Camping with Horses.

For years me and my friend have been talking about going camping with the horses.  Two weeks ago we finally got it together; we packed up the old truck camper and horses and headed to a place called Whinny Acres in Priceville Ontario.  Whinny Acres taylors to all sorts of equestrian campers.  They have bunk houses available for rent, tenting and hydro and water hookups for those with living quarters.  You can put your horse up in the barn or keep them close by your site with an outdoor stall.

We arrived around 7pm, just enough time to setup camp and get the horses settled before dark. The rest of the night was spent chatting with fellow campers and enjoying the roar of a warm fire and a few cold beers.

We awoke Saturday moring to find a pretty heavy frost on the ground and the horses comfortably munching on hay.  A big breakfast a cup of coffee and we were ready to hit the trail.

Whinny Acres offers a variety of rides from 2 hour rides on their beautiful vast wooded property up to an 8 hour self guided trip to Black Lake.  Being the adventureous type we opted to go out on our own and take on the 8 hour ride.  With map in hand we headed out looking forward to the day ahead.  It wasn't long before we encountered challeging log bridges and steep rocky inclines.  Our ride took us through old growth forests, hay fields and groomed paths.  In some spots of the forest the trail got so narrow I had to take my feet out of the stirrups and lift my knees way up to keep them from getting knocked off by the huge spruce trees we rode between.  Several times we got off and walked our horses to save their bare feet and stretch out our old knees.  We even had time for a quick lunch and a drink before we started heading back home.
 By the time we got back to the campsite we were all exhausted.  We put the horses up fired up the steaks and cracked the cooler for another enjoyable night chatting with some of the other campers.  Next morning we squeezed in a 2 hour ride and headed home.  All in all a great weekend.  If you ever wanted to camp with your horses I would recommend giving Whinny Acres a call nice facilites great trails and really nice people.

Happy Trails

Steve Wawryk

http://www.whinnyacres.com/