Go on an overnight trail ride to a destination

This got pushed aside as well with the new property. So many things in my life did. Sigh.

To add to the high line kit, we’ll also need at least 1 collapsible bucket, a scale to weigh everything before we go and a pocket knife/tool. Maximum weight our horses should carry (as ours are small/lighter weight horses) is about 200 lbs each. If I weigh 140 and my tack weighs 30 lbs, that leaves me with 30lbs that I can pack on the horse.

I figure that a lot of the “roughage” for the horses will be grazed along the way, but I will need to pack grain and beet pulp. Each horse eats about 7lbs of this a day, and as they will have a meal in the morning before we leave as well as the following night when we get home, I think I can safely count on 10 lbs of feed per horse to pack. That puts my remaining items down to 20 lbs. I’d also like to find a way to pack a least 1 flake of hay per horse so that they have a familiar roughage in their systems. Even if it is just a small flake of 2 lbs or so.

Now I’m down to 18 pounds of personal items per rider. Let’s talk essentials.

Tent
*Sleeping bag – 2lbs?
*Clothing (I’m planning on change of underwear/socks, sweatshirt, light jacket, pajama pants and tank top) – 2 lbs?
*Flashlight, pocketknife, small first aid kit
*Human food (I’m trying to think easy, no cooking required. Pop tarts/granola bars for breakfast. Maybe some frozen hot dogs/sausages for dinner to cook over the fire? Dried fruit weighs next to nothing. A small loaf of french bread weighs next to nothing.) Let’s think 4-5 lbs for food.
*Beverages (we are stopping for lunch, so should be able to refill water bottles once each way. We can fill with well water at camp as well. So I’m planning on 2 bottles per rider, 1 water, 1 beverage of choice.) 3 lbs

So, essentials alone, without counting the tent I’m up to 12lbs.

Now, must have some personal items.

Camera
*Playing cards
*Book
*Cell phone

I think we can pretty easily limit ourselves to 3 lbs or less for personal items.

I’m wondering about footwear. I can see us doing a fair amount of walking, and boots won’t be the most comfortable for this. Yet shoes aren’t the best option for riding either. Will need to think on this.

This is a big post, but lots of thoughts going on here.

I opened the box yesterday morning and barely had time to look through it. Then Kerstin was over last night so we went over it with a fine toothed comb and were super excited about it!

Next item on the shopping list is a high line kit. And I think an afternoon of exploring is in order for Kerstin and I to map out a route and figure out where exactly we’ll be staying.

a really cool saddle bag that has all kinds of neat attachments. February we are planning to do this. Yay!

scoping out routes for us. She’ll do some more looking when she gets back from Germany. Laura mentioned she might want to join us.

are talking about doing this in Feb. We are talking about riding to a local park one day. Spending the night and riding home the next day. Only taking what we can carry on our horses.