When I went to catch Zelda on Thursday morning she actually ran away from me! She’s usually eager to come over for a pat, but she put on quite a show cantering and bucking around the ring. I couldn’t decide if she wasn’t tired enough or whether she didn’t want to get on the trailer again!

I boarded Zelda about 6 miles from the GMHA, over the mountain in Brownsville. Six miles doesn’t look like much on the map, but in person, those roads are steep! And not paved. I don’t mind driving them with just a car, but pulling a trailer is a bit more entertaining. Going up hill isn’t really the problem; it’s the long, twisty downhill bits that are challenging. Since I didn’t want to burn my brakes out on the way over, I discovered that four-wheel drive in a low gear keeps the momentum under control. I can’t imagine what they are like to drive in the winter. I wish I’d thought to take some pictures but I was gripping the wheel too hard.

We got there in one piece and Zelda was glad to see her friends. Fortune, the bay, used to be at our barn and although she moved out two years ago, you could tell the horses recognized each other when we rode on Wednesday. Zelda slotted right back in to her new “herd” and we went off for a shorter ride — after riding 11.6 miles on Wednesday, none of us were up for a really long ride on Thursday, especially the horses.

We headed off on a loop ride that took us through the event course, then across Rte 106 and onto a dirt road and into the woods on some trails. Everywhere you ride in Vermont there are tubes running through the woods for maple syrup, kind of like a cat’s cradle between the trees or giant spider’s webs.

Of course, there were great views and a few spectacular mountain meadows. Nothing too steep today which the horses (and my knees) appreciated.