111 LaLa Lane: streams

Cliff and Gambler

Cliff and his friend, Preston, host a winter horse ride every year. They call it the Gator Ride because they ride in gator country. Although, I'm not sure they have ever seen one this time of year.

Cliff and Preston like to go out a couple weeks early to check out the conditions in the Francis Marion National Forest and that's what we were doing Sunday. They like to make the ride challenging for the veteran riders that come. The thicker the forest, the snarlier the brambles, the muddier the roads, the deeper the water....the better. And, if they see a gator.....icing on the cake!

I'm not one of those die-hard riders. I would rather stay mostly in the clearings behind the camera. Preston would stay with me, for my safety, while Cliff was exploring. Sissy and I did walk through some water up to her knees, though. She trusts me because she knows I don't want to go any where that she doesn't want to go. Ha! At least that's what I thought until she had a little freak, later.

The ride was pretty uneventful, except for the time Cliff and Hunter (Preston's friend) rode through the brambles and Preston and I rode around the outside perimeter. Sissy couldn't stand that her boyfriend, Gambler, left her. She was biting at the bits to get to him and would twirl me around in some vicious circles. But Cliff wasn't gone long and she calmed down, when she saw him and Gambler coming back. And then there was the time that Gambler saw some rusty fence wire lying off to the side of the path and did a quick side-step because who knows what he thought that was. Oh wait, and there was the 'when Sissy freaked' thing. You'll see the pictures below of the water we had been walking in all day. The water...dark and knee deep. You would think this was the creepiest of creeps, but no....we came up to a tiny stream. I'm talking about 8 inches wide, if that. The water running through it was but a trickle and couldn't have been more than a half inch deep. Yet, Sissy freaked and felt like she had to jump the 8 inch wide, half an inch deep stream or drown. Now, I wish I had a picture or video of that. Good thing I was holding on! I told Whitney about it and she said, "Yeah. she just can't wrap her head around that." Ha!

Well, there's lots of pictures to look at, so I'm going to leave you to it.....

The Francis Marion National Forest

Saddling up.

(Whitney, don't look at the dreadlocks)

Cliff and Hunter clearing the brambles. Sissy was so excited!

Cliff and Gambler trudging through knee-deep water.

Cliff on Gambler and Hunter on Waylan. Do you see the swampy area in the background?

Gator country.

Preston on Dolly and Cliff on Gambler.

After the ride, we took the horses back to the barn. Our horses are boarding at Preston's farm, temporarily. They have guineas at the farm. Aren't they interesting?