St. Jude Trail Ride

This past Saturday was the annual St. Jude Trail Ride sponsored by the local 4H Horse Club.  In the past, it has been in the late summer or early fall, but this year they thought they would try something different.  Friday night there was a ham & bean dinner at the Martinsville Arts Hall with live entertainment by the Willow Creek Praise Band and the Clark County 4H Jazz Band.  We had a decent turn-out, about the right amount of ham & beans, beautiful weather and absolutely awesome music!   I must say I am partial to the Willow Creek Praise Band because I can call them my own:)  They just get better and better.  The Jazz Band, I had never heard before, sounded wonderful.  They are a very talented group of all ages, and I was impressed.

Some of us camped out behind (or in) the beef/dairy barns on Friday night.  Early Saturday morning we were up and at it getting our horses ready to go.  I ended up riding my "other daughter" Grace's horse, Roxie.  She is stout and sturdy and we got along just fine, although I must say she was a little rough on me.  My back still hurts.  Yikes.  Jay and Lane followed along on the golf cart.  After three hours, I decided Jay's ankle needed a break, and I conned him into swapping places with me.  I pushed the gas pedal the last hour and fifteen minutes.  I hated for him to miss out...

There were two horse wagons with riders, a leading truck and trailer and a tailing truck and trailer and our golf cart.  Everyone else was on a horse.  I think we had about 50 people in total, maybe 35 horse back riders.  It was a beautiful day and there were no major incidents.



Me & Roxie

 Trivia question:  How long does it take to ride a horse to Moonshine from the fairgrounds going down the backroads?  Answer:  A long time = 4.15 hours.  That's right, it was a looong ten-miles!  Thankfully, we had called ahead our order and didn't have to wait long for our burgers.  I'm sure the motorcycle riders were thrilled when we barged in on our horses and got our sandwiches first!! 

As I said, Roxie and I got along just fine.  She didn't want to stray too far away from her BFF, Okie (who is right next to us in this picture) but it didn't really become a major problem.



I am not the one going the wrong direction.

 As usual, I'm focused and trying to do what I can to remain calm and collected.  As usual, my girls are doing whatever they want to on their horses and their horses don't seem to care.  I'm not sure how that works really because I have tried riding Madolyn's horse, Woody, and he and I do not gel at all.  As you can see in this picture...the girls are riding backwards...and the horses don't give a rip.  Unbelievable to me.  I can barely get Woody to walk in a straight line.  It is so frustrating.

So anyway, we ate our yummy Moonshine burgers and decided that we were all pooped.  Thankfully, we had a large trailer there and a truck.  We loaded up the horses and headed north.  I think overall the Horse Club raised over a thousand dollars for St. Jude.  It was a beautiful weekend and we had a good time.  I can chalk up another successful ride too.