Fall Trail Exploring

Having Quest closer to home has definitely been a welcome change. For the first time in years, I don't feel guilty when taking my time at the barn. Being able to spend a few extra minutes grooming and scratching mareface in her favorite itchy spots before tacking up for our rides has been so nice. Those little moments are definitely things that I missed about spending time with my horse. 

With each ride, we have been exploring more of our new home and mapped out a lot of trails made by the state this year. They have afforded us lovely fall views and some visual diversity. 

Someone randomly decided to plant some corn...

Fortunately the trails have also been entirely devoid of hunters, despite being entirely within the WMA. T had mentioned that though hunting is allowed in the area , the animals have moved a miles away where ample resources were better found and I'd have to agree- so far, we have run into just small songbirds and one dead deer carcass which probably died from old age. 

Always wearing our safety orange tack and vest.

We also did some road riding on our third adventure to check out a powerline trail that T told me about. While we did reach our goal, the terrain was thick with brush and rocky - I couldn't risk injury to either of us so I took a few photos to memorialize our powerline adventure and turned home for better footing. 

Also riding on the road was a little gnarly when the occasional driver chose to be dumb and reckless. Thankfully Quest was an absolute saint and we stayed safe the whole time. She's just so good <3