New Year’s Ride and Drive

Jan 02, 2012 2 Comments by Scott

I set my alarm to 0730 to wake up New Year’s Day. Sound crazy? Yep. But we had a great day planned and I wasn’t going to be late. I had to drive a ways to pick up my trailer, and then go pick up my mare. I stepped out of my door to -14C and fog. The forecast was for sunny and -4C. I had my hopes up, but the weather changes so rapidly around here, there really is no such thing as a forecast. It’s typically an after-cast!

My trailer – and my horse – were covered in frost. I put Belle’s tack in the back seat of my truck so it would all be warm when I went to saddle up. Nice guy, eh? I was heading to Vern Kemble’s farm. Several days ago I received this text from Connie: “We are having a New Year’s Day ride-and-drive pot luck party! Starts around noon and goes until…?” Well, that sounded like a great way to spend a day.

I was the first to arrive around 12:30. I brushed Belle off. As we were the first to arrive, I hopped on her bareback and went for a ride. Bareback is great on a cold day! It was still brisk out, but the weather reports as people arrived were encouraging – it was clearing from the west. During the next hour, several more truck/trailers showed up, with horses, wagons, riders, drivers, passengers, and dogs.

Vern and Connie have a covered wagon with a wood stove inside. That was – by far – the most popular ride. I even had to abandon my mount for a tour in that rig! Belle had some fun pulling riders around in the snow. The snow was perfect on a cold day, but there was a fair amount of exposed ground in the field, so to Belle’s displeasure, we made our top speed a slow lope. She wanted to gallop though! Ordinarily I wouldn’t wish for more snow, but it’s a requirement for ski-jouring!

After everyone had their share of touring around, we gathered in the caboose for our pot luck dinner and beverages. Obviously some people put much more effort into their cooking than I did; the food was amazing and there was lots of it. We sat around and enjoyed the company, swapping stories of riding in the bush, unplanned dismounts and wild horses. Bill Fraess and I are both on the mend from Horse-Related-Multiple-Fracture Incidents. I think I just invented a new acronym. HRMFI! Bill was making his way around on crutches but I have no doubt he’ll be back riding and driving in short order.

As for the driving, I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. Happy New Year to all!