My buddy, Kendra recently invited me to come down and spend the day with her on her ranch. I left my Apache mare home and just went down to spend time with my friend doing a bunch of fun stuff, like………
Cart driving her pony, Poncho.
Poncho hadn’t been cart-driven for several months, so he was a bit fresh. Kendra trained him to pull a cart less than a year ago and he’s such a good boy. He was pretty good that day and really seems to enjoy pulling a cart.
There’s always lots of interesting things to see while sitting in a cart being pulled down a country road.
Kendra and her husband Gerald are surrounded by countless miles of dirt roads and can ride or drive a cart for hours.
We covered about 6 miles this day and enjoyed the views, including the beautiful Manzano Mountains.
The ranches out here are hundreds of acres, so there aren’t many homes to see when you’re on horseback or riding in a cart. And we only saw one truck that needed to pass us. Kendra brought Poncho to a stop when the truck drove by and he was a perfect boy.
I really enjoy cart driving and often think about getting myself a little pony, mini-horse or mini-donkey so I can cart drive, too.
This was my Dobbie Girl’s first cart ride and she loved it!
Before long we were back at Kendra’s ranch.
Kendra and Gerald have such a beautiful ranch.
Poncho was very glad to see his barn-mates, Bailey, Kendra’s riding gelding and Durango, Kendra’s grandkids’ riding mini-horse, waiting for him in the corral.
After getting Poncho unhooked from the cart, we headed inside the house for some delicious tacos made by Gerald while us girls were out having fun.
After a delicious lunch of tacos and ice cold beer, we went out to play with the ponies.
Kendra took a turn riding Poncho in just a halter…no lead.
Good boy, Poncho!
Then Kendra took a spin on her boy Bailey, wearing just a neck rope.
And little Durango didn’t get to escape the horseback fun either.
Durango is so stinkin’ cute and so sweet, too!
While I was sitting in the dirt, Poncho took several much-deserved dust rolls.
This is the cutest little ranch dog ever! Kendra and Gerald got Hondo just a couple months ago.
And then there is my wonky Chiweenie girl, Dobbie!
Dobbie really enjoyed playing with Hondo and exploring around the ranch, too.
Hondo loves to sit on your shoes. He’s so precious!
As the sun began to go down, we let the horses eat their dinner, while we headed out for some four-wheelin’!
This was my first time ever on a four-wheeler, so Gerald accompanied me for the first 20 minutes of our ride around the ranch. It was so awesome fun! But there was a small learning curve and some crazy stops, starts and inconsistent speed until I figured it all out. Gerald was very patient and pretty amused with my silliness. We didn’t stop laughing the entire time.
This was Hondo’s first four-wheeler ride, too. He loved it, but he loved it so much that he fell asleep after 20 minutes and ended up falling off!
Thankfully, we were going slow and he wasn’t hurt.
But, Kendra and I left Hondo and Gerald back at the house and the two of of us headed out to ride the country roads around her ranch.
We ended up four-wheeling over 6 miles and finally got back to the ranch after dark. My chin was frozen, but my smile was huge and warm! What a fabulous day!
