Arrowhead Ranch: Canyon Riding

To reach San Lorenzo Canyon our group of ladies, pulling horse trailers, had to drive about an hour and half from my friend’s ranch where we were cowgirl camping. And then we drove on all manner of roads, including the Interstate, long straight country roads, down sandy arroyo roads, and even underneath the Interstate through a skinny tunnel.

Queue the theme music from Twilight Zone….

We parked and then unloaded our horses and got them tacked up to ride.

Apache took a nap…..

And then we made our way towards the main canyon….

Some of the posts that include me and my Apache mare were taken with friends’ cameras, like my buddy Kendra.

We all made our way into the canyon, just enjoying the views and being back in the saddle again.

When we got a short ways into the canyon, a group of hikers offered to take a photo of all of us. We were thrilled for the opportunity to all be in a photo together with our horses, too.

Several of us brought cameras, and we all handed them over to a few of the hikers. My camera went to a guy in an orange shirt. He took a pretty good photo of all of us.

Apache was a very good girl and was happy to pose for a photo. But poor Kendra had to deal with an impatient, wiggly Bailey Boy. Come to find out, he was so anxious because he wasn’t standing right beside his BFF, my Apache mare.

I now wish that I would have moved Apache beside Bailey, so that Kendra would have been visible in the group photo. Next time……

In this photo, all the mares (4) are on the left and the geldings (6) are on the right. And no….. that wasn’t planned.

After all the photos were taken and the hikers were thanked, we continued riding through the canyon. We explored some of the narrow side canyons, too.

I had ridden and hiked in this side canyon before, but it was very special to be riding my own horse and sharing the experience with her, too.

I love how narrow the side canyon was with it’s steep walls towering above us.

Here you can get a better idea of just how high the side canyon’s walls were. These two ladies drove up from Ruidoso, NM to ride with us. They are as nice as can be and lots of fun!

The texture and layers of the walls fascinated me, as well as these cave-like openings at the base of the canyon wall.

And then we were back out into the main canyon again.

Here is my friend Cindy and her mare, Nova.

The day was beautiful, warm, sunny and just a little breezy. We started peeling off layers down in the steep walled protection of the main canyon.

We mostly walked but sometimes we did some trotting and cantering, too.

It was a lot of fun to just wander around and explore having fun with friends while on horseback.

Every so often a dust devil would blow through and that would make me grateful that I was wearing a helmet. Stampede strings on cowboy hats were a useful item that day.

Kendra figured out the best way to see the canyon and get a good view of those steep, high canyon walls…….

The Cottonwoods were leafing out in the canyon and it was great to see so much bright green in an otherwise brown and grey, dry environment.

And of course we had to take photos of some of us standing among the trees on our horses.

When we rode in parts of the main canyon that were more open and not protected by the high walls, we had to deal with some very breezy conditions!

It was so breezy, that, by the time we got back to the trailers at the end of the day, my Apache mare had rings of sand, encircling her eyes and coating her eyelashes from the wind-blown sand.

But we still had a grand old time!

This is Kendra and Bailey on the left and me and Apache on the right, just strolling along.

The dead-end of the main canyon was a perfect photo op, with the huge red boulders, tall rock wall and bright green Cottonwood tree.

As you can see in the photo, at some point, someone had had a campfire in the center of this area. And Apache wasn’t so thrilled about putting her back to those boulders. But she was a good girl and did it for me.

Since the canyon is managed by BLM, they placed some educational plaques in different areas to give information on the geology and nature of San Lorenzo Canyon.

Since I had read those plaques before while hiking there, I skirted Apache around them and we posed for a photo instead.

And then we all turned around and rode back out through the main canyon to do some more exploring.

We rode back to the trailers so a couple gals could grab their water bottles, and also to say goodbye to my friend Cindy who had to leave early.

So there would be 9 of us riding up above the main canyon on the ridge trails.

We stopped often to let the horses rest and to enjoy the expansive vistas.

If you look just above Bailey’s butt, you can see the white color of some of our horse trailers parked below.

My friend Janet was able to join us for this ride. I had not ridden with her for over a year, from when I used to ride with ARA in these same canyons. Back then Janet used to be a Wrangler for ARA.

I really dislike nose-to-tail riding, and for the most part our group avoided it. But sometimes, the trail was narrow and we didn’t want to destroy the fragile vegetation. And we’d just get bunched up.

In the pink jacket below, riding the jenny mule, is my buddy Latana, who drove up from Las Cruces to ride with us. You might remember her from our White Sands Horseback Riding Weekend back in February. We all stayed with Latana and she and her friends showed us around White Sands National Monument, too.

Apache seemed to enjoy herself up on the high ridge. She has always loved to be in high places with views that go on forever. She loves to stop and gaze, while I take photos.

There were so many awesome photo ops, that we were all snapping away every chance we got during this ride. Someone would say, “Stop! I’ve got to get a picture of that!” and we would all stop and enjoy the views while one, or more of us, would take photos.

As you can see, in these photos, we were now above the same canyon that we had just ridden through down below. It is a totally different perspective to be up high looking down. The canyon looks completely different!

Apache enjoyed the views, too. But it was hard work carrying me up onto those ridge trails, so she was happy to take a little nap. But it sure was windy up there.

See what I mean about the canyon looking completely different looking down into it, compared to riding through it.

The high ridge trails traverse the kind of terrain that Apache and I both enjoy. The flat trails can be relaxing, but a bit boring. We like some hills to play on, too.

We don’t need anything super steep, but trails with some challenging terrain are just more fun and interesting to ride.

We did encounter a few steep sections on the trails, but Apache was a rock star…..while Kendra kept turning around to take photos of us.

See what I mean?

(Oh, and we had just ridden down and around from the top of those huge rocks behind us)

One of mine and Apache’s favorite things to do on trails, especially those with hills, is to ride slow so we can capture some angle good photos, and then once we are far enough back, I ask Apache to trot or canter to catch up. Wheeee! So fun!

Like this!!!!!! Wheeeeeee!

Of course, with all the hills, we made sure to stop often and let our horses rest, which gave us ladies a chance to chat, too.

We did get to ride through several sandy arroyos. Apache likes to trot and canter through arroyos, but we didn’t too much of that through these arroyos because they tended to have branches that stuck out and rock steps to navigate up or down, too.

But we did do some trotting……

I really like this tree in this photo. It looks so artsy and sculptural, even with the dead branches.

But this also shows you the kinds of branches that sometimes stick out into the arroyo trails. They can easily grab you and/or your clothing and give you some mean scrapes and scratches if you are riding through too fast and not paying attention.

And here you can see what some of the rock steps look like, that must be navigated when riding through the arroyo trails.

Apache was ready to go, but I was posing for a photo for Kendra…..

And sometimes the arroyo trail becomes narrow, too.

And sometimes, those rock steps are not so much a step-down, but a jump-down instead.

And there were more hills to ride up and down, too.

Apache was willing to stop halfway down for a posed photo, so we did. Yeehaw!!!

And my dear friend, Kendra and I were so excited to be accomplishing another ride from our Bucket Lists, that we had to do some celebrating with one another. And my buddy Latana captured the special moment!

Apache celebrated by grabbing a mouthful of grass!

Many of the photos we took of one another looked like this….camera in hand, held up to the face.

But sometimes, unbelievably, my camera was tucked away in my saddle bags and I was just focused on my horse and the trail. That’s when my friends were taking photos of me and my mare, which was a nice surprise, too, since I tend to be the only one behind the camera lens on many of the rides we do.

Didn’t I tell you that my Apache mare is a rock star? She totally is! And I just love her so much!

We rode up and down hills and in and out of arroyos all afternoon. It was a lot of fun and a great way to work together as a team with your horse. You can’t just flop around on your horse’s back when covering all of that varying terrain, or you can throw her off-balance. You also can’t text, talk on the cell phone or daydream either.

It’s exhilarating to ride in-the-moment with your horse, conquering challenging terrain together.

I could not be more proud of my Apache mare. She did everything I asked of her that day and trusted my judgment and was willing, patient, and had a big heart.

And I trusted her, too. She took very good care of me.