Birthday Ride at Juan Tomas Open Space

It's been my yearly tradition to ride on my birthday for as long as I can remember. This year my birthday fell on Labor Day so at first I couldn't get anyone to ride with me because they were worried the trails would be too crowded.

But eventually. two of my riding buddies decided to join me and off we went to one of my favorite local areas to ride: Juan Tomas Open Space.

Saddled up and ready to ride!

Well, immediately, we all realized that even though it was technically a holiday, no one appeared to be recreating out in the forest, because we never saw anyone else on the trails all day.

We had the trails all to ourselves! What an awesome birthday gift for me and my Apache mare!

Loretta and her gaited gelding, Duke joined us for my birthday ride.

And Yvonne and her mare, Etta Bay were with us to celebrate, too!

Birthday trail riding selfie!

The trails were quiet and peaceful!

We rode off-trail to one of my favorite lunch locations in a meadow surrounded by tall ponderosas.

Relaxing and enjoying my birthday lunch.

Yvonne relaxing during our lunch break.

Loretta and Yvonne sitting on our lunch log.

Yvonne laying back for a post-lunch siesta!

Feeling my birthday zen! Not a care in the world!

Back on the trail again riding through groves of lush, green scrub oaks.

Such beautiful trails!

Yvonne and Etta Bay riding through a rock garden on the trail.

It was a hot day, so riding beneath the shade trees was heavenly!

There was lots of green grass for our ponies to munch.

After we rode back to our trailers, we watered our horses, then tied them to some trees in the shade.

Then Loretta surprised me with several different flavors of birthday cake!

Yvonne sharing some birthday cake with me.

And of course, we all enjoyed some ice-cold birthday beer!

My favorite local beer: Bone Chiller from Sierra Blanca Brewery!!

Loretta enjoying some birthday cake.

And after I finished my Bone Chiller, Loretta gave me one of her Dos Equis. It's a rare treat to have two beers post-ride! What a fantastic birthday ride and celebration!!

Life is Good!

Pecos Memorial Day Weekend Camping and Work Projects with BCHM (3)

On Memorial Day several of us decided to go for a ride up to the Pecos River to check on the quality of the bridge that crosses the river and see if we needed to do any maintenance on it on a future work project weekend.

But first, we needed to assist a couple of riders with water crossing reluctant horses. Richard offered to work with another member's Arab mare to help her cross the creek, but it didn't go as planned.

In fact, it didn't go very well at all.

Thankfully no one was hurt, but the horse and rider were not able to join us on the ride because they weren't able to conquer their fears of crossing flowing water.

The next horse and rider were assisted by Sandy, who ended up getting knocked off her horse into the creek.
She was a good sport about the experience, even though she was soaked down to the skin.


Richard had better luck with this rider and her horse and after about 15 minutes was able to coax them into and then across the creek.



Standing in the creek to get the mare past her fears.



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After the water crossing, we continued up the mountain towards Jack's Creek Campground, but turned toward the Pecos River and the bridge instead.



We were riding towards Iron Gate Campground.




The beautiful Pecos River was flowing fast below us.

Sandy being silly and demonstrating how to cut down a tree. We may be here a while......

So exciting! Riding beside the Pecos River. I can see the bridge up ahead!

Riding over the Pecos River on a bridge that the BCHM helped build and maintain.

The beautiful Pecos River looking north.

Apache and I riding across the bridge with the Pecos River below us.

The Pecos River looking south.

We tied up the equines and checked out the bridge.

Richard in his element.

I can't get enough of the sound of flowing water. It's manna for my soul.

After creating a list of supplies needed to do maintenance on the bridge, and enjoying a little lunch break, we mounted back up again, and rode back the way we came.

On the way back, Richard ground tied the molly mule he had with him, so he could pick up some trash some litterbug left on the trail. Well, the mule didn't belong to him so he had no way of knowing that the mule had never been trained to ground tie. So when he dropped the lead rope, the mule took off running down the trail.

Thankfully, the mule didn't go far and she stopped before reaching the road, and got busy munching on some grass.

What a great weekend!!

Pecos Memorial Day Weekend Camping and Work Projects with BCHM (2)

The night before we all got together around a campfire and enjoyed a delicious potluck and lots of laughter. Then we all retired to our tents, campers and horse trailers for a night of camping in the high mountains above 9,000 ft elevation. I was excited because it was my very first night spent sleeping in the sleeping area of my gooseneck horse trailer. I turned on my Little Buddy heater before crawling into my sleeping bag just to warm up my sleeping area, and then turned it off and went right to sleep. I slept like a rock all night, warm and snug in my sleeping bag.

When I awoke the next morning, I looked up at the un-insulated steel ceiling and saw it was coated in ice! And when I checked my thermometer on the wall inside my sleeping area, this is what I saw!

Brrr!!! It was difficult to make myself crawl out of my warm sleeping bag so I could turn on my propane heater and get my space warmed up. 

But I did, and then I went outside and turned on my campstove and got some water boiled for some hot tea and breakfast. While it was boiling, I fed and checked on Apache and mucked her stall.

And then I came back to a nice hot breakfast.

After breakfast, everyone gathered up their equines to get them tacked up so we could ride up to the Jack's Creek trail head for the day's work project.  

Apache saddled and waiting beside my horse trailer.

My neighbors had a nice camping set-up with a potbelly stove inside their tent. They stayed warm and cozy all night long inside.

The first challenge of the day was crossing the fast flowing Panchuela Creek just below our camping area. A few horses had trouble with it because of it's close proximity to our camp and the deep, fast flowing water.

We rode about a mile and a half from Panchuela to Jack's Creek Campground.

A few in our group chose to haul their stock up to the trail head instead of riding up.

It was sunny at Jack's Creek, but there were dark clouds all around us.

Apache and I enjoyed the beautiful views while we waited to ride up to our work project site.

There are countless springs up in the Pecos, some large and some small. A couple horses didn't appreciate having to deal with the springs, even if they were barely a trickle across the trail.

"Nope. Not gonna cross this river" Even if it is such a tiny spring that you could just step right over it without even getting your feet wet. haha!

With a little assistance, we got her and her horse across the trickling spring.

We rode up the main trail about a mile and then arrived at our work project area. We tied up our horses and prepared to get to work.

Apache knows the drill........hang out and wait.

Our foreman explained what we would be doing: fixing erosion issues and building water bars.

Everyone pitched in and worked hard.

We needed to move a few heavy boulders into place to create effective water bars.

Lots of trail grading and working with tools and rock to control erosion.

My son Jax had hiked up to our work area and was already working hard by the time all of us horseback riders arrived.

And our horses, mules and donkeys waited patiently.

About two hours into the job it started snowing, but we just threw our slickers and coats on and kept working. 

The job was almost done, so some of us headed back down the mountain. Apache was in the lead.

I was all bundled up, warm and dry.

We continued riding down the steep trail towards the Jack's Creek Campground.

We rode through the Jacks Creek Campground and continued down the mountain, getting closer to Panchuela Creek. And I just had to take another selfie. Happy to be on my horse in the mountains. What a great day!

We rode across the bridge over Panchuela Creek. Apache in the lead.

Panchuela Creek actually splits into several creeks and then comes together several times. So, after crossing the Panchuela Creek Bridge, we had to ride through Panchuela Creek, too. Again...Apache in the lead. Yay!

One rider needed some assistance convincing her horse to ride through the creek, so another rider led her through.

Whooohoo! They did it! That was exciting!

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After we unsaddled the horses, we hobbled our horses and let them graze on the green grass in our camping area. It was the first time I had ever hobbled Apache. But I'm pretty sure she had been hobbled in her past, because it was all a non-issue for her.

While our equines grazed, we grazed on our lunches, too.

I think Apache and her friend agreed that it was a perfect ending to a great day!