The Middle Fork Wildlife Area in East Central IL is a wonderful place to ride. There are wide grassy trails and shady wooded trails, flat trails and hills. There are prairie meadows, magnificent old trees, and overviews of the Middle Fork of the Vermilion River. You can ride across the river into Kennekuk County Park…

We too advantage of the electric sites and nice bath house at one of our favorite parks to put on a 3 Day CMO ride at lovely Potato Creek State park the first weekend in August. A grand total of 50 riders – 40 adults and 10 junior riders – participated over the three days.…

This is part 2 of my story. If you haven’t seen part 1, go back a post and read about the start of an “eventful” CMO at Stoney Run park in Indiana earlier this year! So I’m back on my horse, Jeanne and I are heading towards camp, now looking for clues 3, 2 and…

From Karen Tellef.  I am a casual CMO-er, my first one being in the 90s. One of my favorite partners is my friend Jeanne. My buckskin Morgan Raz and her black Morgan Mocha are perfectly matched. I was excited to see a CMO at Stoney Run Park in Indiana. I used to condition my last…

from Rena Bartlett: What a Weekend!! It was blazing hot.. last call was 148 degrees I think lol. Setting up was blistering.. Friday evening and Saturday were so hot.. then in came the downpour for a brutally wet Sunday. We had some real troopers this weekend! Riders from 4 states. Two new and amazing gals…

Late in June, our part of Illinois experienced a derecho (a straight-line wind storm) with winds up to 90 mph. Mature, healthy trees were snapped like toothpicks. The Middle Fork Wildlife Area was hit hard. Parts of the campgrounds were unusable, and many trails were impassable. The park rangers did a wonderful job of clearing…

(posted by Suzie Doer) This was our first time doing CMO, and we are hooked!Trail riding has a whole new definition for us now. All I can say is it’s sort of like being a pirate on horseback.Right before heading out, you’re given a list of clues, a map with a bunch of circles on…

On May 20th, 30 riders came out to enjoy one of our favorite CMO locations – Tip River! The Weekend Wranglers dominated the short course getting first place while Stacey and Beth tore up the long course in 1:45:55. Hot on their heels were the Gypsy Travelers, who were racing against time to make it…

This was Jen Martin’s first time to manage a cmo and only my third or fourth so we struggled a bit with the Saturday ride. It didn’t help that the temps were in the 90’s either! A big thank you to all who came out to ride on Saturday and brave the heat and our…

We had an overall wonderful ride this past weekend at Silver Creek County Park in Allegan, MI. The hot weather kept us all toasty but good company made it worth it. We had the pleasure of meeting Janet Mack all the way from Montana for a CMO (she was in town her daughter’s pregnancy). She…