My friend Colleen owns a a ranch and boarding stable and she has been wanting to offer her boarders more options to ride in locations other than her 4 Winds Equestrian Center. So, I offered to guide some trail rides for her boarders, and the first place I offered was my fairly new to me place, David Canyon. I had ridden there just a few weeks ago with two of my riding buddies, one of whom has ridden there many times and knew the way. But I made sure to GPS our ride and then checked the National Forest trail maps that I have at home.
Well, when our group showed up, we had some snafus with Colleen’s huge LQ trailer getting stuck on the loop in the small parking area. And then I noticed that there were signs posted and yellow tape blocking the entrance to the main trailhead that said the trail was closed due to trail maintenance and tree clearing.
Ooops!
I immediately felt a little worried because that was the trailhead I was familiar with and had started the ride from on my last visit to David Canyon. There is another trailhead on the opposite end of the parking area, but I had not ridden on that end before. How was I going to manage guiding this group of riders on trails I had never been on?
And to make matters worse, my friend Colleen decided not to join us because she had to get her trailer unstuck from the parking lot loop. (the photo below is from after the ride. You can see the tightly turning loop at the other end of the parking area below)
Thankfully, two of my riding buddies, Leeda and Vicki were also there, but to ride on their own that day. And since Leeda is very familiar with the David Canyon trails, she cued me in on the trails and turns to make before she and Vicki headed on down the trail.
So, I yanked up my Big Girl Panties and decided this would be a new and positive experience for me and my mare…and we would get ‘er done!
The 4 Winds gals I would be guiding, but I didn’t know any of them very well. So that felt a little strange, but they were very friendly and I looked forward getting to know them.
I took this photo of Colleen after we returned from our ride. Thankfully Colleen and another 4 Winds boarder friend were able to get out on the trails and enjoy a short ride after Colleen got her trailer unstuck. But I hope to take Colleen back to David Canyon again soon, so she can experience what a beautiful place it is to ride.
This is Diane riding her gorgeous black gaited mare. Her mare is a young greenie, but is brave, very forward and enjoys leading, so she led up front for most of the ride.
This is Shannon, riding her beautiful gaited mare.
This is Karen, riding another gaited mare.
Yeah….everyone else had a gaited horse. Poor Apache, who is a slowpoke anyway, didn’t have a chance. haha! We had to boogie to try and keep up.
I loved this trail right through the middle of David Canyon. It was flat, sandy and surrounded by green grass and tall ponderosas. So beautiful!
We also passed by this nature pond, which is only open to foot traffic. I wonder if that includes horse foot traffic? I want to go back and explore next time I ride there. New Mexico has been getting tons of rain this monsoon season, so I am curious as to how big that pond is now!
We mostly walked and trotted through the canyon, but this trail would be a lot of fun to canter through, I think.
There were a few hilly areas with large boulders lining the trails. I loved riding through them as it felt so peaceful, quiet and magical.
There were lots of meadows to ride through, too. And we offered snacks of grass to our horses, but surprisingly none of them were all that interested. We were all just enjoying the trail ride and the beauty of the canyon.
A group photo I took of the 4 Winds boarders: Karen, Shannon and Diane.
And then it was time to leave the canyon floor behind and climb up to the mountain top.
Apache lives for mountain trails and she is so eager to forge ahead. I just love that about my mare.
Another riding buddy of mine often takes self-portraits of herself while she is riding, so I thought I’d give it a try, too.
It’s much harder than it looks!
Apache is used to me doing weird things up on her back with my camera, so she just ignores any of my strange movements and noises and keeps plodding along.
Another try at a self-portrait. Tried to capture me, my horse and some of the trail. Yep…much harder to do than than it looks.
I think I ended up attempting about 15 self-portraits. Most were quite the mess. haha!
At least in this one you can see my horse and some of the steep, rugged, rocky trail ahead.
Apache hops up rock steps like it’s nothing at all. I just love my mare. She’s so fun!
We finally made it to our lunch spot on top of the mountain.
Our horses enjoyed a nice rest while we enjoyed some lunch.
And then we headed on down the trail again.
We did experience a bit of excitement during our ride when some deer bounded across the trail in front of Diane’s greenie mare, who spooked backwards, causing Diane to have an unplanned-dismount.
Thankfully Diane was ok, just bruised. And thanks to her helmet, her brain wasn’t injured either. When Diane fell, she grabbed onto the reins to keep her mare from running away, and her mare dragged her a few feet, scraping her head across the rock covered trail.
Without the protection of her helmet, Diane could have lost some of her scalp, too.
We helped Diane get remounted and we continued down the trail again.
We made it all the way back to the trailhead parking lot with no one getting seriously hurt and without getting lost, so I felt that was a huge success. I was pretty proud of my very first guided trail ride.
The End!
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