold air and rain coming in… but we’ll see! The weatherman’s been known to be wrong on occasion : -)

After a nice blueberry pancake breakfast, Hubby and I did our usual Sunday housekeeping before a friend arrived to visit. Spent the day enjoying each other’s company, had a nice steak dinner I cooked over the grill, then after his departure, enjoyed a nice quiet evening, with a minimal amount of preparation for our departure tomorrow.

Had a hard time getting to sleep last night, and then all my dreams were active, so I woke up feeling more tired than when I went to bed! Got up and fed the horses, delighted to see that Clio ate every bit of hay from last night, and was even picking at the scraps on the ground, something she hasn’t done in months! Hopefully the wormer did the trick, it would be great if that was the crux of the problem. Gave them breakfast, and she was tucking away at it like she was starving, another good sign! After breakfast we saddled up and headed out, on another fairly short loop, hoping the trails aren’t quite as rocky as the last one, though the north part of this loop is the same one we took on Thursday, so we already know that part’s rocky. Turns out 6A was a bit better, with some stretches along the ridgeline that didn’t have any rocks at all, and even a few sections of a carriage road that made life a lot easier. There were some sections that were just as rocky, but somehow it didn’t seem quite so bad. Not sure why this place is so busy (a lot of trailers came in for the weekend) with trails like theses. Don’t get me wrong, everything else is great, nice camp, good grades, pretty views, it’s just the trails are so full of rocks and roots it just doesn’t make for a very pleasant ride. Hoping the next place has better trails! Clio went straight back to her morning hay, not even taking a nap after the ride, very unusual, but a great sign we’ll be able to put the weight back on her in a hurry! Settled down for the evening earlier than usual, an enjoyable day despite the rough trails.

Spent the day working on my latest writing project, Hubby spent the day reading. Horses had a nice day off!

Set the alarm so that we could get out at a decent hour (these short days require it!) though several things delayed us and it was 12:30 by the time we hit the trail. Clio’s back foot seems to be fine, but we wrapped it up just in case. We headed out the #3 trail east, with boots on, thank goodness, because it soon became clear that the trail was mostly rocks, roots and muddy ruts. The terrain was nice, and the grades moderate, the forest mostly evergreens with some deciduous trees. Usually in a pine forest there are roots, but their inconvenience is generally offset by a nice pine-needle covered dirt trail, but here that is not the case. Rocks, rocks everywhere, though not quite as dense on the trail as the one we took last week in Robbers Cave. On the good side, the trails were well marked, using painted blazes, good signage, even the occasional “You are Here” placard on important intersections, so fortunately it’s difficult to get lost. Of course, we always strive to achieve the difficult, and we did, in fact, miss a turn, but the cross country climb was almost a trail, certainly one that had been traveled by many horses previously, and had a lot less rocks on it, so it was actually easier than the trail itself. It wasn’t long before we ran back into the right trail (my GPS kept us going in the right direction), and we arrived back at camp by 3:00. Apollo was his usual brilliant self, though I could tell he was getting frustrated with the footing after awhile, and Clio’s leg was none the worse for the wear, fortunately, no damage done. Shortly after getting back, we disconnected the horse trailer from the van and I ran back into Heavener to pick up some groceries, as well as oats and wormer for the horses. Clio still doesn’t seem to be putting on as much weight as we’d like, we can only think it’s because the last wormer didn’t do the job completely, so I got the strong stuff, and we gave that to the horses when I got back. Oddly, we found a bunch of ticks on her (and a few on Apollo), which I’ve never seen before. Usually ticks don’t seem to bother the horses, but she had quite a few on her, though they looked like they were in the later stages of their life cycle. We took them all off and smashed them with a rock, so that was that. Settled down for the evening after putting their winter blankets on, though tonight we didn’t put them in the trailer like we had the last two nights, because it was only supposed to be getting down to the low 40’s, a good 20 degrees above the last two nights. Warming up for the weekened, all the way into the upper 70’s!

Another day like yesterday, working on the computer, reading, fending off the cold. The horses came out of the trailer for the day, back in for the night, another short walk, etc.

Glad there’s a good cell phone signal here, I managed to get online and do a lot of overdue work. Spent the day working and Hubby reading, while Clio was recuperating. We took a short walk with the horses and dogs, and Clio doesn’t seem to be limping at all anymore, and her swelling seems to be gone, as well as most of the heat, so hopefully we’ll be riding in a few days. With a forecast of temps in the low 20’s, we put them in the trailer overnight to keep them out of the hard freeze. Unseasonably cold, apparently we’re experiencing typical January weather, it’s usually in the 60’s at this time of year. Just our luck!

Despite not bothering to set the alarm because it was such a short trip today, we were up fairly early, had some oatmeal for breakfast, packed up, stopped at the dump, and had a leisurely drive to Heavener, Oklahoma, where we stopped at Marvins supermarket for groceries, and the feed store for some hay for the horses (they had nice bales, although with wire, something we only ever see in Oklahoma for some reason), then arrived at camp aby 1:30. The camp hostess wasn’t much help, but we met her husband up in camp and he was quite helpful. We had to park for a few minutes while they were taking down a tree in loop F, but meanwhile we checked out the other loops, and walked around loop F as well, and finally settled on a long site at the back end of the loop. Behind us was a pull-thru site off the road, but other than that we were pretty isolated. We quickly got the horses in their respective corrals, filled the RV with water, hooked up to electricity, discovered a cell phone signal good enough to run my hotspot (yeah!), and set up the satellite dish. That was the most challenging as there were a couple of branches in just the wrong position, but eventually Hubby found a spot where he could get a good enough signal, at least for the time being. By the time that was resolved, and the horses were fed and blanketed for the night, it was getting dark, and we were ready to settle down!