I have pictures to prove it.

This is one of those stories that has the potential to sound a little far fetched.  At least a bit exaggerated.  And to be quite honest, when I looked out in front of the house yesterday, I even questioned what I was seeing for myself.  Because you know, it's not everyday that I look out the door and see a HERD of folks on horseback STOPPED right in front of the house. 

Sean was out back mowing the field, I was inside doing some work and the kids were napping.  I started hearing these voices.  At first I didn't think much of it, but it kept on and kept on.  So finally I opened up the door to look out through the garage and this is what I saw....  

These dudes were just chillin' out, on their horses, in the street, in front of our house.  I closed the door and thought to myself, okay, is there really a herd of cowboys in front of my house?  And what the heck are they doing.  Obviously, I had to find out.  So I stepped out onto the front porch to get a better look.  As I was standing there staring, I heard the one I was obviously hearing from inside.  He was on the phone/walkie talkie, talking to some other folks who were obviously behind them and potentially lost.  He was trying to guide them through the woods and in through the back of our neighborhood.  I still wasn't really sure what was going on, but decided I needed to take pictures of this site for sure.  I took a few pictures from the porch, but eventually started walking up the driveway to get some closer shots.  

I spoke to a couple of them and they all seemed very friendly.  One was even carrying an American flag.  Turns out they are in a horse riding club and are from all over the state.  They go on about 8 different trail rides each year and this was one of their rides.  They rode this trail last year, but for whatever reason it was changed this year and came through our neighborhood.  I'm standing there talking to the guy and he's trying really hard to convince me to hop on his horse.  I guess I was still in awe of the horse herd and decided just to stand back and watch.  As we're talking I can see more horses coming up the street.  And more horses.  And more horses.  And more horses.  I counted 35 in the first group and the back of the pack was way over double that.  I'd say there was close to a hundred for sure.  Crazy!  Just crazy!  And what I couldn't help but notice was that almost all of them were black...not the horses, the riders.  And they were wearing cowboy hats.  So I guess Darius Rucker isn't the only black man on the country scene after all.  Learn something new every day!  

I took this picture for my neighbor.  They were out on a walk when they came upon the horses.  She didn't have a camera, so I offered to take some pictures of her little boy on the horse.  It's kind of hard to see in this picture, but if you look in the background, you can kind of get an idea of just how many horses there were.