Short Trip to the Mountains

This past Sunday my Mother, sisters and I left for the lovely mountains on NC to visit my aunt and cousin. My aunt has a farm up there where she keeps her horses, and has over 200 acres of grass, trees and trails. I got to go on the most exciting trail ride ever while I was there. My aunt has a hired helper to take care of the horses when she leaves, and this helper is an endurance rider. That means, she rides her horse in races 50 miles long, and she even did one 100 miles long. It's amazing. I don't know how she does it. But she offered to take me on a trail ride while I was up there, and it was really fun. I rode one of her two horses, Nacho, and he's a very sweet horse. He is an Arabian- bred for endurance and speed. Most of the time we walked or trotted on the trail, but her horses kept wanting to canter. And once, on a very steep hill going up, the horses started going really really really fast and the horse in front of me was kicking up clay (so I had clay on my face when I got back) and she yelled to me to grab hold of the mane while we were going so fast so I did. I could hardly see anything because I closed my eyes so they clay wouldn't get in them, so I really had to trust the horse to not let me fall. :) When we finally got to the top of the hill, she said we had just galloped. So of course I was super excited that I galloped; I'd never done it before. That is definitely the highlight of my trip. The rest of the time we were just walking around, eating, or just talking with family. :) It was such a fun trip!

her beautiful driveway

the buds

the bloom

a little mushroom. i like mushrooms lol

an old graveyard on her property. a little creepy, but i think it's cool. :P

our dog Maggie slept in my room, and one morning she couldn't stop looking at the cat

a bit of her property

my aunts horse Crystal

my cousins horse Bugsy

my aunts helpers horses, Nacho on the left, Shadowfax on the right

Some of the pictures aren't that great of quality, but at least you know what it's about. :P I'd love to hear if y'all have any favorite pics or anything... :)

AO