Sedillo Hill Open Space Ride

My friend Jessica invited me to ride with her on a Saturday in the Sedillo Hill Open Space trails behind the boarding barn where she boards her horse. The trails are very close to her house, so it only required a 5 minute drive. It too longer to load my horse into my horse trailer, than it did to actually drive to the trail head. haha!

A photo of Jessica and her dog and her pony, posing up on this rock, while she was giving her dog some water during our ride..

It was a very hot day and we decided to get a very early start and not to ride too long into the heat of the day.

Jessica's horse is gaited, but was ponied often before being trained to ride. So, her horse can match the pace of any horse, slow or fast. We went at a slow, relaxed pace that day because of the heat and because her dog was prone to overheat easily.

We stopped a few times to let our horses munch grass and to let her dog relax in the shade.

It was wonderful to ride among the shade of the trees and actually felt cool until about 11am.

Trail Selfie!

Apache and I enjoying the views looking east from the foothills that we had ridden up. Out in the far distance are the eastern plains of New Mexico.

It was very peaceful and we never saw anyone else out on the trails all morning.

The trails were a mix with rocky sections and smooth sections, some steep and some flat.

Jessica decided to explore a trail she'd never ridden before and I'm always up for an adventure, so we mosied on down the trail.

There were a few structure ruins and some long-forgotten fences to prove that this area was once an old homestead.

We ended up riding around off trail just exploring, but it was noon and the temperature had soared. It had become beastly hot, especially out in the open underneath the glaring sun.

Jessica's dog was showing signs of overheating, and Jessica was concerned about her and wanted to give her a ride back to the barn. So, I dismounted and pick up her dog and hoisted her onto Jessica's lap.

Her dog seemed relieved to not have to walk for a while.

Apache and I led the way, because it was a challenge for Jessica to hold her dog while trying to negotiate the reins and guide her horse, too.

I think we were all grateful to be headed back down to the boarding barn. Did I mention how hot it had become? I think it was close to 100 degrees that day!

Yeah, my friend's boxer was very happy to get a ride back to the barn. Although our horses were probably wishing they didn't have to carry us in that hot sun.

Apache was so good and led the way back. We even had to stop a bit later so I could lift Jessica's dog off of her lap and back onto the ground. Jessica's arms were starting to hurt and go numb from the weight of her dog. 

We arrived back at the boarding barn just before 1pm. And boy, was it hot!

We still had a great day and it was nice to ride with a new friend, especially on trails just a few minutes from my house. But I think we'll wait to ride them again until the weather cools off a little.

Sedillo Ridge Trail Ride

Last week I invited my friend Kendra over to ride on the trails surrounding my house. I had several reasons why I wanted to ride:
 
1)It had been almost 3 weeks since I had ridden my horse,
2)I had plans to ride my mare in our first parade a few days later and wanted to see where Apache’s mind was and give her some exercise before the parade, and…
3)One of my wonderful neighbors, who owns a couple hundred acres beside my neighborhood, was generous enough to invite me to ride on his land. The grazing lease cattle, that were over there for a few months, had finally been moved off, so I was welcome to ride over there again. I hadn’t ridden over there since I rode my mare Baby Doll on his land almost 4 years ago.
So Kendra hauled Bailey up to my house for a trail ride and lunch (I made pizza!), and after tacking up, we headed out to the back-40 trails behind my house.


Apache was definitely feeling good and was very forward. She wasn’t interested in nibbling any of the grass and just wanted to keep moving. So we did.

My neighbor’s filly kept screaming for our horses and that was very annoying. Apache never called back, but she would get distracted by the screaming and stare in the direction of home.

I had to keep getting Apache’s attention to get her to refocus on me and our trail ride.

We rode around a little while back there, and then headed over to the gate that accesses my neighbor’s land. Kendra offered to open the gate.

We could still hear my neighbor’s filly screaming occasionally, and Apache especially was bothered by it and would try to get me to turn around and head home.

We did a lot of trotting because my mare was feeling very energetic and I wanted to give her a chance to work out some of her energy and friskiness. When Apache wants to trot, she always leans her head slightly sideways and looks at me with one of her eyes, and I know just what she’s asking. She’s so cute how she waits for me to give her the ok.
 
Kendra and I decided to ride up onto the ridge and over to the other side to get away from the sounds of screaming horse, and we enjoyed a nice ride through the junipers, pinon and ponderosa trees.

There really isn’t a specific trail or trails on my neighbor’s land, which is part of Sedillo Ridge and borders National Forest Land.
  
We just wander around and explore while riding Sedillo Ridge. It’s just great to be riding our horses again.

When we got to the top of the ridge we saw a herd of deer bounding through the trees ahead of us.

Just kidding…it’s only me and Apache!


Our horses weren’t alarmed by the herd of deer at all, so we tried to get photos of the deer, but the trees were too dense, even though we ran around bush-whacking trying to get a good photo of the deer.

This is the best photo of one of the deer that I was able to capture.

When we made it over to the other side of Sedillo Ridge, we weren’t able to hear anymore screaming from my neighbor’s filly, so we all relaxed and just enjoyed riding and exploring.

No trails over here, just open meadow with junipers and pinon trees to wander around and explore.


We came upon an old livestock shed. Bailey was disappointed there was no water in the tank.

And Kendra discovered that cholla thorns really can penetrate a pair of leather chinks! Ouch!

We rode down into a an area that has been filled in with water for the cattle in the past, but was dry now and filled with green stubbly grass. We thought our horses would want to graze a little, but they still weren’t very interested, so we kept riding until we entered into an arroyo and then had some fun jumping out of the end of the arroyo. Wheee!

When we reached an old dirt road we rode along for a while at a walk.

But we could feel our horses wanting to move into a canter, so I cued Apache and we took off down the dirt road with Bailey and Kendra behind us. Wheee!


We didn’t canter very long, though, before Kendra’s boy Bailey got excited and went to bucking. Thankfully Kendra stuck in the saddle, but there was a moment she thought she was going to go off the front of the saddle and she did end up hitting her inner thigh on the pommel hard enough to cause a bruise.

So, after she and Bailey had a serious discussion about his bucking, we focused on trotting the last section of dirt road, and then we were surrounded by prairie dog burrows and had to move down to walk to negotiate through the dangerous land mines. Apache was still very forward and eager to move out and I was surprised when she wanted to trot up and down the rocky trail to the top of Sedillo Ridge. I had to remind her several times to be careful and walk on some of the rockier sections.

As we made our way down the side of the ridge, we had to do some serious bush-whacking through some dense forest and somehow we managed not to get too scraped up, even though we were all covered in pine needles and small branches. Apache was very good for me and was quick to stop if I encountered a low branch or needed to duck down on her neck to get through a tricky section. Of course, I didn’t get any photos of the bush-whacking as we were too focused on getting through without being scraped off.

When we got to the other side, we could hear my neighbor’s filly occasionally screaming again. But I just worked on keeping Apache focused on me and the trail ride.

Notice there was still some patches of snow on the north sides of trees, from our little snow storm 4 days earlier.


Apache was eager to head home, but I was not, so we rode around for another 20 minutes or so on my neighbor’s land, doing a bit of trotting.


At one point, I decided to ask Apache to canter, and we cantered on the uneven ground for a few minutes until she decided to try and turn towards home, which happened to be downhill. When she turned, I lost my balance and felt very close to falling, so I pushed back on the horn, and when Apache felt me losing my balance I felt her quickly shifting underneath me to catch me and then she came to a stop. Whew! I love my mare!! The funny thing about it all was that the entire time she was cantering and even while I lost my balance, I was laughing and still having fun.
 
Apache waited until I got my balance again and we continued walking and trotting for a little longer before finally heading back towards the gate.


Apache and Bailey enjoying a special moment together.


I think Apache was pretty disappointed, though, that instead of turning in the direction towards home, we rode back out the back-40 instead.

We rode the entire loop trail in the back-40 again.

She was still very forward, even though my neighbor’s filly had stopped screaming for our horses.
I like this photo that Kendra took of me without me knowing. I looked very focused. I wonder what I was thinking.

So, I didn’t want to just let Apache head home with all that energy, so when we rode around behind the shortcut arroyo that leads into my neighborhood, I asked Apache to walk right on past it and continue on down the dirt road instead.

My Dobby girl was getting tired of trying to keep up with Apache by this time and was hanging out in the back with Kendra and Bailey.


Soon afterwards, she finally relaxed and was happy just to walk slowly the rest of the way home down the longer gravel road into my neighborhood.
Almost home….

Home and Kendra’s horse trailer straight ahead.


It was a great ride, although a little adventurous. Our horses weren’t terribly naughty, but they did test us a little. It was a good idea that Kendra and I rode our ponies before the weekend’s parade, so we could get the fresh off of them and give them some exercise and a little training, too.
Speaking of training….while Kendra was at my house, she wanted to see if Bailey was still desensitized to llamas, so we rode over to visit with my llamas and goats to find out.
 
Yep…Bailey has no problem with llamas and goats…..in fact my llamas and goats seemed disappointed not to get any reaction at all. *grin* Good boy, Bailey!


Thirsty pony friends after our ride. (cell phone photo taken by Kendra)
            
 
And here’s the GPS map of our Sedillo Ridge Trail Ride.