July, 2009. We went to Blowing Rock with the Middle TN Carriage Club and our local group, FUNDRS. We took three Percherons, two dogs and five people (plus a whole bunch of camping and horse related stuff). There were 25 people, 17 horses and 15 dogs in all.
The first night we were there, Donnie laid out a cones course in the gravel parking lot and the brave-hearted or still sober crowd went out for some runs. Competition was friendly and the horses seemed glad to get out and socialize. Note the chariot style adopted by Robert -tha
t is one BIG horse to look over when running a cones course. I took a lot of photos and put most of them up on photobucket. You can see them all here (note these are "raw" photos -the good, the bad and the ugly):http://s818.photobucket.com/albums/zz108/Cieloazure/Blowing%20Rock/
and (the family photos)
http://s818.photobucket.com/albums/zz108/Cieloazure/?start=all
The next day: Sherry, Karen, Robert and I went for a long drive in Cone Memorial National Park. We took Soleil, a four year old Percheron mare who did really well. It was good to catch up with both Sherry and Karen, two of my favorite people! I didn't take any photos of that trip but we all came back happy and really pleased with the way the horses behaved. Sherry's new little Morgan is a doll and just perfect for her.
Soon, our son Zach and his girlfriend Megan showed up from Maryland. Robert, Zach, Megan, Spencer and I went for a long ride and drive with the two horses in carts and Robert riding Joanna. We had a blast. It was a long, leisurely drive/ride through the park. Very civilized. Spencer did a great job driving Genie, despite his mother's "backseat driving" from the other cart.
We also played with the two dogs, Cloe and Aura. As sisters, they like to play all the time, as only Aussies can do. Aura and Cloe went around and around together, playing with their toy. When Cloe left, Aura got downright grumpy. She looked for her everywhere and then sulked as I have never seen her do before.
Zach, Megan and Robert went for a long trail ride that night. I heard words like "magical" used as well as "sore all over" to describe the trip. It is hard to decribe just how wonderful the rhodademdrums were when riding and driving. There were so many of them, in so many shades of pinks. Megan looked very tiny and very cute way up there on Genie.
That next morning, Spencer, Robert and I went for a ride and drive. Spencer filmed the trip and I put edited it and got it up on the web:
Final thoughts: Cone Memorial Park is exceptional for driving and riding. I hope that more people from the FUNDRS group can come next year! But remember to put on DEET or keep yourself covered, I have a zillion chigger bites on my feet!
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