NJ 100+ 2026

 Long time readers know that I felt something special the first time I saw Booger running around her field as a two year-old. While our relationship certainly hasn't been all sunshine and rainbows, I saw potential in the half-feral filly from the start. Potential for what exactly was a little less clear. I never in a million years would have guessed 100 mile driving horse, but here we officially are.

Three weekends ago, Booger absolutely conquered the three-day hundred at NJ 100+ and came away looking like she hadn't done much of anything at all.

Photo by Mike, of course.

Bonnie Goes to Baldpate

 Two days later, I made good on my promise to get Bonnie out for a trail ride. While Baldpate is very popular on the weekends, it tends to be a ghost town on week nights, especially up by the horse parking. 

We wound up doing a little over five and a half miles. This, paired with my lunch time walk earlier in the day, made for a tired dog. This was perfect (and actually the goal) since we were leaving for NJ 100 two days later. 

This never gets old.

Return to Baldpate

 There has been a lot of Baldpate Mountain this spring. It's reminiscent of old days with the original crew. I'm not complaining.

Hannah and I headed back on a Sunday afternoon. I was feeling lazy in the creativity department and Hannah had a buyer coming to look at a horse. Local and familiar worked for us.

Eagles, Drive Thrus, and Bentleys

 In which Hannah and I go on an adventure down the Landsdown Trail. 

Nothing to see here.

No Frills 2026

 Mike and I continue our annual tradition of photographing OD No Frills. Last year, I had such a bad time of it that I never even blogged about it. I was determined not to have a repeat performance.

Originally, I planned to bring Booger and ride her in the Friday 55. In the end, I decided not to do it. I had a variety of reasons, but the biggest one was that it felt like a lot to juggle the horse, two days of ride photography, unhooking the truck, watching a relatively new dog, and riding a tough ride with an away hold and no crew. It felt like setting myself up to fail.

Instead, I decided to shift my approach and, hopefully, my attitude. I opted to treat this trip as a little mini spring getaway. Instead of staying in ride camp, we booked a VRBO to call home for a few days. We also invited our friend Dan to come down for part of the trip. 

All in all, this change proved to be a great success and might be our new tradition going forward.

I do love these mountains. Pictured here: Moon Mountain as seen from the cabin's driveway.

Tyler with Terra

 Cranking through these posts like my life depends on it.

This one is about a ride Terra and I had at Tyler Park last month, the highlight of which was a glorious gallop.

I love to counter, "Can I take a photo?" with, "Sure, can you text it to me?"

Mercer Meadows

 This may be the year I never get the blog caught up. Things are happening faster than I can possibly write about them, and I can't seem to bring myself to just skip anything. Ahhhhhhhh!

A month ago, Hannah and I rode at Mercer Meadows.

Magic at Baldpate

 Mike and I are currently binge watching Heartland. It is my guilty pleasure show and I love how cheesy and predictable it is. Sometimes, I day dream about living life with horses the way it is portrayed on Netflix.

Other times, as I watch my yearling explore the world him at sunset, I realize that I've gotten pretty close...

No Nukes Ride

The first ride I totally forgot to blog about. Whoops.

In an effort to get caught up, I will try to keep this brief. 

Hannah and I continue to ride together after work on a regular basis. One month ago today, we headed to Baldpate Mountain, where we had a lovely ride of almost eight miles.

I love this tree and am so glad I got to visit it again this spring.

Hiking: Manaticut Trail

Last month, my spring weekend rhythm has mostly consisted of hiking with Bonnie one day and riding on the other. I am not complaining. 

A few weekends ago, the weather was beautiful. Mike and I agreed we wanted to go hiking and started the brainstorming process. His input was, "I liked hiking at Ramapo. We should explore that area more." 

He's not wrong. 

The "problem" is that there are sooooo many options up in that direction. I quickly found myself feeling overwhelmed. Hooray decision paralysis!

Daylight was wasting so we finally decided I'd pick a place to eat and go from there. We settled on Sam's Bar and Grill and I scrolled through AllTrails while Mike drove there. 

I finally chose a trail called the Manaticut Trail, which I had never heard of, and which seems to be in an unnamed forest. Unusual. The trail description promised an overlook. 

There was a short loop that was rated difficult, with several options to add on miles. One of the options extended to Lake Sonoma, which looked and sounded lovely. 

With our late start, planned big lunch, and current fitness level, I wasn't sure how many difficult miles we would feel like walking, but it was nice to have options. I figured we'd start with the overlook, then decide about the lake at the fork in the trail when we got there.

You know... it's been a while since I posted a selfie...

Easter Saturday at Round Valley

 On Easter Saturday, Sandy and I had an absolutely lovely eleven and a half miles at Round Valley via Pickell Park, me on Booger, her on Tot. For once there was no drama, only miles.

Hiking: Hackers Falls et al

 In which Bonnie sees her first (and second) waterfall.

First NACMO of 2026

 The NACMO season is off to a slow start this year. 

I was planning to host a ride in the pines in February, but my permit was delayed. It turned out for the best because we got a massive ice storm on that date. 

Sandy was also planning to host her Spring Shenanigans ride, but it never happened.

Unfortunately, it's not likely that things will improve. Dodie is retiring and moving south. While I am toying with the idea of taking over as the regional director in her stead, I'm not sure I actually have room on my plate for anything else right now. I worry that without Dodie, the sport will die in our region.

With that said, we did have the first ride of the year at Dodie's annual Awards Ride at Leaser Lake. 

Fording the spillway because I learned nothing from Oregon Trail.

Bonnie Goes To Round Valley

 My Friday night ride with Hannah left me curious about the rest of the Cushetunk trails so Mike and I went back the next day for a hike with Bonnie.

As you may remember, Mike spent a lot of time hiking at Round Valley as a kid. The reservoir also holds special meaning for us as a couple. Bonnie hadn't been there yet, so this felt like the perfect excuse.

There isn't much to report, but I left these photos out of the March recap so here they are now.

Golden Hour at Round Valley

 I have spent a lot of time riding with Hannah in the last month or so. It has been delightful. I am particularly grateful that there's enough daylight to trailer out after work these days.

The Friday after the CTR, Hannah and I met up for an evening ride. We were originally going to meet up at Deer Path Park, but Hannah texted me while I was retrieving Lucy to let me know that she and Terra had attempted to ride there and the trails were impassable. 

At the last minute, we decided to meet at Pickell Park and ride in the back of Round Valley instead. I'm really glad we did. The sunset that night was downright magical.

It also ended up being our first accidental night ride of the year...

It doesn't get much better than this.

Bunny Hop 2026

 This first competition of the season has come and gone (three weeks ago, in fact!) It was mostly a non-event in the very best way possible. This was also Bonnie's first time camping!

Photo by Mike.

Doggies

 The nice thing about having a dog-friendly dog and neighbors who foster is that we've had an endless supply of lunchtime play dates the last few weeks.

I was originally going to do a post about Ruthie, who was available for adoption, but I'm soooo far behind. 

In fact, Ruthie has gotten adopted since I took these photos. I am delighted for her, but sad for us. We are not in the position to have a second dog right now, but I would have taken her in a heartbeat. She was basically a yellow, slightly less timid version of Bonnie. 

They were an amazing match. Both about the same age and size. They also had a very similar energy level and play style. This led to lots of chase, followed by some tug, and finishing with some snuggling.

Ruthie was so good with cats, dogs, and kids that the Trenton Animal Shelter was actually using her as their "test dog" to evaluate other new arrivals. 

Ruthie also loved Mike. I don't miss juggling two dogs, but it was sweet to have his and her pit bulls back in the day...

Sweet Ruthie.

I was hoping Ruthie would go to someone local so we could have visitations, but no such luck.

Once Ruthie went to her new home, the neighbors picked up their next foster, a sweet two year old boy dog named Thor. I admire their fortitude. They've fostered 90+ dogs in the last five or six years and have not kept a single one. Those are the people we should put in charge of the war department...

Anywho... Thor is also dog friendly and a real sweetheart. He also has a perfect cartoon-style arrow on his chest and the cutest white spots on the backs of his feet. 

I love all dogs, but I did not have the same instant attachment to Thor that I did to Ruthie. Bonnie apparently feels the same way. Don't get me wrong, the two of them are enjoying playing together and Bonnie actively checks the road to see if he's coming over whenever we're in the yard.

But his play style is a little to rambunctious for our soft gal. Don't get me wrong, he's not rough by any stretch of the imagination, but he is mouthy.  When he gets tired, he just sort of chews on Bonnie or puts her head in his mouth, which she finds somewhat offensive. 

Basically they play really well for about fifteen minutes, then do parallel activities in the yard for a while longer before saying goodbye. 

There are some really strong points about Thor though. Where Ruthie would fixate on squirrels and wanted to chase the horses/chickens, Thor is curious but neutral about all the livestock on the road. He doesn't lock on to anything, though he gets distracted sometimes. 

I don't understand how a sweet teddy bear of a dog like Thor doesn't have a home yet. As you know, I have soft spot for black bully dogs. I guess the world doesn't agree. What's extra sad is he knows all about couches and beds and cries to be with people. He clearly had a home at some point...

It has been a long time since I photographed adoptable animals and posted them on the blog. It's one thing I miss about my past life. This has been a nice little side project. 

The rest of this post is just a photo dump of Bonnie romping around with her friends...

Black Tie

 Quick photo dump before I run out the door! Hannah has a five year old DHH for sale. His name is Black Tie and I've known about him for a while, but didn't pay much attention.

The short version is that he was a nationally ranked driving horse. More recently, he has been ridden by a boarder of Hannah's. The boarder is an eventer. It turns out Black Tie has a ton of scope and will jump just about anything. (For example, he went to the Assunpink last month and jumped everything out there, including the enormous coops and monster hedge that leave me quaking in my boots just by looking at them.) 

However, Black Tie was missing "professional photos" for his sale ad. You can have the nicest horse in the world, but if you don't have good pictures, they don't seem to sell. Conversely, I see lots of garbage horses selling for way more than they're worth because of marketing gimmicks. (And they all seem to end up at my barn because the marketing works on my BO.) 

When Hannah and I rode together last month, she mentioned that she was looking for a photographer to take sale photos. I chimed in and volunteered myself and Mike to do it. After all, I enjoy meeting new ponies and taking pictures. 

We ended up having a beautiful evening after work one day. I would have ridden, but I was still feeling a little bit salty at Lucy, and Booger was resting leading up to the first competition of the season. Spending a golden evening on Hannah's lovely farm sounded magnificent to me. 

This was my first time meeting Black Tie and I was surprised at how much I took an instant liking to him. He is surprisingly sweet and snuggly, and he certainly is flashy! Apparently he doesn't have enough chrome for the DHH people, but has too much action for the dressage/eventing people. But he is honestly such a nice, young guy with a good brain. I'm surprised he hasn't sold yet.

We started by getting body photos and head shots next to the pond. That didn't take long so we moved to the arena to get some photos of him in action. We even had his rider come down and hop him over some fences bareback. Over all, it was a fun evening in good company.

I figured you guys wouldn't say no to seeing some pony pictures, so here they are!

So handsome!

She Had Me At "Dark Hollow"

 After my failed ride on Saturday, I really needed a win. It was Booger's turn, and our last chance to get out before her first competition of the season (no spoilers). I was all set to go out for a solo ride. 

Then Sarah messaged me. 

We frequently send each other memes on FB, and she recently picked up a 10 month old Cleveland Bay colt by her stallion, Parker. We've been comparing baby horse notes, which is super fun. Despite the regular communication, we haven't ridden together since August! We were long overdue.

When I asked Sarah what she was up to on Sunday, she mentioned the closing meet at Monmouth, then hound walking at Fox Heath. I casually said that hound walking sounded fun, and a plan was hatched. 

Sarah invited me to bring Booger over to Fox Heath for hound walking. From there, we could ride a short way down the road to access Dark Hollow. 

I've been re-reading the Anne of Green Gables series for the one millionth time in my life, and the name Dark Hollow just has so much scope for imagination...

Plus I've never been there. I was sold.

The park did not disappoint.

Chaos at the Assunpink

 In which the dog has a good day...