Mario and I went horse camping for Thanksgiving! We had originally planned on leaving on Wednesday, but we had so many horses to do on Mon and Tues that we had no real time to get all the shopping and prep done in time, so I gave us Wed to prepare. Thank God, as we were running around from sun up to sun down to get it all done! I was assigned stuffing, rolls and cranberries for the big potluck, and I've never made stuffing before... I was worried I would have the big flop dish of the night, but it turned out ok. Maybe even tasty?? I made a cornbread version and a regular version, and then did rolls, croissants, cornbread muffins and biscuits. Yeah, that was a lot of cooking for a microwave type like myself. ;-) Mario made an extra batch of mashed potatos for himself so he didn't have to worry about eating everyone elses!
We loaded up all of our stuff, the 3 dogs, Jordan, and Jeff and Jill's mare, Maile (mile-ee) Thanksgiving morning and head up to Sage Hill campground, which is near Santa Ynez. It was clear driving all the way up, upper 70s and sunny, and we got there within about an hour and 15 minutes. Mario and Jeff set up our tent, which we borrowed from Mario's friend Daryl. We have our own tent, but Daryl's was bigger and we thought bigger = better when you are packing 3 extra dogs in the tent!
The dogs were SO excited to be there, and they could run free because we had the end unit and it's only rentable as a single unit - it even has a gate you can close off - but it's like a camping cul-de-sac with multiple corrals for horses, flushing toilets, water spiggots and trails right off of it. We tacked up for a wonderful ride in t-shirts. It was about a 2 hour ride, beauuutiful! (Mario rode Uncle Buck of course)
On that first ride, a lady named Susie was ponying (leading, while riding another horse) a young Arab x pinto - we went through some deep water and he got away from her somehow and came crashing through the weeds and reeds.
It was pretty exciting - and Jordan stepped on his boot and it was hanging around his ankle... It was a little crazy getting the horses settled again and everyone back on track (Jill was riding a 3 1/2 year old horse!). That was the only kerfluffle though, no one was hurt and the scenery and weather was just gorgeous.
On that first ride, a lady named Susie was ponying (leading, while riding another horse) a young Arab x pinto - we went through some deep water and he got away from her somehow and came crashing through the weeds and reeds.
It was pretty exciting - and Jordan stepped on his boot and it was hanging around his ankle... It was a little crazy getting the horses settled again and everyone back on track (Jill was riding a 3 1/2 year old horse!). That was the only kerfluffle though, no one was hurt and the scenery and weather was just gorgeous. 
When we came back everyone heated up or made their part of the Thanksgiving potluck and we settled down for a HUGE delicious feast at a giant long picnic table. There were around 15 of us. The guys got the fire roaring and we relaxed the rest of the night sitting around the fire drinking wine. It got COLD when the sun went down!! And the borrowed tent unfortunately was more of a 'summer' style with lots of vents and mesh, which doesn't translate to warm very well... We woke up with stiff necks, probably from the draftyness...A bunch of Advil, some hot coffee from Jill's camper, and more layers of clothes, and we were good to go for another day. This time we head out on a 3 hour ride on a trail called the Aliso Loop. It was definitely cooler than Thurs, but it felt like wonderful crisp fall weather, and there were gold, red and orange leaves - so pretty. The loop climbs up to a ridge with incredible views!
We saw some deer and a couple of hikers and bike riders, but overall felt like we had the entire place to ourselves. By the time we got back there were DARK scary clouds on the horizon and the wind was freezing and just blowing in big gusts. There had been NO rain in the forecast but it sure looked like all hell was going to break loose and we were wondering what are we going to do if it rains?! A group of us were walking around trying to get cell reception to check the weather, we made all kinds plan As,Bs and even Cs. But then Susie's boyfriend got doppler on his cell and it was just a big patch that looked like the worst of it had passed, so we decided to play things by ear with all the plans in place and just eat and drink and sit by the fire. (everyone else except us and Susie/her boyfriend had at least a camper, if not a huge incredible pop out sided house-on-wheels!) We had a lot of laughs - everyone was very nice and a couple of them were very entertaining (and there were a bunch of dogs!! our 3, some kind of herding dog mix puppy, a "toy aussie" who was the same size as a pomeranian!, 2 little mutt mix shaggy dogs, another herding mix (that I know, I used to trim the owner's horse) and a chow/coyote looking mix). The dogs provided a lot of entertainment as well. We got these little round glowing tags for the pugs and they were bright like flashlights - it was hysterical to see the lights bobbing and weaving around the campfire all night. Dylan did fantastic! He seemed totally at ease and happy, didn't get weird with any of the other dogs at all. One of the big camper people had a couple friends come with them for Thanksgiving only, and since they had left they offered us their queen size memory foam pad. Sweet!!! I dressed for the night better, and we had a MUCH more comfortable 2nd night. However we were all so tired and went to bed around 9pm, which meant I was awake at about 5:30am the next morning.I ended up getting up and taking the pugs for a walk, though, it was barely dawn and I was soooo glad I did. (Dylan and Mario stayed in the tent enjoying the memory foam) It was so peaceful, crisp but no wind, very quiet... we saw deer, birds and pink clouds... . There's a tv show called "Sunrise Earth" that Mario records, it's just footage of sunrise in different parts of the country or world, no commentary, no music - just nature sounds and changing skies, animals and birds that may pass by. I told Mario that the pugs and I experienced our own "Sunrise Earth" on Saturday morning. :) It was a highlight of our trip for me!
We all had breakfast and hung out by the fire - even though it was mostly sunny, that cold wind kicked back up and the fire was a popular spot! Matt, a guy that keeps his horse in a corral next to mine at Aliso, came up that morning and then a group of 10 of us headed out late morning. Very short into the ride after a water crossing, Mario announces that one of Bucky's boots had come off - so we all stop and he gets off to investigate, only to find that the cable on his (actually my!) Renegade had broken. Luckily I was WAY better prepared this trip than the Rancho Oso camping trip this past spring, and had a spare boot for Jordan in my new zipper packs (the packs were another addition to the trail preparedness that I was missing out on at Rancho Oso) and it happened to fit Buck perfectly. Phew! Catastrophe averted! (Buck was one of those "navicular" horses and not a rocky trail barefoot candidate yet!) So we set off again and 5 minutes later going across water, Jill (my client, riding the 3 year old Azteca mare) is behind us when I hear a little yelp and a big splash - and I turn around to see her landing 1/2 in a big patch of reeds as her horse scrambles in the rocks and water and then gets loose from her. Jill was standing waist high in cold water! Apparently Styx slipped on a big rock under water and they both went down... So Susie agrees to ride back with Jill and the rest of us continue on. I felt so bad for her, but luckily we were not too far into the ride because I can't imagine how uncomfortable that must have been! However now Jordan is suddenly about 4th in the line and he starts his desperate-t0-be-in-front dance, and at one point he even did a fairly large buck / fart combo in protest! That cleared the area around us anyway. LOL! Very shortly after that, though, we were back in 2nd place and then eventually did the last hour first, and he was great! Head down, relaxed, just wonderful... He's really gotten so much better already in the last 6 months while at Aliso. We saw all sorts of things today - bikes, motorcycles, hikers, deer, cows, dogs, etc and he handled them great. But, in the proper order of Murphy's Law, at a very innocent part of the trail, I hear this flopping noise and see that a screw had come out of the right front boot. I had to hold everyone up (including a handful of shod on all 4 with clips types!) while I hopped off and removed the boot. Since Mario had my spare on Bucky and I already had my 2 available pockets filled with broken boots, I just had him do the rest of the ride with one Glove boot and one naked hoof. A little lopsided, but he did fine, I think he would have been fine bare on both but honestly I was glad we did the other days booted! It was my fault, AGAIN - because I didn't check my !@#$* screws and of all people, I know better than that!
So I guess next time I go to that area, there won't be a single boot problem, right? I will have all the spares, the screws tight and checked, etc.!
Anyway despite the rough spots the ride was beautiful again - oh! we saw a bobcat! It was a big fluffy guy, truly a gorgeous cat, I was so glad I got to see it before it ran into the river bottom.
When we got back to camp we packed up all of our gear (no one else though, they all stayed one more day) and head home. We hit some traffic in Santa Barbara but not terrible, and had the horses unloaded at Aliso by about 4:30. Faith was alone at the ranch without Jordan, but she I had 3 people keeping an eye on her for me, and she looked relaxed when we pulled in - standing quietly when we arrived tonight, happy to see her roommate but not frantic... another success!
For a slideshow of all of the pictures from the trip, you can go here (I think, the link was being fussy??)
I hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with gratitude for all your blessings...
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