We drove to a place we like to ride that is on the Little River near the town of Lillington, NC.
We actually have 5 horses, but only have a 3 horse trailer so the kids had to take turns riding double with Jason. JW went first. They rode our horse Walker. We've had Walker for 11 years. His full name is Walker Texas Ranger since he looks like the horse Walker used to ride on that show. We bought Walker as soon as we got back from our honeymoon from a rodeo stock contractor who had used him as a bucking horse and who knows what else. He was extremely thin when we got him which is amazing since he gets fat on air with us. I have no idea how to even make this horse thin. Through the years we have done a little barrel racing, competitive trail riding and polocrosse with Walker, and he is now excelling as a lesson horse. We love to tell his little students after they ride him that he is an ex-bucking horse. That just never gets old.
Casey is riding LuLu, who we call our million dollar pony. We couldn't ask for a better pony for the kids. She is 27-28 years old and still going strong. Casey does pee-wee barrel racing with her. I bet you can't guess what Casey's favorite color is(her saddle seat is actually pink too).
I thought this was a good shot of Walker. He is what is called a Medicine Hat paint. Native Americans liked to have these horses for battles because they have a war bonnet (the brown color around the ears and down around neck) and a shield, brown color on his chest. They were supposed to give the warriors courage and luck in battle. He also has one blue eye and one brown eye.
We ran into these cool chickens along the way. Around the corner from the chickens was a pasture with horses that we had to pass by. The horses came to the fence to greet us. I told Casey to stay away from the fence and she immediately said "Why, is it on?" It just made me realize how ingrained farm life is into our kids, that she would immediately know that a fence can be "on" (i.e. electric).
Half way through we swapped horses. The black horse's ears here are the closest we got to a picture of me on this ride. This is the horse I was riding, Missy. She is a 19 year old off the track quarter horse who is realizing a new career of barrel racing in her twilight years and is doing really well!
The scenery and the weather was perfect.
Here's a little better shot of me. Well almost. Not really. It's just Missy. Actually I'm kind of glad there were no pictures of me...I had my camera bag over my shoulder and the only bag we could find at the last minute to carry drinks, Casey's ladybug backpack. I looked really good..I mean really good. Luckily we only ran into 2 other people along the way.
We had no idea how long the kids would last on their first off the farm trail ride. They made it all the way around the 2 hour loop with no whining. We even got lost once with no meltdowns. Overall, it was an extremely successful trip!
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