I flew out early on a snowy Friday morning. While the east coast was getting pounded with yet another snowstorm, the snow accumulation in Pittsburgh wasn't as bad. When I booked my tickets I was fortunate to be able to get a direct flight into Orlando. I think if I had had to connect anywhere on the east coast that day I wouldn't have made it. My flight got into Orlando just a little late (we had to de-ice, no complaints from me) but I was still there by 11:45. I connected with AT (Awesome Trainer), we headed to her place, ate lunch, loaded up the horses and headed out to ride at a local park. I was so excited to see Rosie! She has gotten taller and whiter. She also grew quite a winter coat for being in Florida. I guess that area has experienced a much colder than normal winter this year.
This moment was surreal for me, finally getting to throw a leg over Rosie! I think she was a little confused over her new rider but she handled it fine.
We soon were all settled and ready to hit the trails at the Lake Lizzie Nature Preserve. What a beautiful park this is. The local trail riders of Osceola County are very lucky. Wide sandy trails and very quiet. We met one group of bird watchers from Ohio and that was it. They asked us for directions and we almost sent them to the wrong parking lot but we got it figured out and nobody got lost. I hope.
We rode along for awhile and finally got to Lake Lizzie. Of course we had to get in it. Rosie didn't even bat an eye. I love this horse! I kept a close eye out for gaters. Not that I really know what I am looking for until it is coming at me with its mouth open but whatever.
We let the horses get a drink and played in the water for a bit until Rosie started wringing her tail and getting Gumby legs. I didn't bring my swimsuit so I didn't exactly want to get wet. I hustled her back to dry land quickly.
A view of Lake Lizzie from the shore
On our way back I spotted a cool looking tree that I just had to photographed under. I have a thing for trees in Florida. I love the way the Spanish Moss hangs off of them. I could stare at them forever. But we had riding to do, so we took the picture and moved on.
I wonder if Rosie has to pee?
Just after this tree there was a big sand hill that we decided to play on. Gotta get your hill work where you can in Florida. Rosie was a little unsure as to why we were doing this when she could see the nice, flat trail obviously did not go up this thing. I'm going to try and post a video but I have never done this before so hopefully it works.
After this we kept it pretty tame and just moseyed back to the trailer. It was a gorgeous day, bright blue sky with no wind. Surprisingly I wasn't all that sore from my first ride since October. The thing that hurt the most were my ankles because I brought a crappy pair of boots that I had forgotten why I didn't like them. During the ride I remembered. When I put my heels down the leather digs into my ankles. Once I got blood flowing to my feet again everything was all good. After arriving back at the trailer we unsaddled the horses, loaded up and headed home for dinner. It was an awesome day!
