Day two - get up for breakfast at 8. I went down to the corral at 8:45, where Chestnut was patiently waiting for me, all saddled up and ready to go. Another ride, and more beautiful scenery. At one point, I am behind T.J., and we all start to gallop. Jumping sage and dodging trees, all of a sudden T.J.'s, horse spooks HARD to the left… Well, of course my pony followed! I stayed on, and then noticed why they spooked. Not 20 feet to my right was a 2000lb male buffalo! T.J. turned around and said GO!!! So we sped away from the bull, hoping to God that he wasn't giving chase! I had no idea just how aggressive these animals are! Adrenaline pumping, we continued to run for a while until we were sure he was far behind! This stuff NEVER happens in Atlanta!!!

Wednesday night was the famed "Cookout Ride." It was a ride to the top of Spencer's Mountain. Our dinner would be there waiting for us. Well, the skies were threatening, but we all decided to go anyway… Well, who was the dumbass who didn't have a raincoat? That would be ME! We mount up and start out. We get about 45 minutes out, and then the skies open up… It was the hardest rain I have ever been in. It's the kind that when you are driving, you have to pull over! It started out raining, then hailed, and then SNOWED! Um, yeah… Chestnut and I both with no raincoat. Not that it mattered after 15 minutes! Everyone was soaked! Obviously the cookout was going to be cancelled, so we turned for home.

At one point, TJ asked if we wanted to go home the way we came, or do some "off-roading" to get home quicker. So off road we went! I found myself, straddling this soaking wet saddle, a pool of water in my saddle, and my boots overflowing. We were sliding down muddy mountains trying to avoid trees, rocks and each other!  The rain never let up.   Chestnut was literally sitting down sliding down muddy mountains. What a COOL horse!!! I think my horse would have just laid down and given up… Thank God for the tough ranch horses at Triangle X!

More to come!