Thursday, September 8 2011

Nice weather. I just got back from a road trip to a family wedding in Jacksonville FL. I rode Magic this morning. It has been some time since we rode much due to the hot weather. The cows are back. They were not invited but they came anyway. The owner wanted them to go down the road past my place but they remembered the road to my place and just swarmed up it and he could not get them to leave. They really like the grass up here. So we did not ride in the arena. We went up towards Pinnacle Mountain. The deer hunters planted some oats in the springfield and I wanted to see it. We went up the lower road a little ways past the spring and came back on the upper road. The deer hunters have corn feeders to attract the deer. (That was once called baiting and considered very unsportsmanlike. The hunters buy lots of corn and the merchants like that. They are going to kill them anyway so I see the feeding as an advantage to the does and little bucks that don’t get killed.) The hunters also have motion activated cameras that get a picture when something comes to the feeder. This year they have lots of pictures of a bear that steals the corn. (The hunters really don’t mind. They want to kill the bear too.) So Magic and I kept a keen eye for a little black bear. Magic is so calm about wildlife that I am curious about what he will do if we do see a bear. We did jump a deer. A faun hidden in a down cedar jumped up about 75 feet ahead of us in a field. Magic’s only reaction was to perk up his ears. He never even broke his stride. I enjoyed the ride. Magic is a very nice horse. He has a nice fast, eager walk. We are ready to go ride the Buffalo River trails. I will arrange a small group and a short ride for his first trip.