My friend Diana has been wanting to get together for a trail ride for a while. I hadn’t had the chance to ride with her, but had been out with her several times for cart driving with her beautiful Welsh Cob/Arabian pony Miss Dixie.
So, I recently invited her over to my house for a fun little trail ride out on the trails behind my neighborhood.
Diana has a big stout, older, TB/Draft mare, named Glory whom she raised from a foal. Diana told me that Glory was a wild child in her younger years. But Glory is a calm, patient, willing mare now.
Apache was blissfully happy to be back out on the trails for a couple hours. She loves to take everything in and just mosey along.
We weren’t in any hurry and spent a lot of time allowing our horses to graze while we talked and visited and just explored.
Big ‘ol Glory really steps out, while my Apache mare is on the slow side. But we still took turns letting our horses follow and lead.
And it was nice to ride side-by-side, too.
We mostly stayed on the smooth dirt trails that circle around back behind my neighborhood, but we also traveled on the gravel roads, too.
And we rode up through the pinon and juniper to the ridgeline, too.
It’s very rocky up on top of the ridge, but I’m so happy with how tough my Apaches mare’s barefeet have become with all the riding we’ve been doing in the mountains this year. She never gets gimpy or sore barefoot and just motors right on over all the rocks, like they’re not even there.
It was wonderful how well Glory and my Apache got along together, like good friends, even for their first time on a trail ride together.
Beside my neighborhood is a pasture with big black angus cattle. In the past when we’ve ridden by, Apache has given these cows a hairy eyeball. She just stops and stares and seems to want to go after them. *grin*
There aren’t any bulls being pastured next door, just 6 cow and calf pairs.
This Mama cow was sure feisty! She came right at us and would have probably tried to chase us had there not been a fence separating us. She gave poor Glory a fright when she trotted over and caused her to spook right up in the air!
After a couple hours of riding, we rode through my neighborhood, heading back to my house (there on the left straight ahead) and Diana’s horse trailer.
It was another great day riding my wonderful Apache mare with a good friend.
I took my kids out hiking recently to do some letterboxing just down the road from our house. I love it when fellow letterboxers place a letterbox close-by, so we don’t have to drive far.
I forgot my camera (gasp!), but I did have my cell phone. So don’t expect much in the way of photo quality.
We had never hiked in this area before, so it was wonderful that this letterbox brought us to someplace new that is close enough to hike (or ride my horse) anytime we want to.
This area is off of Bartolo Baca Rd in the Manzanos and has a wonderful pull-through parking area, roomy enough for horse trailers (you know that I am always scoping out new places to ride!).
(And there are perfectly-sized mounting boulders right at the trailhead, too)
And even though the main trail traveled through a rocky arroyo, a secondary trail went straight up onto a beautiful, tree-lined, mostly flat, sandy path, which already had hoof prints on them!
We were in this National Forest area to search for a series of letterboxes called The Lorax.
(Jen doing her best impersonation of The Lorax)
There were 3 boxes with 3 separate puzzle-shaped stamps that formed a complete image of The Lorax in the woods, when they were stamped together in our log books.
We really enjoyed the very creative clues, wonderful stamps and beautiful location.
It was great to be out on a hike with my kids. And they seemed to enjoy letterboxing with their Mama and exploring a new trail, too.
The hike started off sunny, but by the time we were done finding all the boxes, clouds had rolled in and as we piled into my van, the first raindrops fell from the sky.
Of course, it never really did rain, but you just never know with our mountain weather, so we were happy to be off the trails when the skies grew dark and cloudy.
We had a great day!
The 2012 National 4-H Week (Texas Packet) is now available on-line for use by County Offices/Agents, 4-H members, and volunteers as we celebrate October 7 -13, 2012. This year's theme is "4-H... your movement, your story," highlighting the voice of the 4-H members and how 4-H changes 4-H members lives.