Just a few miles down the road was the camp, and other than not lounging well ( he does not see the "point", his only hole ) he passed his first vet inspection with flying colors and earned the nic name of "Gramps" after the management found out how old he was.

The next day it was dreary and raining, and I pulled out my handy Wal-mart $1.99 rain poncho.. I keep all sorts of things in my saddle bags, for years it has seem for the "Just in Case, and I get allot of teasing for the contents that I pack around even for a quick local ride.". The Hand warmers I had been packing around for years, came in REALLY handy this day.

We started off in the beautiful forest surrounding the YMCA Camp, we paced our selves well and were right on the ride schedule at first , but a few hours into the ride it started to snow!

Now we are just south of Rocky Mountain National park at 9000++ elevation, so no surprise for snow. But then it start to blizzard, with micro bursts and big winds. When we were riding thought the aspens, there was so much blowing snow, we could hear but not see all the trees falling!

Chip, looked around at me a few times, like who's idea was this anyways! But what a trooper, was thinking all the time of the stories where the horse knows his way back.... we always joke that Chip has a "spot-o-meter" and no matter which way you take him , he know where "home" is, whether is really home or just the trailer. We joke it is the Spots, that help him!

There was one time I could not get back in the saddle the snow was piling up so fast, so I gave up and just plopped down in the snowy saddle seat, ick! We made it back to camp just fine , and from the pictures my face looks like a "tomato" cause so frozen!

It was scary when a few others riders did not show up and the Drag riders went back out and eventually found the poor frozen riders. The Ride Management had a toasty warm room and hot coffee ready for us after we blanketed and feed our trusty mounts! Chip went from smooth summer coat to fuzzy winter jammies in about 1 hour, smart horse!

Coming in, frozen but still smiling!

Well after a cold night where my jeans froze stiff in the trailer, it was good thing I had packed about 10 quilts, we did the rest of the ride the next day.

SO PRETTY, aspens in full fall foliage where so bright it almost hurt your eyes to look at them . Chip and I saw a bear and several deer, it put the previous snowy day a frozen but quickly forgot memory.

The cool thing that ended the weekend,was the results of the ride, Big Chocolate Chip took a 5th place horse in Novice lightweight, which for his age and first time competing is AMAZING!

Ride Pictures , look for the Loud appaloosa http://cristyc.smugmug.com/gallery/1899457 by about the 4-5 page of pictures you can see the snow.

Of course he was the best "Appaloosa Ambassador", by the end of the weekend I had 2 offers to buy him and several wanting to know if I had any like him at home!

Yeah for Appaloosas! This is sport dominated by Arabs and Gaited horses, and had tons of comments about how smooth his gaits
looked!

Cori

www.dunoverappaloosa.com