Delmarva Drives

On the Road with Fran Severn

Volunteer fire departments are always looking for ways to raise money. About 15 years ago, the Northampton Fire and Rescue Company down in Nassawadox came up with the idea of a weekend of horseback trail riding.  That it was successful is an understatement. There are now two rides a year, in May and September. The May ride was this past weekend. Limited to 250 riders, it fills up within days of registration opening, and there’s always a waiting list of another 100. People trailer in from as close as Chincoteague and as far as West Virginia and North Carolina for three days of riding, camping, riding, visiting, riding, partying, riding, eating, and riding. The horses stay in corrals and picket lines. The humans sleep in RVs, tents, and in the back of their pick-ups.

Trails are anywhere from three to 17 miles long. (That’s 1 to 6 hours in the saddle for the equestrian-speed-conversion challenged.) All of the trails are on private land, and a lot has to be said for folks who are willing to have a cavalry riding across their property, no matter how good the cause. Their largess makes the ride a pure delight as the trails go along the edges of wheat fields, through glades lined with sweet-scented honeysuckle, into dense woods on narrow bushwhacked passages, and around ponds where turtles watch from half-submerged logs.

The work crews donate many hot, hard, tick-and-bug infested hours laying out, troubleshooting, clearing, and marking the trails so that no one gets lost or hurt. The office staff makes sure there’s a campsite or corral for everyone, and the kitchen crew makes sure there’s enough BBQ chicken to feed the mob of hungry riders on Saturday night. All of this for the modest registration fee of $35. All proceeds going to the fire & rescue company.

The next ride is the weekend of September 24. Registration opens in mid-June. Check out details at http://www.easternshoretrailride.com. I’ll be there. Look for the red Durango with the red bumper-pull (one sharp looking rig if I say so myself) and the big Dutch Warmblood with the Tobiano Tail. Happy trails!

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Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 05/16/11 at 04:26 PM

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