Those of you who couldn’t join us for the weekend at Crescent City will want to come out with us next year on what I suggest should be our annual play date at Crescent City. Jody, Grace, Jan, Tara, Willie, Kathy and I had a lovely time at Crescent City this weekend. Perfect weather, perfect setting, perfect equine partners resulted in the best play date ever.
Tara was also the perfect guide, generously sharing her familiarity with the beach, redwoods and local restaurants with us while her horses shared their calm acceptance of sand, surf, ocean, giant redwoods, bridges and creek crossings with our equine partners. Funny that. We humans looked to Tara for “what’s next?” and our equine partners looked to Bud and Takoda for confirmation that it was all safe. Tara says she may become a trail guide in Maui and she has all the talent and skills to be a great one!
The Mill Creek ride in the redwoods was beautiful – the redwoods inspiring, the smell so fresh and oxygen rich, you could get drunk on it. The only warning I’d give is that Prince and MaryAnn would have preferred to have been booted on the way down some of the hills that were rocky.
Playing with our horses on the beach and riding them on the sand along the surf was for all of us, a dream come true. Our horses had never seen the ocean before and watching them work through their concerns, enter the water and then start to relax enough to think about moments of play with us was…… extraordinary. Bud and Takoda are light years ahead of our crew on feeling “been there and done that” and that was all to the good as they provided a calm equine example for our horses to follow. Friday we played on the ground wading into the water with our horses, while Saturday and Sunday we played on the ground and rode on the beach. It was Tara and Willie’s 11th anniversary on Saturday and the ride they took together along the waves could have been a closing shot for a romance movie. I’m still grinning from ear to ear.
Here is a short video of highlights from the glorious day!