I have some pretty lofty goals for 2006. To name a few, I hope to achieve at least another 300 hours to get me to the 1500 hour mark with Ride America. I'm sure there will also be a few weekends of camping and hanging out with friends.
January 2006 ended up
being one of the warmest on record. Cora came up lame just before
Christmas and ended up having a soft tissue injury. Luckily she was ready
to go again in a couple of weeks and we didn't miss too much riding. I
shared the 1st weekend in January with my good friend Tammy. We just rode
the county roads in her neighborhood, but had a blast. AJ got his first
trailer ride and hung out in her roundpen. The 2nd weekend found us
playing at Chance Ridge. I'd say there were about 60 or so other "Horsetalers"
there having fun. Cora & I even did some jumping. AJ also joined
us and stood tied in the corner of the arena taking all the sights in.
February gave us some more nice weather and I took advantage of it by just riding around our place. We explored behind our house and checked out the pond. Doing so, we spooked up 4 deer. I also found a pretty cool complete antler shed. Mike thought it was pretty neat too and said it was a pretty nice deer that lost them. After those few nice days, the weather turned and we started getting SNOW and COLD again.
This was the 1st day of Spring!! YIKES.
By April, the snow had melted, Cora was sound and we were ready to start the season of Riding. April also brought the start of the Platte River Riders riding group that meets every Wednesday evening during summer and early fall. Our first ride was held at Two Rivers State Park. We have been blessed that this park welcomes horses and has even given us our own pond to swim the horses in. Some other favorite haunts are Camp Moses and Cunningham Lake.
June found us heading West to Fullerton Nebraska. We had scheduled a weekend camping trip at Broken Arrows camp. Pretty nice overall including the camp ground. Only downfall was we had rain which made the trails slick in the mornings and the bath house was a little far. Area highlights were Lover's Leap, Buffalo Run and playing in the river. The annual potluck supper was good too. I brought Elk Filets wrapped in bacon. Yum! It was fun riding the bluff and looking down at the loop river. Cora did NOT care for the huge Flag that was whipping in the wind. She did her famous spin and said NO WAY am I going down there! I got off and walked her down the hill. At least we made it down safely and the horses figured out it wasn't going to kill them.
July was pretty hot to ride, but we did make a trip to Cunningham Lake and to Macy. I had not been to Big Elk Park and was excited to try the new place. Very nice trails and we will be looking forward to going there again next year. I also got to check out some private land that had around 3 hours of riding. Again, trees, hills, challenges were in store for us all, including NETTLES.
I did make it back to Oak Creek Trail in August. That is a nice trial that can give your horse a good workout. Nice places to lope and some good climbs for strength training. We also made a trip to Gifford Point WMA at the end of August. Very pretty place by the Missouri River, but there is some weed there that caused an allergic reaction to Cora's legs. Luckily, she was cleared up enough to make it to Cowgirl Weekend 2006.
September found us going to Niobrara River Ranch for the Annual Cowgirl Weekend. I wasn't too sure what it would hold in store for us and wow was I surprised. There were so many fun parts of the ride. Some that stick out are crossing the Niobrara River, running up sandy hills, going down cow paths that are hanging on the sides of the river bluffs and just sharing this whole experience with my girlfriends.
October, we took a trip to Cabo for a friends wedding and AJ came home. Rode a few more times with friends and even got to sneak away right before New Years Eve and got a ride in at Wildwood Lake near Agnew. Very nice ride with my friend Tammy.
Didn't quite make that 1500 hour goal, but will hit that milestone in early 2007.
Check out Cora's past adventures
