they give us the greens of summer

Kate, over at A Year With Horses, shared a virtual trail ride the other day. Click here for that wonderful post. I really enjoyed seeing where she rides her sweet Maisie! I had such an amazing ride on Sunday morning so I decided to try to recreate where I rode in this "virtual style". I hope your computers don't blow up with all my photographs. I had 45, but cut it down to 20! The cute ears and eye above belong to one silly Sovereign boy. He was not on the ride on Sunday. I rode Pie instead. I try to alternate horses each day to give them a mental and physical rest. I used Sovey to recreate some of the photos for my virtual ride and the rest my Maizie and I took flying around in the golf cart! So here we go...above Sovey's ears, past our pasture, you can see the church green and road that we have to walk by to get to our woods.

Above, we are just entering the woods.

This is the view to the right after you enter the first woods.

Back into the deeper, second wooded section.

And this is a "pop-out" point from trail to field. Pie did indeed "pop-out" on Sunday morning because he was hunting for apples on the barstool. This is one way to get there!

Above is an empty barstool after the apples have been gobbled!

This is the view if you look to your right while your horse is munching apples. You can just see the trees surrounding our barn.

I edited out about 1/2 mile so this is the view when you pop out onto the neighboring farm.

You can see how close the Pennsylvania Turnpike is located to this part of the ride. Ugh!

At the top of the hill there are little discarded bathroom tiles on the trail. Apparently, someone dumped their tiles out here. I laugh every time I see these. Colleen takes wonderful photographs of mushrooms hidden in the dirt over at her fabulous blog, Bay State Brumby, and I see these crazy tiles on our ride!

This is the cross back point onto our farm. Mind the groundhog hole - stay to the left!

My uncle's barn is on the left of the trail here. It is deserted.

This is a view heading back to the church and my parents' house. Normally, we would turn left at the end of the pasture fence and go back to the barn, but ol' Pie-Pie had other ideas on Sunday, and he turned right and walked over my parents' driveway like he was headed to town.

This is the view on the other side of my parents' house. This is the last small field before our property ends. We have 40 acres, but only about 2 miles in trails in the woods and the rest is a big hay field. Brian says our farm is kind of like Central Park. (Obviously, our farm isn't as big as Central Park and our town isn't as huge as New York.) But it is true - we are plopped down right in the middle of subdivisions and a town. Therefore, when we run out of trails, we end up on sleepy, subdivision roads that lead to a nearby cemetery.

Here is a quiet little printing press business that is located directly beside our property. Pie tiptoed across their grass and parking area to get to...

...this lovely large apple tree. The apples are still green, but he knows it won't be long.

Past the apple tree is this nice cinder trail. It is for walkers and bikers - no cars! Hopefully, chubby horses are welcome! At the end of this trail there are homes and another trail that leads to a local cemetery. That trail has a "gate keeper" named Cletus. Here he is, below, in all his sweetness!

Cletus is from the beaches of Puerto Rico and has very kind owners who allowed Pie to cross through their yard to the cemetery trail. They also served Pie a Sunday morning brunch of apples and carrots!! How lucky are we!?! Of course, Pie left them a present too (which I went back to clean up later!).

Here is the opening from Cletus' yard to the woods.

Into the woods we went...and Pie started snorting and shying. He saw the reflection of the sunlight on all the gravestones and he was having none of that. I started singing to him and stroking his neck and he calmly walked out into the open. Singing always works, but only if no one is around because I can't sing very well.

I was so very proud of Pie and his Sunday morning adventure. He wanted to keep going through the cemetery to town, but I thought we had done enough for one day. Thanks for joining us! I hope you aren't asleep by now. I laugh when I think of my scenery compared with all of my blogging friends. You all have trails proper, and pine trees, and bears, and Paint Girl and Pony Girl have "mutant monkeys"! I have some trails which I adore and am so grateful for, but mostly I see houses and streets! Oh well, Pie and Sovereign aren't complaining because on those streets live people who hand out apples and carrots to cute, chubby, horsey boys!