Wow – I don’t know how Bev did it, but she sure must have some highly placed connections to have been able to provide the weather that we had for our 3rd fun ride Saturday, July 24. We mustered at Bev Elliot’s place on the South Mountain, and by shortly after 10 am we were on the trail. The weather was perfect: clear, fresh and – unbelievably – no flies to speak of. There were 11 of us, with Shelley & Jeff hauling one of their Canadian horses, Nell, from Yarmouth to join us (they pulled out of their driveway at 6:15 – now that is commitment!) Others in the group were Deanna on Azzy, April on her youngster Elastic with Vern on Bailey as their security anchor, Debbie Hennigar from Sheffield Mills with her beautiful big roan boy Blue on their first foray into public riding, Sheri on her young Canadian mare Paris, the 3 musketeers - Rebecca on super pony Luke, Christine on stampede wannabe Cole and Amy on super pickup mare Ellie - and of course Bev on her boy Izzy and me on Strider.
The trails were lovely: the first half of the ride was mostly woodlands and field trails, around a lake with a substantial beaver population that was causing local flooding then down a short but challengingly steep and washed out ravine trail. As we came out into one of the fields on top of the mountain there we were treated to that incredible panorama of Blomidon and the mouth of the Minas Basin. (This is where Cole decided that Christine would likely get a better view from the ground!) I am always thrilled to see the green topped red cliffs of Blomidon against the blue waters and sky. I am certain that we could see Parsboro from our vantage on the mountain. Luckily at that point Cathy was able to join us and got a group photo with that view as a backdrop.
We continued on down to the valley floor - the temperature change was quite striking in the valley, and it wasn’t only due to the time of day because as we started climbing back up the mountain the temperature started to drop again. The second half of the ride had more dirt roads, but there were still many portions of the route through fields and woods. There were watering holes along the way so horses had many opportunities to drink, and there were plenty of opportunities for some grazing, to let the horses relax.
The group was comfortably spread out along the trails, with horses naturally finding their right spot in the lineup. People could move from group to group, and chat with different people as the ride progressed. The young horses had an uneventful and confidence building ride, and by the end of the ride everyone was moving along calmly no matter where they were in the group, leading-middle-or trailing.
We returned to Bev’s and had our horses settled, watered & fed by shortly after 1pm: the 8 mile ride had taken us approximately 2 hours. We could then set about enjoying our own lunches. As has happened at the previous rides, everyone pooled their ‘tailgate’ lunches, Bev had made delicious corn chowder, and we ate until we were full – and there was lots of food left over. Sadly Shelley and Jeff decided that they really should leave without staying for the meal: even as it was they wouldn’t get home until close to 5pm, making it a long and tiring day – but as Shelley said after she got home: “… loved every minute of it. What amazing riding and views. The people were just lovely and so enjoyable.”
All in all a great ride on a beautiful day. Thank you Bev for inviting us to join you on your mountain.
