Magic and I rode trails on the Buffalo National River today. There were 14 horses and riders. We rode up-river from Pruitt. The plan was to ride out at 9am and that is when I got there. I need to get up at 4:30 to make it to Pruitt by 8:30. It is only a 45 minute drive but there’s lots to do. Luckily there were several people later that I was. Magic loads good when I use a rump rope. He gets a little nervous when we first get there and is bad to push me with his nose. He does not do it otherwise. (I need to pay attention and confirm that.) We rode up to Blue Hole just below the Erbie campground and ate lunch on a gravel bar. It is about a 12 to 15 mile round trip, about 5 hours riding time. On some sections we were able to take different routes on the way back. There was about a mile of gravel road and the rest was back country trails. Some sections were on abandoned old wagon roads and others were just paths. There are a lot of rocks and boulders and some places it is slick bedrock. Magic and Nancy’s horse Rambler jumped one boulder filled stream bed. We crossed the river 8 or 10 times. River crossings are sometimes belly deep. At river crossings there is usually a drop of 4 to 10 feet to get down to the river bed. It might be sand or mud and there are always rocks and roots to negotiate. Several of these drops are slides going down. Once Magic and I were sliding down the bank and there was a traffic jam at the bottom. We stopped just before running into the horse ahead of us. I think the horses enjoy trail rides. They get to see other horses. It’s fun.
We rode with Ted Spears, Nancy Deisch, Evelyn Mills, Wanda and Tommy Graham, Nadine Houghton and 3 friends, Don Penquite, Mr Howard, Sheri Ricketts and Andrew Hendirix.