Galisteo Basin Preserve Trail Ride ~ A Sneak Peek

 

On Sunday, me and some friends got together for a trail ride at Galisteo Basin Nature Preserve in Lamy, New Mexico, less than an hour from my house.

The day could not have been more perfect! Sunny, warm and almost windless, we didn’t even need to wear coats. Amazing for a February day!

Between the five of us we took a ton of photos, so I’m going to spread them out over a few days.

So for now, here’s a sneak peek!

My friend, Loeta (some of you long-time readers might remember her has the owner of Rosie, the mare that helped give me my self confidence back and  taught me to love riding again, after my previous horse mishaps and injuries). Here she is riding her sweet Paso Fino gelding, Profe.

 

My friend, Kendra (who I hadn’t ridden with since the Christmas Parade last November!) riding her terrific trail horse, Bailey.

Some new riding friends, Marek and Marcella, riding a Mangalarga Marchador gelding and a Rocky Mountain Horse gelding.

And me and my Apache mare….whom by the way was the only mare on this ride.

 

Lots of amazing vistas around every bend in the trail.

 

Very diverse terrain with lots of fun and interesting challenges. Like this rock step.

Kendra happened to take a photo of Apache going up that same step in the photo above.

There were quite a few rocks, but three of our horses, including Apache, were barefoot, and none had any problems with the rocky trails.

  

(You may have noticed that Kendra and I are both wearing pink helmet covers. Kendra’s birthday is this week and I bought her a pink helmet cover because that’s her favorite color, and then I liked the color so much that I decided to buy one for me, too. And since it was also Valentine’s Day week, it just seemed like a perfect reason to wear our pink helmet covers)

 

This is what we were taking a photo of….and Marek and Marcella were taking a photo of us!

Most of the trails were smooth and sandy, and very easy to follow.

Loeta, Kendra and I had a great time riding together.

We had a lot of laughter.

A beautiful day, amazing trails, terrific horses, and good friends. What more could you ask for?

Breathtaking views are always nice, too.

 

It’s difficult to put your camera away when there is always something amazing or beautiful to photograph around every bend in the trail.

 

We discovered it was important to not only look all around, but to also look up.

 

And when you’re up high on a ridge or mesa top, you should also enjoy the views looking down.

 

That was a pretty big sneak peek!

More to come!