The Great Outdoors

This past weekend, I went "camping" with some of my childhood friends and their parents at Big South Fork State Park. My friends are 3 sisters that I grew up with, and their parents remain friends with my parents to this day (my parents are sorry, now, that they didn't go with us this weekend, as is my sister!). All 3 girls ride horses (although Cathy doesn't ride as much or competitively any longer) and they "inherited" my very first pony, Red, that I got when I was about 6 and then passed her along to the Vaughan girls when I was about 8. They kept her at their farm in Bristol until she died just a few years ago. She was fat and happy and well-loved her whole life, so I will never forget how wonderful Kelly, Cathy, and Sarah were to my old pony. In fact, I'm getting ready to move my 28-year-old horse, Luzaz, up to their farm to retire in what will most likely be his final resting place, but I can't talk about that or even think about that right now.

What this particular post is about is not how special the Vaughans are or how great they are to my ancient horses, but it's about a weekend spent with some quality folks, my horse, riding for hours with them out at the park, and basically talking horses NON-STOP for 2 days straight. That's a typical weekend for me, at a competition. But this wasn't at a lesson, a clinic, or a competition. This was all just for fun, and that's the best kind of horseying-around that I can do...the kind that is just for pure pleasure. The pictures I've put up here are of one of the "cabins" in the resort where we stayed, and a picture of one of the stables. Each cabin is on a private drive out in the state park and it has (literally, right outside the front door) its own private stable. This was not a camping-in-tents-and-tying-the-horse-to-a-tree kind of adventure. We're way more high-class than the cowboys!!!

I had such a great weekend that I really didn't want to come back home (especially since the "cabin" had a satellite dish, a huge hot tub, and a dvd/vcr...so we weren't roughing it by any means). But, here I am, back at work. I can't wait to go back, now, and it's only a little over an hour's drive from me! Maybe we'll go back this fall, when the leaves change color.