It ended up being a great weekend. Yea! To bad that about half of the riders who were going with us originally, backed out because of the weather forecast. They really missed some good riding! We camped at Slabtown Horse Camp and rode in the Paddy Creek Wilderness in Missouri.
Fri morining, we made it down the road about 1 hour, and then Dave and Pris had a tire blow out.
Because Dave is a little handicapped right now, David had to change the tire for him. Dave had a motorcycle wreck about a month ago and broke his ankle. He was determined to get back in the saddle, broken ankle and all. Dave actually got his plaster cast off on Thu and now has a walking boot on. He is only supposed to put about 50% of his weight on it, so he used a crutch around camp, and took a cane out on the trail to use when he got off of his horse.
It took us about 2 1/2 hours of driving time to reach Slabtown. When we pulled into camp, Dave and Pris had another blow out. It was on the spare that they had just put on. It had never been on the road before, so guess it was just dry rotted. Good grief!
We had ridden in this area before, but this was our first time to stay at the Slabtown Horse Camp. It is a small, very nice camp.
We got camp set up and then were able to get in a 2 hour ride Fri afternoon. The camp owner, Greg, told us he thought the rain would hold out for at least that long. Actually, we could have ridden another 2 or 3 hours.
Me and Dave. These two horses are full sisters. Dave's walking boot won't fit in the stirrup. When his leg got tired of hanging, he tied some baler twine around his ankle brace and hung the other end of the twine on the saddle horn. Hillbilly riding for sure, but it worked.
When we got back from our ride, the guys had time to go to a tire shop about 7 or 8 miles down the road and buy a couple of new tires.
We put some steaks on the grill that night and we had our plates filled and were ready to eat when the rain started. The wind was really blowing hard on Fri, so we didn't put our awnings out. We moved into the back of our trailer and spent the next couple of hours in there. After we ate, we played cards for awhile. Kind of close quarters, but we were dry.
Sat turned out to be a great day. We got sprinkled on for about 10 minutes, but the rest of the day was dry. We even saw the sun for a few minutes.
Pris usually rides Chance, but she let Dave ride her this weekend, and she rode Dee Girl. Dee is my horse Dash's mom. Me and Priscilla.
We rode for about 5 1/2 hours on Sat. That night, Greg, fried fish for everyone at camp. We all brought a side dish. We weren't sure we would make it through dinner again before more rain moved in, but it didn't actually rain until about 11 or so that night.
Sun morning the sun was shining for awhile. Hungry horses looking for someone to come and feed them instead of taking pictures.
Sunday, we rode to the Balenced Rock area. We had to hike down a steep trail to get to the rock, so Dave wasn't able to go with us.
Area above Balenced Rock was kind of pretty.
Dave and Pris
David and I
We didn't put in a whole lot of miles this weekend, but were still able to get in three good rides.