fall is definitely my favorite

Happy Sunday everyone! Maryland right now is experiencing what I consider basically the most perfect autumn, and I can't help but share.

piebald deer!!! see video below for more!!

Fall is my favorite season for riding. And yet the last couple years have been more than a little disappointing. Remember in 2015 I broke my leg, then in 2016 Charlie was fresh off the track and we really didn't have much rapport built up yet. And last fall, 2017, Charlie was recuperating from his own surgery.

love how there's still so much green!

This year hasn't been exactly ideal either -- Charlie's latest splint injury meant we scratched from our last event of the season. But. BUT! The horse seems hale, hearty, healthy and happy. The leg looks fine. And so, we ride.

pictured: my happy place

As previously mentioned, Charlie is technically back "under saddle" again.... But.... we're taking it pretty easy.

windy day = v alert charlie

Per force of not getting to the barn until near-dusk during the work week, we've only been riding in the dressage ring (or the indoor two nights ago bc of the rain). Mostly at the walk, with a few trot transitions thrown in for shits and giggles.

pops of vibrant color

All I've really wanted to do tho, being totally honest, is hit the trails.

blue skies reflected in the clear stream

Finally: this weekend we got our chance!

so much red in the treeline!

I was supposed to volunteer all day at the event I scratched from, but with the overnight rain storm their parking field became too much of a mud pit. And thus they had to cancel the whole thing.

sayin hi to those hell raising bebehs

It was a shame for entrants but... Eh, I wasn't too sad to get that unexpected free day!

snack attack! also these reins are the best - the perfect length for this brontosaurus! 

And what a day, too: Temps in the mid 60s, strong sunshine, and gusting wind haha.

more colorful bushes! not pictured: all the bluebirds flying around the hedgerow

The wind was definitely up Charlie's butt too haha. You could almost tell he is a thoroughbred who has been off work for two weeks. Which like, let's be real, that's saying something for this big quiet dude haha.

woods are still so green tho!

There was much scooting at first - and a few genuine heart-pounding spooks when a horse or person or ... something ... would appear unexpectedly in the corner of Charlie's vision. And he may or may not have been fairly convinced the wolves were definitely gonna get him.

vernal pools errywhere!

But he held it together pretty well, and was much happier once we got into the relative close quiet of the woods. And the longer we went, the more he relaxed and eased into his big ambling lumbering mosey. Letting him pause for the occasional snack also helped him settle <3

wide open fields!!

While I know Charlie tends to prefer company on the trail (esp if he can just kinda mindlessly fall in line behind another horse), it makes me so so so happy that he's such a rock solid pleasant mount out on the trails by himself too.

just try to tell me those trees aren't freakin glorious

Bc sometimes I really really really like being alone out there. Just me and the horse and the birds and the leaves and whatever. Not having to make small talk. Not having to think about anything. Just enjoying each step along the way.

the rainy season has meant there's still a TON of grass left!

Which, obvi, this time of year, meant reveling in the colorful spectacle that is autumn in Maryland. Everything is so vibrant right now. Sometimes if we have a lot of drought over the summer the leaves will just all go brown and fall off. Or if it's a violently rainy fall, the trees get stripped too early. This season tho has seemed jussssst right. The color is fantastic, even as the grass is still lush and the temperatures are still balmy.

i'll probably never get tired of this view

It was especially cool too bc I ended up somehow losing my trail at one point -- which is a little ridiculous considering I follow the same exact path almost every single time we're out there (what can I say, I'm a creature of habit!). So Charlie and I ended up kinda bushwhacking a little bit.

happy horse heading back out to his friends

I knew which direction we needed to go in, and could see the open field through the trees. We were just taking.... the road less traveled to get there haha. This meant a few extra stream crossings, plus stepping over a few logs.

Which reminded me of Charlie's first ever "real" trail ride at Sweet Air a couple winters ago, and how at first he was totally mind blown at the prospect of stepping over a log or pushing through any shrubberies or undergrowth.

This time, tho, he didn't care at all. Even tho he definitely knows his way around those woods probably better than I do, and definitely knew we were "off course." He just went with it anyway. And when I got totally sidetracked stalking the piebald deer that lives out there too? Yup, just totally went along for it.

such a perfect autumn <3

So ya know. Obvi I'm always eager and excited to do the technically challenging stuff like jumping or schooling dressage.... But right now? During this season?? The trails beckon. And I hope to spend as much time as possible out there!