Trail Rides - Page Three
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Crest Ridge Saddlery- Saddles for Mules and Gaited Horses http://www.crestridgesaddlery.com/

mules and horses

Mules are one of the best trail animals and are therefore popular with my guests who bring their own animals. The animals enjoy this cool, clear water too. Sometimes we'll ride right up the river. Water birds, wildflowers, and animals appear along the shores. Turtles lay in the sun on logs inches above the water surface. Some of my guests like to rock hunt in the gravel bars along the rivers. Fossils are not uncommon finds. When children are along I'll bring them to spots where I know they'll find small sea life fossils embedded in chalk-like limestone. These rocks are small enough so that children can keep them.

Mr. Stubby hangs on when we get a little wild

Experienced horseback riders like to get away from the normal easy rides once and a while. I'm all for it! In my 30 years of horseback riding I've never had a serious accident or injured a horse. The secret is to just let the horse use his head and to know the limits of what the horse you are riding will, or can do. Riding up a creek like this is a great deal of fun because you can get way off the beaten path into the heart of the forest. Mr. Stubby loves it too!

Ozark Mountain ridge top

The Ozark Mountains are not really mountains. The "mountains" were actually formed when this part of the planet just rose up like a big dome-shaped bubble. Rugged peaks were not formed like in the Rocky Mountains where two plates crash into each other and lift up. What we have are really hills. When the Ozark dome first rose up, it was mostly flat. Hills appeared only as water eroded down through the limestone. So flat ridge tops like this are common in the Ozark Uplands. They were cleared many years ago by farmers who are long since gone. But a few are still hayed each year. These clearings are filled with wildflowers in early spring and summer, then again in the fall. Birds and wild turkey in particular come to these fields to "bug". Deer graze here in the summer. Coyotes and foxes hunt mice. And of course, we let the horses stop for a little grazing in the summer!

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