Just got home from camping with Alycia Burton at The Oaks in Lake City, FL. It was fantastic. Alycia Burton is so personable. She spent time talking with each group before we rode out, and during the ride, she rode with each group and talked to them about things they cared about. The Oaks is a posh place created by David and Karen O'Connor. They wanted to create a top-of-the-line stable where people could own land, keep horses on their own places, or board in their super elegant barn. I reserved two stalls in the fancy schmantzy barn so we could camp out there.
When the ride started, Alycia came out riding Gold Rush with no saddle and no bridle. After a bit, she put reins on his halter. Quite impressive. The terrain for the ride was pretty ordinary--groomed trails, rather like riding on a golf course, but it was so exciting to be riding with someone so famous and skilled.
Alycia ended the ride at a huge field where she invited the folks who wanted to trot or canter to go for it. I was riding Aci, who is normally quite calm, but he was super excited on the ride, and when I tried to canter him, he got crazy and bouncy, threatening to rear, so I didn't get to canter all that much. Then Alycia stayed around talking to everyone who wanted to. It was great.
Then we were treated to pizza, while the riders brought side dishes, so we ate together, and again, Alycia made sure to sit and chat with each group while we ate. And after the meal, she lingered for an hour, just talking about life--taxes, New Zealand, America, horses, goals and dreams. It was like a dream come true.
My horses did not care at all for their fancy stalls. They do not think the high life is for them. Each stall floor is made of mats with thick fresh shavings and automatic waterers. The empty stalls were so clean, you could eat off them. My horses said I was putting them in jail, and they let me know they were not happy.
After a bit of a break, my friend and I took our horses out for a trail ride on our own. Our first stop was the cross country course where we jumped all the low jumps. I was so pleased that Aci jumped so readily. At first he was reluctant to jump things out in the middle of a field. All he's ever jumped was logs across the trail. But he soon got into it and was really jumping nicely. My friend wanted to take Chorro into the pond, and I wasn't too keen on that, as Aci requires me leading him through water the first couple of times. It was jacket weather for riding--quite nice, but not nice to get my boots all wet. But, to my surprise, Aci went right into the pond. Both horses were thirsty and drank happily. I could tell they did not think much of automatic waterers.
In the evening, Alycia hung out with us for a bit. I was so pleased that she was so personable, down to earth, and made such an effort to make everyone welcome. The weather turned much colder than predicted. Because it was a fancy schmantzy barn, there was no place for a campfire. My friend and I were hanging out in the observation room trying to stay warm when a barn hand found us and said Aci was going crazy. I was quite surprised as I have taken Aci camping quite a few times, and a couple of times, camping solo, and he always was fine. But the champagne life did not suit my Acicate. He was rearing and slamming his front feet down on the stall wall.
The only thing I could think of to try was to move him into the stall next to Chorro. Now, Aci and Chorro hate each other. I was even worried about trailering them together (they trailered fine, whew). But it was either try that or take them home, because I wasn't about to let Aci get injured. The barn hand said he would put fresh shavings in the empty stall next to Chorro, but I felt bad about having him do that. I know that shavings are $5 a bale, and there were at least 3 bales of shavings in Aci's stall. So I offered to shovel the shavings into the empty stall. Now I wasn't cold AND I had something to do.
When we moved Aci into the stall next to Chorro, he settled down. I checked on him every 20 minutes, and he was fine. Later, I learned the barn manager was also checking on him, even in the middle of the night, as I was. They don't stint on anything at The Oaks.
During the night, when I got up several times to check on Aci, I looked at my thermometer in the trailer, and it was 33 degrees F. Not my favorite camping weather, but I had plenty of warm things, so I made the best of it.
The next day we packed a picnic and rode a long way. We explored all the trails we hadn't done the day before, and did the cross country jumps again. Years ago, when I was young, I would have jumped everything out there, but I don't school over fences any more, and don't care for jumping big stuff. My Pasos aren't ready for 3' 6" and neither am I, not any more. But it was super fun to sail over the little stuff. One of the cool jumps was a canoe on the bank of the pond. The rider would have to either jump the canoe into the pond or jump out of the pond over the canoe. There were a lot of challenging jumps on the course that I would have loved to try 30 years ago.
Alycia again spent some time chatting with us about life, New Zealand, and stuff. It was a camping trip I'll always remember.
The first picture is me posing with Alycia Burton. The second picture is when Alycia started the trail ride with no bridle or saddle. Alycia is in the red jacket in the trail pictures. The last picture is me jumping Acicate over an easy log jump.