Longleaf Lodge Weekend

I see I managed to miss a “New Things Tuesday” post.  Bleck, how is this blog supposed to have a weekly feature if I cannot remain dedicated enough to write in it at least once a week.  Bummer, oh well I guess I knew it was only a matter of time.

Anyway I logged in to write about the fun time I had last weekend at Longleaf Lodge with the hubs, Tucker and 12 of our friends and their horses.  Longleaf is an adorable farmhouse on 20 acres that has been turned into a vacation place for humans and their horses.  They have multiple bedrooms, pastures, paddocks and stalls and you head out their back door onto miles and miles of NC Sandhills Gamelands trails.

The weekend didn’t start out awesome because during the half day of work that I put in on Friday prior to heading out of town I managed to sprain my wrist.  It was a really exciting injury too as I may be the only person that can manage to hurt herself while sitting in a chair.  So after a delay for a doctor consult, wrist brace and pain management Rx we finally headed out to our destination.  The group trickled in throughout the evening and when everyone finally arrived we headed out for a nice dinner together.

Saturday morning brought with it downpours of rain so we all had a lazy morning of coffee, breakfast and visiting until we motivated enough to drive to town and visit the local tack shop.  The timing of it all worked out pretty well as we finished our shopping things cleared up and rays of sunshine and blue skies started to appear.

Unfortunately, still in a lot of pain, the morning activities took about all I could stand out of me and when we got to the house as everyone headed out to ride, I headed to bed to sleep off the bitter mood my wrist had caused me to be in.

I woke feeling a little better.  I was sad to be at the house while most of the group was out enjoying their horses, but I certainly could think of worse situations to heal in.  A few non-riding husbands (including mine) were still at the house, so I had company, sunshine, beer and all to the backdrop of a lovely farm with my horse grazing happily in pasture.

The large group had split up into smaller groups and as they all started to trickle back in we gradually moved the party from the outside to inside to cook our collective effort dinner.  Fun was had by all as we relaxed, talked and drank the night away.

Sunday morning came and sprained wrist or not, I was determined to get on my horse even if I just sat on him for a minute, I didn’t haul him all the way out there for nothing.  I tacked up and started in the riding arena just to see how I felt and how painful it would be to ride.  After a few minutes it all felt ok and I decided that a short trail ride was definitely in order.  We had a pretty good ride, although, he was spookier than he ever is and I believe it was because I was compromised as a rider and I knew it and I felt less confident because of it.  The fear of pain and risk of further injury was there and I’m sure he felt it and behaved accordingly.  Sorry buddy!

Injury aside it was a really great trip filled with lots of laughs and good friends.  I hope it is an adventure we can put together again in the future.