First Day in Chestnut Ridge

 Carly, Day 275, October 2, 2026

So for Carly's family, it is the end of winter. New Year's Eve is on Saturday, so they just caught the tail end of Winter in Chestnut Ridge. Just a light snow started falling on their first full day in Chestnut. Amelia has never ridden a horse, but she is a horse lover, so she picked it up pretty quickly.

Carly has ridden before on Moondance and she had Horse Riding as a class at college. She started Whirlaway on some jumping.

And their first evening, they decided to check out the Rusty Horseshoe. Much to Watcher's surprise, the person I placed in Chestnut for Amelia was the bartender.

He wasn't a good bartender, but he was the bartender. His name is David and I am embarrassed by his last name. I created him a couple years ago for the ranch and must have been having an uncreative name day and named him David Davidson (so lame, I know).

So, Amelia met him and the bar got super busy. There's Tae and Honey.

Tae and Carly grabbed a table to catch up a little. It's been awhile, but hopefully everyone can make it for New Year's Eve.

And when at the Rusty Horseshoe, the cowpoke dance is a requirement.

Later the next day, Amelia invited David over because I wasn't sure if Carly met him and she wanted to invite him for NYE.

And they flirted a bit.

Cebolla had also stopped over.

Some privacy maybe. Carly is sitting on the bench behind David.

But anyway, he is on the guest list for NYE. When Amelia walked him out, Em was singing her heart out.

And little Stanley was so cute asleep in one of the horse beds. Tiniest horse ever.