On the Trail

Solana and best pal Geronimo (a/k/a "Mo") got to go on another lovely trail ride Sunday. Weather was so warm (dare I say hot?) that it was hard to believe we were only 3 days away from Christmas! (And that's not a complaint!)

This time we took the longest of the three equestrian trails. Technically, it just goes down to the beach and then loops back around, but we took a detour and walked down the beach a ways.

The trails we were on are in the Croatan National Forest in an area that's adjacent to Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point. The flight path goes right over the trails and I was very proud of both horses to not freak out over the planes. There were harriers practicing "touch and go's"...it got really loud! I was too focused on Solana when they were right over head, but later on captured them in a few pix when they were farther off. Look just over the tree line above my saddle:

That's right! Incidentally, you can also see how wooly Solana's winter coat is. She was really sweating by the time we got done :D

Walking through thick sand is tough work, even for horses and we spent some of the time dismounted and walking along with them.

Still have a few lovely colors in the midst of the green woods. :D

Altogether we were on the trail for about 3 1/2 hours and covered about 7 miles. It was a fabulous day.