Beach Riding: July 12

One of my "horse dreams" was to ride on the beach. While I was in Jacksonville, I drove up to Amelia Island to take a beach ride. I was a little disappointed that my first choice of people who lead beach rides was not available for the entire week, because that meant that I wouldn't be able to trot or canter on the beach as I had dreamed. I decided to go with my second choice (and only other choice since there were only 2 businesses that offer beach rides there). It was called Kelly Seahorse Ranch.

This is the walkway to enter the ranch. I loved that we had to follow the hoof prints! 

There were four of us in the riding group. My horse's name was Chip. We started off by taking a trail through part of Amelia Island State Park. It was so much different from the riding in Wyoming since there were palm trees and lots of plants. It felt like riding in a jungle compared to Wyoming! After about 15 minutes, we got to the beach. It was pretty early in the morning, so except for a couple fishermen, we were the only ones on the beach. It was so peaceful to listen to the sound of the waves and the sound of shells crunching under the horses' hooves. We had the Atlantic Ocean on one side, sand dunes with sea oats on the other side, and a clear sapphire-blue sky overhead. I wish I had more pictures to share, but we were not allowed to take cameras on the ride. The guide did take a photo of each of us, so I do have proof that I really rode on the beach!

My horse, Chip, gave me a great ride along the water's edge. 

Megan's Horse Camp: July 9-13

Yes, I continue to fall behind in my postings. I take so many photos that it takes forever to sort through them, choose the best, and edit them. Sorry for the delay! I am happy that I am ready to post about my trip to Jacksonville, Florida. My seven-year-old niece, Megan, attended horse camp at Hidden Fields. This was her second year to go to horse camp, and she was excited! I got to go on the first morning to drop her off and see Hidden Fields. My younger niece, Kathleen, who is only 3 /12, was very sad that she could not go to horse camp with Megan.  I must admit that I was pretty jealous, too!  

On Wednesday morning, I got to stay for a couple of hours so that I could see all the things Megan got to do with the horses in the morning. Each day, they went to four stations. Three of them were about horses (the other was a craft).

Megan's first station was riding. She got to ride a really pretty horse named Rain. Rain was a new horse that Debbie, the lady who owns Hidden Fields, had recently bought. Even though Rain was only five years old, she was a very calm and gentle horse.

Helmet on and anxious to ride!  

Riding Rain in the arena practicing "patterns" for the show on Friday. 

 Her second station was Barn Chores.

 Learning how to clean stalls--not one of Megan's favorite  tasks!

The third station was learning about horses.

The campers learned about parts of the horse.
They studied the diagram and then pointed
out the parts on a real horse.  

 They also learned about grooming. Megan is practicing using a curry comb.

Friday was the big show! All the campers' parents and family members arrived at 1:00. Each camper got to ride in the arena individually and perform the "pattern" they had been working on all week. There were several parts to the pattern:

The campers had to put rings on several poles. This helped them
practice balance and control of the horse. 

This is Megan guiding Rain through two poles. 

Megan had to make Rain walk over a series of poles. 

After making Rain stop in the square, Megan received her ribbon. 

Megan was very proud of her ribbon. 

Megan's mom, dad, and sister, Kathleen, were proud of her, too. 

After the show, Megan took some time to say goodbye to all the horses
she spent the week with at camp. 

I am so glad that I had the chance to see Megan's horse camp. I was really proud of her and how well she did at the show. I also love that Megan likes horses so much and it is a hobby we share. I hope it is something we will be able to enjoy together for a long time! 

Yellowstone National Park

In my last post, I mentioned one other side trip I took in Wyoming. Some friends invited me to join them for a day trip to Yellowstone. It was going to be a beautiful day and a great opportunity to visit a national park that I had not really gotten to explore before, so I decided to go with them. We packed up our cars, said our goodbyes at Bitterroot, and drove to Yellowstone. An added bonus was that we had to pass through Grand Teton National Park to get to Yellowstone, so I got to enjoy some of it, too. Here are some photos from our day trip:

Our first stop was this natural hot spring. There was steam coming off of it, and it smelled like rotten eggs. Yuck! It was so hot it was bubbling--like boiling water--so we couldn't touch it.

The next stop was Old Faithful, the famous geyser. We arrived at 12:30, which was just in time for the 1:09pm forecasted eruption. We joined the huge crowd of people, got a  good seat, watched, and waited... 

We watched steam like this for a long time. 

Then it teased us with more steam and a few spurts of water. 

Then more water started to appear...

...and it shot up high into the air! 

This was the highest the water got. 

After a few minutes, it started to decrease little by little until it got back to
the way it was in my first picture. 

After Old Faithful, we were off to explore the rest of the park. We saw some beautiful scenery. I love the mountains!

We also wanted to stop and see the paint pots. These were something I have wanted to see for several years after reading about them in a chapter book I read aloud to my fifth grade class. They were really cool! It was hard to believe that they are all natural. The colors were amazing. Some looked like cement, while others looked like some very strange chemistry experiments! I took many photos, but I'll only post a few here. 

Looking down on one of the paint pot viewing areas. 

Not really bacteria, but it sure looks like it!  

This is a video of one of the mud pots...

Here is some interesting information about the paint pots and how they form.

This is a video of a small geyser that was near some of the paint pots...

We didn't see much wildlife at Yellowstone, but on the way out of the park, we did have a VERY close encounter with an American bison! 

It was a really great day at Yellowstone. The park is HUGE, so we only saw a very small part of it. It was a day of lovely scenery, great memories, laughter, and fun times with new friends. We drove to Teton Village, which is close to Jackson Hole. We stayed there at a hotel and had a nice dinner outdoors on the patio. I was glad that I made the decision to take this side trip! 

Wyoming Side Trips

Everyone knows that the main goal of my summer project was to learn to ride and care for horses. The trips I planned have certainly helped me to do that, but they have also given me some other unexpected opportunities. During my travels, I have tried to have an "all in" attitude, meaning that I am not passing up any special opportunity that comes up.

During my stay at the Bitterroot Ranch, I had three special opportunities. The first was to go to the Dubois Tuesday Night Summer Square Dance. The square dance is held at the Rustic Pine in the Frontier Room. It's a rustic looking room with wood plank floors. It felt like we were really in the Old West! It was fun to watch the people get together for a night of fun square dancing. The room was packed with people of all ages, from newborns to people in their 80s! They were all having fun learning the square dances and dancing with each other. My friends and I joined in for one of the last dances. It was the Grand Square. Let's just say that our dancing wasn't too "grand!" We had great fun and lots of laughs, though, and nobody cared that it wasn't perfect.

On Wednesday, I went with some friends to see a couple of lakes and search for the Wind River petroglyphs. Petroglyphs are carvings on rock from long, long ago. This is what we found:

The petroglyphs are sort of mysterious. They were carved several thousand years ago. No one really knows what they mean. They were probably carved by the Sheep Eater Indians, who are related to the Shoshone tribe. If you want to learn more, click here:
http://www.duboismuseum.org/sheepeater.htm

While we were looking at the petroglyphs, I saw this rock that I thought was really cool because it had so many colors.

After we were done admiring the petroglyphs, we drove on to Brooks Lake. It was so nice to see green! The area around the lake had lots of green grass and trees, something the landscape around the ranch did not have. It was a beautiful place to visit.

Yes, it's true, not everyone goes to Wyoming to ride horses!
Fly fishing is a popular sport, too. 

The last event of the week was the Friday Night Rodeo. Many of the guests at our ranch went to the rodeo so we could see what it was like. It was actually a lot of fun. There were events for kids and for adults. Some of the things we saw were barrel racing, bucking broncos, calf roping, bull riding, and kids trying to ride sheep. If you want to read more about the rodeo events, you can go to http://www.duboisrodeo.org/events.htm

This kids were actually competing in the rodeo! They aren't much older than you.
Can you imagine competing in a rodeo?

 

I have some great memories of my side trips in Wyoming! Even though I hadn't planned to go to these places, I am so glad I did. In my next post, I'll tell you about an even bigger, unexpected side trip I got to take before I left Wyoming. I'll give you a clue: it was to a very famous national park.

Last Morning at Bitterroot Ranch: June 30

Some of my new friends from the clinic invited me to join them on Saturday for a trip to Yellowstone National Park and then spend the night in Teton Village before going to the airport on Sunday. Saturday was going to be a beautiful day, and I had never really gotten to see and photograph Yellowstone before. I decided to take the opportunity to join them. Who knows when I'd have the chance to go again.

I got up really early on Saturday so that I could see the wranglers bring in the horses from "the bench," the pasture where they go each night to eat and sleep. I also wanted to take some last photos of the ranch. I was out from about 6:15-7:30am. I was surprised at how different it is to be out that early compared to later in the day. It was so quiet. I heard the birds singing and the ground squirrels chattering and squeaking at each other. In noticed how the landscape looked different in the early morning light. It was a beautiful and peaceful morning. Here is the story:

I waited in one of my favorite places at the ranch: the front porch of the lodge. This is where we had our class, sat and chatted before dinner was ready, and relaxed after dinner...

In the early morning, the corral was empty and waiting for more than 100 horses to come fill it...

Around 6:30am, the wranglers rode ATVs up the hill to "the bench." They called for the horses, and the herd came trotting down the hill into the corral...

A horse named Paddywhack bee-lined to the salt lick... 

                      

  This horse grabbed "take-out" on the way down the hill...

Another horse had an itch to take care of... 

...while others greeted their friends... 

After the horses were all in (it only took about 15 minutes), I started walking to the pasture where the mares and foals are to say a final goodbye. 

I passed one of the ranch's cabins that are spread out across the property. All the guests have privacy... 

I saw this wildflower blooming. It was the only one, and I hadn't seen one like it all week. It was amazing how we would see different wildflowers come into bloom each day...

I wanted to take a picture of the cactus that had pretty yellow blooms. Unfortunately, I learned that the flowers close up at night, so this was the only photo I could get... 

I got to the pasture... 

I climbed under the fence and started walking across the pasture to get to the foals. A large moving blur startled me. I looked up to see this jackrabbit bounding across the pasture... 

I found one of the foals sleeping peacefully... 

...until the sound of the camera woke him up and his mom took him away from me. 

So, I went on to find another foal resting.. 

...and another one grazing with its mother. 

I think this foal was wondering why I was interrupting his breakfast! 

I stopped taking pictures so that I could pet the foals one last time. Some were shy, but one, especially, was very friendly and loved people. He was so sweet! His mane felt really fuzzy, and the hair felt like velvet under his chin. 

I said my goodbyes to the mares and foals and hiked back to the main lodge for breakfast. Right after breakfast, we loaded up our cars and headed to Yellowstone National Park.  I will post about that trip next time!