My friend Latana, the gal from Las Cruces who rides the beautiful mule, created a wonderful video from our trail ride in San Lorenzo Canyon last weekend.
Check it out!
(The embed option isn't working, so here’s the link)
San Lorenzo Canyon Trail Ride Video
Aftr hearing the commotion of horses’ excited neighing, I was drawn to investigate outdoors.
Yalla! and Apache asked me if I knew what was going on. When I said I had no idea, they pointed me in the direction that all the commotion had come from. Hey thanks ladies!
My daughter and I walked over to our neighbor’s property. He owns two hundred acres of ridgeline and pastures, but doesn’t actually have a home on the land. Instead he offers pasture leases to folks with horses and cattle, and two of my other neighbors and I have pasture leased from him so our horses could graze on the summer grass. We were also able to ride on it whenever we wanted, too. But sadly, I just recently discovered that the owner has the land up for sale for a shocking $2,520,000.00! I’m very concerned that a real estate investor will grab it up and build a big subdivision there. That would really suck. If only I had a couple million. sigh.
But I digress.
When we got over to the fence line, I could see a couple horses off in the distance.
I felt bad that I didn’t have any carrots or treats, but I whistled to see if the horses would come when I called.
And they did!
Well, the mare was very friendly with me, but the gelding never did come close enough for me to touch him.
But I did notice that his nostrils were dripping a small amount of blood.
Instead he continually called out to anyone that would listen.
The mare enjoyed my petting and scratching and when she wandered off to graze, she would often stop and look up as if she was making sure I was still there.
I felt bad for her and her misshapen leg and knee. She definitely had a hard time running on that leg and couldn’t keep up with the gelding when he would run off.
When he went off running and screaming, I called out to the mare and she ran back to me.
And then she pawed the ground, dropped and rolled, sending up a huge cloud of dust.
I could see that she really enjoyed that. *grin*
Jen and I hung out with the new neighbors for a little while, ripping up little bunches of spring grass and feeding them to the mare. A few times I’d look back towards my house and would see my Apache mare standing there, head high, ears forward, watching me as I visited with the neighbor horses.
But soon it was time to head back home and say goodbye to the neighbor horses. The mare was so sweet. She nickered to me as I walked away.
And when I walked past my neighbor friend, Val’s arena, her horses whinnied at me, obviously asking me to tell them all about their new neighbors.
After I caught them up on the goings-on next door, they wandered off.
Yalla! and Apache wanted a little more information and took great big sniffs of my hands and my arms and then Yalla! wandered off, too.
I gave Apache a hug and told her the new neighbors were very nice, but she is the one I love. Apache whuffed and nuzzled all over my face and hair and gave me a wet kiss.
Sometimes new neigh-bors aren’t so bad…..
Back to the Poker Ride…….
I must admit, that while my preferred trail ride is a nice slow rambling walk down a mostly flat or gently rolling trail, I am having a great time challenging myself on these more technical trails that I’ve been riding the past few weeks down in San Acacia.
It’s been helpful for me in developing a better seat and good balance and I’m having lots of fun and meeting wonderful people in the process, too.
(This is B. He’s a Dentist in the town of Belen, NM. He will talk your ear off if you let him, but he knows a lot of interesting stuff and is easy to talk with…and he’s very funny. Oh my!)
(My silly friend Shelley from Santa Fe, sticking her tongue out at me)
Saturday’s ride in San Lorenzo Canyon was also a fairly long trail ride as we were out there about 4 hours riding alongside the canyon walls and dropping down into smaller canyons and meandering through dry, sandy washes.
And although the ride began with a little mishap, thankfully the rider and horse were ok and the rest of the ride was uneventful. Hmmm, well that’s not necessarily the right word.
(This is Kady. She lives about 10 miles from me here in the mountains. She was trying to encourage her horse to follow behind me and climb over that rock. He wasn’t so sure that was a good idea. But he finally did hop over it eventually)
The ride was very full of adventures, beautiful and interesting views, and was technical enough that it was every rider’s best interest to pay attention to the trail. This was a ride that no one would even think about chatting or texting on their cell phone while moseying on down the trail.
(Great horse friends. Beel, up front. Beel works in Carlsbad Caverns National Park and is their maintenance guy who fixes the elevators, etc. He is the President of our New Mexico Horseback Trail Riders group and is just the nicest, down-to-earth person. (Beel is wearing the leopard print man-kerchief I gave him) To the left is Dora, also from Carlsbad…..a real cowgirl who is sweet and very funny. Bonner, the Dentist is behind her. And Kady, my mountain neighbor, is behind Beel)
(Friends, Marilyn from Placitas in front, Randi from Bernalillo to the left, and Kady and Beel in the back)
(Beel posing for a photo in front of the canyon wall, while B runs up behind him)
Yes, there were many opportunities for fun conversations and laughter, and even though the horses were doing most of the work, most parts of the trail required a rider’s full concentration.
This is why I think I enjoy these technical trails so much. It’s not a good idea to just let your mind wander on to other distractions like responsibilities and stuff that you have waiting for you to do at home. When you’re riding a technical trail, you’ve got to be fully focused and in the moment.
(Thank you to my friend Dora, from Carlsbad for taking this candid photo, and in black and white no less)
Instead of a lot of words describing Saturday’s ride in San Lorenzo Canyon, I’ll let my photos and video tell the story instead. Just keep in mind that it’s very challenging trying to take photos of warm red, brown and pink sandstone and rock on a dull, cloudy, grey day. There was quite a bit of post photo-processing. But all you have to do is just sit back and enjoy the ride.
(Marilyn)
(Melissa)
(Beel and his buddy, Spice)
(Dusty of Followed Dream Ranch. He brought all 3 of his awesome horses on this ride, too: Belle and Spanky are in the photo. Thunder is just out of sight. And just so you know. He rode bareback the entire ride!)
(Kady)
(Tim, Marilyn’s husband, riding his little Mustang mare. That red rock in the distance is where we all just came from and drew one of our poker cards on the top)
(That’s me on Splendor in the middle of the line)
Did you enjoy the ride?
