Riding Out in Caledon with My Mom

I'd like to start this post off by wishing all those awesome moms out there, a great Mother's Day! As much as mine often drives me to drink, I (suppose) wouldn't have it any other way. Today, I took my mom (aka Captain Obvious, sometimes) north and west to the Caledon area. We started out the early day by heading out to Greyden Farms for their Mother's Day Ride. Students ride a regular lesson and mom's ride for free.

Unsurprisingly, the weather was as unpredictable and unpleasant as a mother's wrath! Believe me, I know first-hand. Hail, snow, rain, wind... It was as if spring decided to head back south. After warming up at the nearby Tim Hortons (along with pretty much everyone else), we headed to Greyden to tack-up and get suited up for the ride. I rode Nifty today and my mom was on Nikki.

We rode indoors with another mom and daughter. The young girl (like 12??) has been riding for 3-4 years and was riding cantering circles around the rest of us like it was nothing at all! And I get the rockiest canter ever. Everytime Nifty took a stride, I felt like I was going to be launched out of the saddle! Not as I was expecting but certainly a good step forward seeing as I didn't fall off and was able to control him enough to transition up and down--though let's not get ahead of ourselves and say I was doing so gracefully.

Nifty and me

Captain Obvious was riding at a slower pace with Nikki who seemed very content to just hang out and take her time. Good thing too! Because it was the first time the good Captain had been on a horse. Despite this lack of exposure, she did pretty well for herself and remained seated firmly on Nikki for the hour lesson.

Having a great time!

After lesson, we headed to Spirit Tree Estate Cidery for lunch. They're known for their wood burning oven pizza and we were really excited to have some but they opted for a special Mother's Day menu instead. But, they did feature some of their wonderful hard (and non) cider in cocktails for moms. My mom tried their orangey mimosa alongside her salmon quiche. AAAnd! We had an amazing fiddlehead puree soup! DELISH! Totally in-season, local and wonderful for you.

We rounded up our day by visiting the Cheltenham Badlands to see what all the fuss is about. Every time I've visited this site, I've always gotten this idea that aliens came by and had a party there but it's entirely man-made (by accident) due to poor farming practices.

Captain Obvious told me that she had never known that so much interesting sites and places were within an hour of the city. There's one place that I wish we had the time to go and see and that's Andrews Scenic Acres--another time! This is a great agri-business that brings families closer to the agriculture sector by making it fun.

It's always nice to get out of the city and explore the country--there's a lot to see and do! Driving out this way is incredibly satisfying because there are so many curves in the road and lots of wonderful scenery. Whatever you did with your mom, I hope it was as enjoyable as our day!

Happy Mother's Day!!