On Tuesday, Apache and I joined four other friends and their horses for my birthday trail ride, but on Wednesday, it was time to head back down to 4 Winds Equestrian Center to celebrate my friend Lynnette’s birthday with another trail ride.
This time it would just be three of us. The Three Caballeros.
Kristi and her Tennessee Walker boy Junior.
Lynnette and her Arabian girl Tango.
and Me (wearing my new hide-a-helmet, my hubby bought for my birthday) and my sweet Apache Mare.
Apache and I enjoyed the expansive views of the beautiful Manzano Mountains. I wonder if she remembers our Spruce Canyon, Manzano Crest, Red Canyon Trail Ride that we did in July? The section of mountains that those three trails are located, is in between Apache’s ears.
Wednesday’s trail ride was very relaxed. We barely rode 3 miles. Mostly we just wandered around exploring, visiting with each other, and playing on our horses.
Kristi and Lynnette really appreciated me taking photos of them on horseback. And Apache seemed to enjoy our slow, laid-back pace and especially all the standing still I asked her to do while I took photos. *grin*
Isn’t Kristi’s boy gorgeous?
We all enjoyed talking, visiting, and laughing while our horses munched the sparse grasses. We really need more rain.
At one point Kristi and Junior were riding past this Ponderosa tree and they flushed out a bird that burst out in a noisy flapping fluttering of feathers and squawking. Junior was quite surprised and did an impressive sideways teleportation of about 8 feet. Made me a little worried about Kristi, but she sat out his spook like a true cowgirl, and we continued on our ride.
Tango is an Arabian and can be a little sensitive at times, but she gave Lynnette a wonderful birthday trail ride without any drama moments.
Apache was just pleased as punch to be out on the trails. She was enjoying choosing our own path and riding at our own speed. She made no efforts at wanting to head back to the stables and I couldn’t have asked for a better ride from her. I love my Apache mare!
We stopped a few times to let the horses graze on any green patches we could find.
One of my favorite past-times is to just sit on my horse while I let her graze. So combining that with being able to visit with my friends, was absolutely wonderful!
But after a couple hours we decided to head back, riding alongside the long driveway to the stables and indoor arena.
When we reached the stables, we saw Dick Westphal, a fellow volunteer and friend from Walkin N Circles Ranch Horse Rescue, preparing for his weekly ride on my friend’s, Colleen and John’s horse, Jake.
Listen to this…………….Dick is 87 years old!!!!!
While Dick headed off down the trail, Kristi, Lynnette and I rode over to the indoor arena for some horsey playtime.
We had a great time playing in the indoor arena. Apache and I did a bunch of trotting around barrels, posts, and over cavalettis. We also practiced backing up around obstacles and side-passing. Lots of fun with our ponies!
After about 40 minutes, we wandered back outside and found a very yummy, lush salad bar to let our horses graze on. Nom…Nom…Nom!
It was also fun to play on this grassy ledge, asking our horses to hop up and back down.
My Apache Mare was a very happy pony!
After leaving the grassy ledge behind the indoor arena, we rode around to the side and front and explored the “Spa TeePee”, where massage treatments are given to guests who stay overnight at the Wellness Center at 4 Winds Equestrian Center.
Apache: “That is such an odd-looking human barn”, Me: "You should be familiar with tee pees, my little Indian Pony"
When we got back to the stables, we decided to have some more fun with our awesome ponies.
Kristi and Junior!
Lynnette and Tango!
Me and my Apache mare!
I remembered to turn on my Magellan GPS before our trail ride. But…..I forgot to turn it off when we entered the indoor arena. So, the section inside the arena is pretty entertaining as you watch how the track recorded all of our crazy running around in circles. *grin* It was a very fun day!
4 Winds Equestrian Center Trail Ride Day 2
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12 comments :
Sounds like a perfect ride with some good friends! I sure like you can track your progress with the GPS, a friend of mine has one that tracks his running and I was thinking it would work good for riding ;)
I cant wait until Emma heals up!
Fun sharing your rides with you!
LOL love the GPS circles LOL
I'm looking at all that yellow blooming sage in some of the pictures and feeling glad I'm not in Nevada this time of year. Aaaah-choo!
Hey NuzMuz,
Thanks for stopping by and commenting. I had an awesome ride that day. Hopefully you'll get the chance to ride your horses soon, too.
Thankfully that's not yellow sage. It's actually snake weed. There's not much pollen produced by them, and most people aren't allergic to it.
~Lisa
That TWH is a gorgeous horse!
What a great summer of riding and horse time you have had!
And I think my Apache mare is pretty gorgeous, too, Dom!
~Lisa
Fern Valley,
Thanks for stopping by
and leaving me such a nice comment. Yes, it's been an awesome summer of riding. The best ever! I'm sad to say goodbye to summer :(
But hopefully, there will be a few weeks of fun rides this Autumn, too.
~Lisa
Crystal,
Thanks for the nice comment. Yes, the GPS is a fun, too...and tool to use for tracking rides and probably running, too. Nice to see the speed you've been going, the altitude changes and the actual route you traveled, too.
~Lisa
Thanks Reddunappy,
Thanks for visiting. I hope Emma heals up soon, too, so you can go for some beautiful Autumn rides with her.
~Lisa
Love all the horses. And they are all beautiful. Sounds like a wonderful day with great friends. I'm so impressed by the guy who is 87. If I even make it that far, I hope I'm still able to ride like he does.
Such beautiful ladies on beautiful ponies! =) How fun that you celebrated your friends birthday with a birthday ride!!
I think it's wonderful that Dick is 87 and still riding! Such an inspiration!
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