"Fall" riding

I got out to the field today and took a long slow ramble on Champ. I took pictures, too, so yall can see why "fall" is in quotation marks. Trust me, it's not quote abuse!

I love this big oak. Just about every time I ride, we stop at this bend in the trail and Champ grazes while I look at that oak. Think about what all it's seen in its life! Not too far back in the woods behind it is a falling down old sharecropper shack. I should walk back there and take pictures for yall...



I like this arty photo. Horse! And deer tracks! IT'S ART!



Over by the biggest pond, I found some (the only) fall foliage. A baby sweetgum seems to think summer is over and winter is almost here.



Here's part of the big pond. I think the red in this picture is a sumac, but they are scrubby shrubs and hardly count as foliage.


I am pretty sure this is a persimmon tree. At first I thought maybe those were wild plums, but that tree is too tall and doesn't look like a plum tree.


Anyway, we trotted quite a bit. I experimented with different ways of posting and holding on with my thighs, and I'm getting the hang of it. A couple times I was deep in the seat, barely rocking forward-and-up, feeling like I could one day actually post without stirrups. Hard work, but I'll get it.