Weekend Adventure up the Mountain

Part 1: The Meaning of "Seasonal Use"

So to celebrate Allie's birthday and the fact that she is house-sitting for her friend Krissy, we have joined her in Richford, NY. Unfortunately there were a couple factors that came into play as we made our way over there:

1. Instead of leaving the house around 3:00pm we wound up leaving the house at 3:51pm
2. A small yet magnificent snowstorm descended on upstate New York
3. The directions that Allie gave to us did not translate onto our cellphone map and instead routed us up Brigham Road instead of Barden Road.
4. There is a lack of cell-phone reception

So here we are hauling 4 horses in a 32' trailer with a ½ ton Dodge pick-up, thankfully 4x4, in the snow. We follow our "directions"  which take us up Brigham Road off of Route 79. We get about ½ a mile up the road when the hill starts to get steep and slick. We slowly grind to a halt and the truck and trailer begins sliding back down the hill. At this point we realize that we have no chance of ascending the mountain. Erika in sheer terror that the truck keeps moving by itself, backs the trailer back down to the base of the hill about ¼ mile off the highway and pulls it onto the shoulder as the sun sets and it starts to get dark.

Parking Spot for Trailer

This is the point that any reasonable person would pack up, turn around and head home, calling Allie on the way.

What does Erika do (Colin in tow)? Unloads the horses, tacks up Kasper and throws his blanket on Scotch. Colin tacks up Tally and helps unload Mack who is dancing all over the trailer. Right as we finished tacking up, packing up and getting our wits about us, the snow plow loudly and brightly emerges from below like alien spacecraft. The plow blazed by us leaving our horses' already fragile psyches in pieces and our own confidence shaken. 

We mount up (Erika on Kasper, ponying Mack; Colin on Tally, ponying Scotch; and Seneca running along in her blaze orange vest and ding-a-ling bell). As we start to ride up the hill the snowplow returns; turns out that this road becomes a seriously seasonal road and he had only plowed a ½ mile beyond us. With the return of the aliens, it was evident that Mack's mothership had landed and he was about to return to his own kind.

We continue on, passing the last house, still thinking that this is the path that Allie had taken mere hours earlier. The road narrows, the trees thicken and the snow deepens. We turn around, thinking that there is no hope and we are distinctly headed down the wrong path. The incredulous owner of that last house happened to be warming up his car. Overcoming his wonder of our sheer stupidity (two riders descending from the hill with four horses in the dark), he reassured us that we were on the right track and that Schoolhouse road was in fact at the top hill and he knew of the farm we were aiming at, but that nobody had come down that road in at least two weeks. 

The road up the hill (obviously taken during daylight)

Onward we rood up the tree and cliff lined seasonal road, slipping and sliding on the ice as we went (or at least Kasper and Mack did, Colin lucked out with the sure-footed horses).

Now before I go any further, let me say this: it was BEAUTIFUL. The snow was gorgeous in forest as we ascended. Our horses are amazing. Note that we have with us our three youngest riding horses and our foreign exchange student, Mack. The four them were so wonderful riding through the weather and the dark on the strange icy trail. If I ever sell any of them their asking price has instantly risen by $500!

About 30 minutes later we had ascended the mile and a half up the hill and saw what we hoped was the farm. With no barn in sight, and between the wind and the snow there was actually no driveway to be seen either, we realized we really had no idea where our destination might be. Luckily, we had regained cell reception, and were able to call Allie. Asking her to flash the lights in the house so we might know if we had indeed found her, we saw a flicker ahead of us and pulled into the driveway.

Horses are tucked in tie-stall style into two stalls, fed, watered, blankets replaced. We descended with the car and picked up the rest of our supplies and the trailer will spend the night at the base of the hill and we will again ride back down in the morning. 

All tucked in

Part 2: A Reasonable Return

After a nice breakfast at the Brooktondale Fire Department Pancake Breakfast, we returned to the farm take a nice trail ride before we had to head back to Painted Bar for evening lessons.  We tack up and head out, and as we turn the corner around the house we were blasted in the face with quite the blustery wind.

Overnight the wind significantly picked up. The snow fell horizontally. But Allie seemed excited that "this wasn't a windy day." The farm was most appropriately named Tailwind Farms because the wind was seriously strong enough to move a house. While the horses were obviously a little more "uppity" than usual because of the cold they all did very well and we completed our short little loop around the fields and returned back to the house to pack up the car to ship our stuff back to the trailer.

Car en route with one of Allie's friends, we saddle up again. Allie on Kasper, Erika on Mack, Colin on Tally and Allie's friend Missy on Scotch. The ride back down the hill was quite pretty but the trail continued to be quite slick with a sheet of ice under the 5 inches of snow. We had some slipping here and there, mostly by Mack who sat down only once, but we safely and calmly descended to our trailer and found our gear waiting for us.

Riding back down the hill

About 15 minutes later horses were on the trailer and Erika backed the trailer back down to Route 79. Allie, showing off Seneca's blaze orange vest, directed traffic on the highway as we backed the trailer into the road and homeward bound we went.