The last weekend in June saw me in Kemptville Stewarding the Tulip Arabian Horse Shows. I think this was my 6 or 7th trip to Steward the Tulip show. Great bunch of people in the Ottawa area and some lovely horses. Always a good time in the Ottawa area.

Then I had to work a weekend while the boss was on holidays. Finally I got back on the road for July 10-12th to head to the OAATS Celebration CTR in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park just north of Akron OH. A 7 hr trip with a stop for unloading Loosi (refuelling, peeing us and horse) and of course the border crossing at Fort Erie (no hassles).

What a lovely, lovely national park. All the places we saw were restored to era-matching fine-ness and not a place looked ill kept. Ride base camp was at Howe Meadow where a tourist train came by every 40 minutes and a Farmer's Market was held on Saturday morning. Some primitive sites and some with electrical hook up. Some treed and some in open meadow. Temperatures warm but not extreme heat nor humidity.

The trail was technically challenging - decent hills, road crossing, bridges including a covered bridge, railway crossings, past grazing hens, goats and cows, next to a sweet corn field with deer cannons and bird tweeters (sounds like angry blue jays). The OAATS pace is much slower than OCTRA's pace but that made for a more interesting ride to try and go slowly enough. 5-5.5hr window for a 25 mile CTR with a mandatory 1/2 hr hold at the out vet-check. Loosi and I did the first 8.5 miles a tad bit too fast but we caught up to an Ohio friend who I spent the rest of the 4 hours walking the trails talking with. We came into base camp just over the 5hrs for me (she had started 4 minutes ahead of me), so we finished on the right time.

Just as we came in the skies opened up with a torrential rain that lasted about 3/4 hr but it all dried up within an hour.

Loosi and I were 1st Middleweight.

The next day mother and Loosi headed to repeat the trail on CTR number 2. Again rode a tad bit fast and had a 1.5 hr nap at the out check before jogging in home coming back at 5hrs 20 minutes. Finishing 1st Lightweight, Reserve Overall and Best Half-Arabian.

It was lovely to pre-ride the trail that will host the 2009 Appaloosa National Championship Endurance ride in Sept along with the Cracked OAATS Crunch and AHA Region 14 Championships.

This weekend is catch up on 292 emails and other tasks in priority.