Near the northern end of the Valley of Virginia is a mountain range about 40 miles long called the Massanutten Mountain. Mestled in the middle of the Massanutten Mountain is Fort Valley. Isolated by the sounding mountain, there are only 3 roads entering the valley. All water exits at the northeast end through a narrow passage. The air in Fort Valley remains cleaner than the outside areas due to the surrounding mountains blocking the metropolitan pollution.

The valley is home to many small farms. Horses and cattle can be found throughout the valley. It is in this beautiful location where we find our friends and their small horse farm.

My First Ride

It had been more than 25 years since I had ridden a horse. My partner and I had recently met Cowboy Sarge through my Buddy gallery and we found out that he and his friends had recently bought a farm in Fort Valley. It just so happens that their farm was only 20 miles from where we went camping just about every other weekend during that summer. So I got invited to come over for some trail riding. Our first opportunity was on June 30, 2001. I couldn't take the camera along on the ride, so these photos are from the beginning of the ride and during the cleanup afterwards.

I rode Sam, (Palomino horse) Sarge (black mustache, turquoise/black shirt) was riding Runner (Chestnut Quarter horse), Charlie (Salt and pepper mustache, blue checkered shirt) was riding Alazar (White Arabian horse)

Our next ride was on July 15. This was about the time I asked Sarge to teach me how to tack up the horse. In the past Sarg had taken many people on rides but I was the frist one who asked to learn how to do the work. We've been verry good friends ever since. On another trip to Fort Valley, on September 13, I shot some general photos around the farm.

The farm had at one time a series of spot lights lighting up the driveway from the house to the barn. Over the years they had gone bad and the overhead cables had been removed. On November 8, Terry rented a trencher and we rewired the poles and installed new lights. The finished product can be seen in the last 2 photos of this section.

On November 15, we took a ride up the side of the eastern mountain and ran through some fields. Great fun and great weather.

A visit to the farm on a Sunday afternoon. The air was warm for February but clear and brisk. The light winds got the horses excited and they were having a ball chasing around the pastures with Trouper the family dog. I had brought some apples in the bag and Runner was really interested.

We were invited to an evening dinner party by some gay neighbors who owned the Fort Valley Saddlery a few miles from the farm. We maintained a friendship with them for a while but the next year at another party one of the owners got drunk and started verbally abusing the guests including me after which just about everybody there stopped speaking to them. A few months later the owners split up after a partnership of some 30 years and one left. As of 2015 I don't know what the status of the farm is.

This section has been placed at the bottom of the page rather than in chronological order due to the extra descriptive text which is included. The text is what I wrote when the page was first posted in 2001.

Sundance Gets Broke

The process of breaking a horse doesn't progress as many people think. It can be a slow process taking upwards of several months. A properly broken horse does not lose his or her sprit as the uninformed person may think.