2006 Cider Ride With Tewksbury Trail Association

This year's cider ride on November 26 was action packed! Between RTA and new friends from Tewksbury Trail Association, we had almost 25 horses!

The first group of about 14 horses rode through Deer Path Park and the lower river trail where Nicole's horse thought a roll in the mud might be fun (word has it that Nicole executed a timely emergency dismount with both grace and style and thus escaped the ravaging mud- see photo below). There were also 2 minor falls, at least one of which was due to equipment failure but luckily no injuries. Monica's horse Jake took her for an impromptu freestyle demonstration of a crow-hopping/dressage combination while on-lookers gazed with amazement. This group included a 2 year old colt, and another horse's maiden voyage on the trail.

The second group of about 9 headed over to the Round Mountain Section of the Park. Though less eventful than the first group, the horses were put to the test crossing three wooden bridges, riding alongside the buffalo, and doing some trail blazing down the back side of Round Mountain.

Rumor has it that there was a porty pot mishap also. Though no specific details were known at the time of this writing, apparently one rider experienced an em-bare-ass-ing moment when her horse flew backwards at a very inconvenient point in time. In the future, Janet will be requesting that the park install a hitching post alongside the porty pot facilities.

After the assorted adventures, it was back to the trailers for some of Janet's superb home made cider and fresh apple pie. Some remarked that this was the best cider they had ever tasted (BIG THANKS to Janet!). When riders returned to the trailer, seems that the road apple fairy had happened by and cleaned up around the trailers (thanks to our mystery clean up crew!). There was quite a bit of speculation going on about where people's manure had disappeared to.

Many thanks to Jeff Roberts and the TTA members for their great support of our first joint ride! What could be better than making some new friends, together with great weather, lots of horses and riding, beautiful scenery, and cider and pie?

Cider Ride On-Line Photo Gallery

If you have additional photos you would like added to the album, please forward them to Info@ReadingtonTrail.org.