we'll be there with bells on!

Hello, my name is Emma. And I ride a capable, if slightly careless, thoroughbred named Charlie. My friends also ride very capable thoroughbreds. And together, we occasionally make somewhat ambitious plans.

behold: christmas spirit incarnate!
also, this pic is from post-ride, note how loose the hackamore noseband got through the ride.... womp

Such as how we've been planning for weeks to go cross country schooling this past weekend. Either at some sort of typical venue -- or somewhere in Western Maryland that has all-weather cross country arenas.

friends with ribbons tooo!

Alas, holiday scheduling got in the way of that, so we had to make due with a humble trail ride.

Birdie was highly skeptical of the bells lol

But. Ya know. "Humble" is a relative term.

three amigos!!! and damn but charlie looks giant.... he and Birdie are supposedly the same height but.... yea he's massive

And I woke up that morning feeling like.... Ya know. Sometimes, when all else fails, why not manufacture some real holiday cheer??

"hello, yes, Bella - i luv you" -- Charlie

So I stopped by the neighborhood pharmacy and picked up some bells and ribbons. And told Brita and Rachael to "Brace Yo'Selves" bc Christmas was about to go down lol.

jingle jingle jingle!

Luckily all parties were on board and happily pulled out some last minute color coordination. Subtle, ya know?

bc bells, obvi

And of course the horses were happy for the diversion no matter what. Naturally none of them have done much in the way of "outings" recently, and trail rides aren't exactly new for any of them.... but the bells and snow definitely added a certain je ne sais quoi to the whole thing.

horses were happy setting off in the snow

So off we went! Three Two saucy sassy thoroughbreds and Charlie!

and omg, that Riley puppy, wow, she was HAPPY

And, obviously, one Riley dog. Bc damn that dog is like an essential ingredient in all of our trail riding.

just look at that dog tho lol

No joke - if you've never hacked out with an energetic exuberant golden puppy, you're seriously missing out. And nothing - and I mean nothing - breaks a horse to dogs better than a golden (or huskies, for that matter {nothing beats a good sonka dog <3}). Highly recommend!

oooooooh but crossing the ice-covered stream was EXCITING too!! you'll have to watch the video for the full effect haha

Rachael's mare Birdie was seriously lit up (she hauled in for the day and had never seen any of these trails) and was happiest leading the way for most of the ride -- except for the above stream crossing.

What a funny moment! Poor brave Bella drew the short straw for blazing this particular trail, and set one hoof on the ice then LEAPT across when the ice broke. Charlie was second bc he's also seen this crossing multiple times, and Bella in all her leaping hadn't sufficiently broken up the ice.

some areas tho were fully cleared of snow

Luckily Charlie did not murder me, and actually stepped through nicely enough to chop it all up. And Birdie more or less happily followed the other two horses. Made me wish I had my helmet camera on tho, bc I certainly wasn't brave enough to hold my phone up to record it!

the woods were more mixed

The horses also had another tricky section of trail to contend with later on: a fairly broad natural ditch, more like a gully. Birdie led the way there and stepped through like a civilized being. Tho Bella and Charlie both had to jump it. Sliiiightly nerve wracking but damn these are good horses!

charlie's bow <3

For the most part, we just wended and wound our way through the woods - trying to make it last. The ringing of our bells was maybe the sweetest most cheerful sound I've heard in a long time, and it made me so happy to try to capture moments of that - including when we trotted/cantered across a field border.

video of all bell-related shenanigans here

For that reason alone, I hope you watch the video. If for nothing other than to hear the bells!

lol tail queens (and king)!

Obviously it would have been nice to actually go cross country schooling too... But. Ya know. This was a pretty solid alternative.

gotta love it, right?

And anyway I think Charlie was a little tired and sore from his lesson on gymnastics the day before (post coming soon!), so a low key trail ride was the perfect antidote for him.

the horses in the next field over were highly suspicious of our bells lol

We finished the ride with two wonderful sections of moving the horses out - once along a soy bean field where we mostly just trotted (in the video). But also again once we got into the cross country fields, we just let 'em go!

thanks Brita & Bella for handling all the gates!

Charlie, ever the gentleman, just ambled along in a polite canter. Spooked a little bit at the dog running up on the same side as those blasted bells banging into his shoulder.... lol.... But mostly just cantered right on along!

heading back to the barn quite satisfied, still jingling obvi lol

Which is good for me, bc this DIY hackamore noseband turns out to not be quite sufficient for the pressure I exert on it with Charlie, compared to Izzy. It's a suspender clip from the local crafts store - and after every 2-3 rides I'm finding it reeeeeally loosened up. It might be time to put a buckle on that after all.

and it was all repurposed as stall decorations!

That's for a later date tho. For now? I'm just enjoying having spent a wonderful, cheerful, and musical morning with buddies dashing through the snow around our farm :)

Do you ever like to take holiday spins with your horses? Or dress them up? Have you ever used bells like this? Did you love it just as much? Or was your horse like Birdie - no bells allowed?