Vacationing with "The Girls" - A Three Part Story

Part One -- Midwest Trail Ride: The Facilities
 

 This year, with limited resources (code for $$$) and limited time off available, we decided to book five days at Midwest Trail Ride and take a short vacation with our Tennessee Walking Horse mares, Zora and Divna. Midwest came very highly recommended by a neighbor and fellow equestrian whom we see frequently at the trails at the Indiana Dunes. He goes there a couple of times a year, and had nothing but good things to say about it. Cabins for us; stalls for The Girls -- we were sold.

 

Midwest is located near Bloomington, IN which is the main campus of Indiana University. For those of you who don't know, this area of Indiana is really beautiful -- especially in the fall. Unlike the northern part of our state, which is flat, central and southern Indiana have hills. It is also an area where limestone is mined -- it is very rocky down there, which is why we bought the boots for The Girls (see previous post). With our crazy summer weather, we weren't sure if the fall colors would be peak yet, but fortunately they were ver close. It was a very nice 4+ hour drive down.

 

As soon as we arrived we knew we were going to love it. Our cabin was geat! Equipped with electric, heater and A/C, and spacious enough for a couple of tables and chairs, it exceeded our expectations.

 

Plus, there is a neat coverd front porch.

 

 

We were able to set up our coffee pot and hot plate so we could make coffee first thing in the morning.

 



Beats the hell out of being in a tent!

 



The Girls had it great, too.Spacious, secure stalls.....so much better than keeping them tied to a hitching post or highline. Our Girls always seen to get loose from those when we camp.

 

 

 

 

They provide wood shavings/sawdust for cleaning the stalls. 



 



And, as an added perk, every stall building has a port-a-john so you don't have to go all the way to the washhouse. Great for in the middle of the night!

 

 

They tbink of everything -- in the mess hall coffee, and hot and iced tea are available 24/7. They cook breakfast on the weekends. The mess hall has a microwave and toaster for the guests to use.

 

There is a really cool tack and gift shop at the office. We spent a bit of money there ourselves. I got this neat vest -- it was on sale, marked down to $18! Couldn't resist!

 

And John got a neat hat -- 40% off! The hat came in really handy, as it is waterproof and unfortunately we did not have the best weather.

And after I took the stall pictures, the first (and most minor) bit of bad luck happened. The blasted camera ran out of battery power, which is really annoying since we just bought a new battery for it! I had only taken about a dozen pictures and it was dead already. And because of the new battery, I did not bring the charger. So I did not get any photos of the trails or the tack/gift shop, or of Divna's little adventure.

Stay tuned for Part Two......Part Three will end with a BANG! (literally)