Tennessee Walking Horses - CLOUD 9 WALKERS (Tennessee Walking Horse Gelding)

CLOUD 9 WALKERS

The week of 12/18/08, we loaded a few horses and headed to the LBJ Grasslands to ride (while everyone else was in the malls!). Pam Roberts of Grasslands Bed & Barn was a wonderful host and her place is so beautiful! The rooms are comfortable, quaint and cozy, and each one has its own bathroom, with a common living area. The view from the deck is just beautiful! You ride from your front door directly into the grasslands, and what a great place to train your horse to maneuver gate openings and closings, ponds, different terrains. The trails are color-coded and so easy to follow that you never once find yourself anxious, wondering if you're on the right trail.

LEFT: Tex waits on the porch at the Grasslands Bed & Barn. The oak tree lends a beautiful character to the deck where we ate our lunches, and the hot tub (to the right) was great therapy at night, a wonderful way to end a fantastic winter day of horseback riding.

RIGHT: Tuxedo and Stoney are tied at the hitching posts after their morning ride, while we have lunch.

Wait for a few seconds for a slide show of our good times at the LBJ Grasslands to load:

Create Your Own

A gift from above . . . literally! I took this picture from the saddle, out on the trail, before dawn.

Click on arrow ABOVE to see just how remarkably easy I am to entertain! (I love the end of this video -- makes you feel like you're there and can feel her warm breath.) Pam is supplementing this calf's nutrition while his mom battles a case of mastitis.

LEFT: You might see a horse, about to switch riders, but I see a sweetheart of a daughter-in-law insisting that her father-in-law share in the fun.

RIGHT: One of the absolute cutest pictures I think I've ever taken -- check out the smiles on these guys! Remarkable that there could be such an age difference (over 70 years). Grandpa Buck is my hero!

Down the road from Pam's place is a menagerie of beautiful, fat, happy animals owned by Carolyn Peet, who bought three horses from me about 4 years ago. At left is "Banana Man", the buckskin Tennesee Walking Horse gelding who got his name from growing up on a race track where the horses are fed bananas for potassium. (His mother always ate her bananas whole, but he prefers his peeled, please!) In the middle is a herd of friendly wethers, and far right is a picture of a couple of the Peet's Dexter steers. They're friendly folks who have a beautiful place and you may run into them on the Grasslands trails.

In the summer, we ride late, sometimes until midnight when we're on camping trips, but in the winter, it gets a bit cold, so we headed to town to check out the sights and grab a bite to eat. Here are a few pictures and advice, in case you want to visit the Grasslands one day:

Downtown Decatur, TX at Christmas -- this is a heckuva courthouse, isn't it?

We're a little early but a blue norther blew in, so the crowd is all indoors! Here is a beautiful white team of horses pulling a Christmas float for rides for the public, and at right, a really talented little band of buglers playing Christmas carols.

In the square, across from the courthouse, THIS is the place to have a steak! It was so good, I caught Huey closing his eyes while chewing. Just be sure to order the 16 oz. steak and split it, because the smaller ones are not as thick. The all-you-can eat tender, tasty bread is so good that you'll be tempted to cancel your order and pig out on bread! Be warned that if you go to their cute little bathrooms, you'll have a really hard time leaving them, as they play really funny Jerry Clower humor in the loo! (Can you tell that we loved this place?)