Do I dare say it....fuel prices

Looking at a gas station price sign makes me cringe deep. It is disgusting how one person who is so illiterate is allowed to run the country. My 3 year old son speaks better sentences than Biden.... the whole administration is just such a joke.

With fuel prices on the rise, it makes it hard to keep gaining that mileage on the trails. I am blessed to have finally found a place to live that gives me all I need and has several places around me that I can go ride at that aren't to terribly far away.

I live in Maud, which is about 10-15 min from Seminole, 15-20 min from Konawa, 45 min from Ada, Prague, and Norman. There are trail systems in Seminole. Prague, and Seminole which are about the closest ones I tend to ride at a lot even when I lived in Shawnee because they were the closest... so lets talk about them!

I already have a lot of info on my trail system tag, but I believe I may have some new people who have viewed my sight and are new to Oklahoma.

Sportmans Lake, Seminole OK, is a great place to ride and camp. Their bathhouses do need some much updated work, however it is a doable place. Trails 1 & 2 are pretty rocky while trails across the road 4,5,6, &7 aren't as rocky and if careful could probably get away without shoes, but I would advise shoes for any of the trails. Campground are very nice and big rig friendly with a very large day parking area. First come first serve campsites or book a site by contacting the park ranger. Each site comes with 2 pipe fenced lots for your horses- electric fences are allowed, I would assume with tree protectors that picket lines would be allowed as well unless rules have changed recently.

Around 30 miles to ride with many water crossings and awesome sights to see. Trails are greatly marked and correspond greatly with the maps accuracy. I have a map that I drew to make a "zoom in able" version of the map to keep digitally on your phone in your gallery so if you are caught without service, you can still have access to it and also easily share it with friends.

NOTE THAT SCREENSHOTS OF MY MAPS MAY DEGRADE THE PIXELATION OF THE MAP AND WHEN BEING ZOOMED IN ON THAT IT MAY BE BLURRY- PLEASE RIGHT CLICK IF ON A COMPUTER TO SAVE OR CLICK AND HOLD TO SAVE ON A PHONE/IPAD DEVICE TO GET THE FULL RESOLUTION. ALL OF MY MAPS I HAVE EITHER GOTTEN OFF OF FACEBOOK GROUPS, TRAIL AMBASSADORS, WAS ASKED TO MAKE THEM, OR OFF OF OETRA. I ALSO MADE THESE MAPS FOR QUICK REFERENCE USAGE. THESE MAPS MAY NOT REFERENCE TRAIL MARKER COLORS SO PLEASE DO NOT CONFUSE THAT YOU MAY BE ON A YELLOW MARKED TRAIL BUT IT BE A DIFFERENT COLOR ON THE MAP. THIS IS SO WHILE ON A HORSE IT IS EASIER TO FIND AND YOU SPEND MORE TIME RIDING VS FIGHTING TO FIND WHERE YOU MAY BE... because lets face it... trying to read a bunch of letters and numbers that are all bunched together can make you go cross eyed. ON ANOTHER NOTE SOME MAPS THAT WERE FOUND (like Lake Carl Blackwell) I MADE WITH LESS MILE MARKERS ETC TO MAKE IT EASIER TO ALSO FIND YOUR PLACE. I WAS GIVEN SOME IDEAS BY OTHER RIDERS TO BETTER IT IN THE IDEA THAT I HAD BUT HAVE NOT HAD TIME TO WORK ON IT. WAS ALSO TOLD THAT MY MAP WAS AN OLD MAP BUT I GOT IT OFF OF OETRA AND SO I CHANGED IT FROM OSU WEBSITE MAP THAT THEY PROVIDED. Those trails are very easy and well marked. Hard to get lost on anyway and you can always ride the road back if you needed to.

Prague Lake is one of my favorite places to ride due to its barefoot friendly trails with some "challenging" issues for your young horses. It is a great place to put a first ride on. Camping available here as well and you can now reserve online (see Prague lake on my trail system tag for more info) 2 pens come with the sites as well. I do not believe picket lining is available to do due to lack of trees. Im sure that portable fencing would be allowed. Around 15 miles to ride, however horse flies in the summer are dreadful.... highly recommend a good fly spray. Enjoy some fun obstacles throughout the trails and I love that they give you options to ride on more of a single file lined trail or you can ride along their dozer trail path that they made for easy access to clean trail system/washouts with. There is a big hill that tends to washout but its never been impassable anytime that I have been. Gives your horse that chance to really watch where they are placing their feet and use their thinking side of the brain lol. Grab a drink at the dam, and enjoy the fun little extension of the trails back behind the dam as well before heading back to camp (if you don't ride it backwards that is or else you would be coming up to that quicker before riding all the way around)

Meeker is also a place to ride but I have only ridden here like once. It was also years ago. When I did ride here the trails were more of dirt bike and 4-wheeler trails then they were horse trails.

Norman, Thunderbird Lake. This is a short trail system and only day riding available. TICKS TICKS TICKS So be aware.... I personally refuse to ride in the spring and summer here because of all the ticks lol. I had generously applied fly spray to my horses and sprayed me down too and we still picked off 50 ticks per horse and 20 off of each of us... It was INSANE. However.... lol in the fall and winter I love going here for a quick trip to long trot the horses for a few miles because the system is so short. You have to ride it all to get about 7-13 miles. There are obstacles and lots of deer throughout the trails. Makes for a great desensitizing for your horses for sure! This winding sandy trail system is great to exercise your horses on or to simply joy ride for a short term time. Due to the trail system mileage being short, it is also an awesome spot to take a trailer load of horses and ride one, pony one, come back and do it again on another set. My friends live off hwy 102 so they are close and take their colts to get them away from the house every now and then!

For short weekend trips I like going to Lake Carl Blackwell in Stillwater because it is close to town, affordable, great trail system, great clean campground, and barefoot friendly! It is like Prague lake in my opinion on how the trails are. There "Advanced" trails consist of a few big hills, some creeks, but mainly flat and long miles. They have about 50 miles of trails all together, one trail head but it splits to several trails to ride. I love it!!

I hope everyone is doing great and for as crazy as the world is today, that life is going as good as it can be! Happy Trails!!