by Laura Crum
The two photos above tell a lot about what I'm grateful for this Thanksgiving. There's my son and I on our most recent trail ride, just a few days ago, mounted on our two good little trail horses, Sunny and Henry, photographed by my faithful husband, who hiked with us (and our dog) through the hills near our home. I am so grateful for all of this. My family, our horses and other animals, our home here in these coastal central California hills and the trails we ride and hike. The ridgeline you see behind us in the first photo is the same ridgeline I can see from my front porch. It takes just over half an hour for my son and I to ride out our front gate to the top of the ridge, where we can see the whole Monterey Bay. And Sunny and Henry can do this without cracking a sweat. The photos were taken late in the afternoon of a beautiful November day, temps in the 70's. I smile every time I look at them. Thank you so much.
And thanks also to all of you who write to me in the comments. I appreciate your insights and I've both learned a lot and been inspired by you. Happy Thanksgiving, fellow horse lovers!
11 comments:
Happy Thanksgiving to you guys too Laura!! Great photos too!!
Laura: I've always wanted to ride in the area where you live, I think it must be one of my favourite places in the whole world. I spent some amazing moments down in Big Sur many years ago; it's such a beautiful area. Happy Thanksgiving!
What wonderful pix! Thanks for sharing!
Mrs Mom--I almost never post photos--my old computer sulls up if asked to do this. My husband put these up for me from his much newer computer. Since I write about my trail rides so often, I thought you guys might like to see what it looks like around here.
Francesca--I do love this area. Interestingly, my favorite vacation ever was to Europe. We spent some time on the Costa Brava--in a little town called Cadeques, and I just loved it. It actually reminded me a lot of Big Sur.
Shanster--I thought you might like to see our humble trail horses. Note my unorthodox riding garb--cargo pants and Ugg boots. Very comfy--not at all PC.
Happy Thanksgiving to all of you--I've enjoyed your stories about your horses and the pictures you've posted of them. Francesca--I hope Kwint is doing well.
What beautiful trails, and a wonderful way to spend time with your son.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Sitting here at my desk - kind of jealous and wondering when you are going to host a group trail ride. Just kidding. Well kind of kidding. O.K. Not kidding.
Our trails in the winter are gray and drab and still kind of dusty. I loved the pictures and the scenery is beautiful. It is funny - it isn't what I expected or had seen in my mind from your blogging. I have read all of your books up to Chasing Cans and maybe that is where I got my mental picture. Who knows!
Thank you for sharing a little piece of your slice of heaven. Hope you and your family have a wonderful Thanksgiving.
redhorse--Thanks for the good wishes. Happy Thanksgiving to you, too. And may you enjoy much happy trail riding on your horse.
kel--Don't you live in California, too? Near Oroville somewhere? I guess coastal California is pretty different from the valley and the foothills.
My latest book, "Going, Gone" has a lot of trail riding passages that are based on my local trails--including a wild chase scene over the very terrain you see us riding across in the photo. In case you'd like to read more about my trails (!)
Send me an email if you are ever coming down this way. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.
kel--If you read this, I finally got my computer to go to your blog, but it froze up before I could comment. I read your post about "Lily" and I have to say that Sunny was very like that the first year or so I owned him. Constantly trying little dominance games. He absolutely required me to beat him up regularly. I had the same feelings you do--as in, I am not enjoying this. I don't want to beat this horse up all the time. But it was the right thing to do. Now, at three years of owning him, the horse almost never "tries" me, and usually I can sort of growl at him and he desists. He's accepted me as boss and is both cooperative and quite obviously fond of me. But he truly needed those beatings. Anyways, I hear you. I totally went through that.
Thanks to all the folks who have had fun with this blog and contributed to the conversations!
Belated Happy Thanksgiving Laura, loved the pictures.
I'm so jealous - I live in the UK and have to travel over fifteen miles to get to my horses. The riding country is nice but nothing like what you have - although I lived most of my life in Wales and used to ride in the mountains, I loved it and miss it so much.
Still - I do give thanks for my husband and family and my two lovely horses and little rescued Jack Russel - just wish we had a specialday for it over here!
Happy belated Thanksgiving to you, too, Alison and Hywela Lyn. I appreciate your comments and good wishes.
Hywela Lyn--I'm fascinated to hear about all the different areas our readers are from. Wales sounds as if it would be a lovely place to ride.
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