Ohio VayCay, The Horses!

Hi, family and friends!  Wanna see some more animals??

How 'bout some...

CATS!!!!!

 We did a very cool trail ride at Blue Moon Acres in Hocking Hills (home to Anchor Hocking).  They had about a million cats.

This is Crash (Test Dummy):

He was the sort of cat that's more like a dog...kinda clumsy, extremely affectionate, hilarious.  He would turn on the charm whenever the camera came up, and he severely overestimates his own grace and sense of balance, nearly bringing down a whole pile of saddles he wanted to sleep on.

And, of course, there were also some horses.  This is Rambo.

 Guess what Rambo wanted (besides a carrot or some sugar)?

Yep.  He wanted to eat Dave's hat.  Doesn't everyone?
 
I thought this might be the prettiest horse I'd ever seen.  I think she looks like Storm...of the X-Horses.

What made this trail ride so cool was that it was really more like an hour and a half informal horseback riding lesson. 

 Our guide taught us the basics of communicating with the horse underneath us through use of the reigns and vocal commands.  We got to canter and everything!

 I did try to take some photos of the trail, but they didn't turn out too good...

 My horse, Black Jack, was an abuse victim.  He was terrified of me when we started...see in the above photo how his ear is turned toward the strange camera noises?  That's fairly normal...but he wouldn't hardly let me touch him before we got started.

Dave's horse was inaptly named Hot Shot.  He was alert and attentive to every signal that might possibly mean "we're stopping for a second, help yourself to some moss and ferns!"  And when those didn't come often enough, he'd "create a moment."

 We got to really work with the horses on the trail.  This was a public trail and not impeccably maintained...ie, we got to hop logs and streams (well, "hop" might be an exaggeration, but still).

 And our horses were definitely not over-trained to the trail...if they saw a shortcut that looked nicer, they'd try to mosey off that way.

Like big dogs, our guide told us.

By the end, Black Jack had warmed up to me pretty well.

He even let me pat his neck after the ride was over without looking like he was going to bolt.  Through the wall, if necessary.

 Such an awesome experience.  We agreed, we're going back to this place, if we can.

Thanks for stopping by, y'all!