Mesa Hopping
“It was a great ride!” That is my best summation of the couple of hours spent riding in the Truth or Consequences area with friends Kit and Staci on Saturday September 3, 2011.
It seems every time I find myself on I25, anywhere between Caballo Lake and Socorro you can expect me to say “boy I wish I could ride out here, what a great place to explore..” Randy has heard that I’m sure more times than he wishes. The landscape is so enticing - what great mesas, valleys and canyons! I wish every time to be able to explore the area on horseback. Saturday Dee and I did just that and it was awesome….SHE was awesome!
The trip to Kit’s should have been fairly quick – by car at speed limits maybe a bit under 1.5hrs. I figured pulling the trailer it would be 1hr, 45mins max. Of course, I did not take into account that the Hatch Chili Festival was starting that morning, causing Dee and I to be in our first parade! (well, they were closing the roads behind me and all the people were already lined up on the roadsides – I couldn’t resist a wave or two as we crawled through the crowd) – or that I would blow a tire on the trailer shortly after getting up to cruising speed on the interstate.
My first thought as I pulled to the shoulder was to wonder how Dee was going to deal with this one. She
gets antsy in the trailer when it is not moving and this was going to be a challenge, with traffic whizzing by constantly. Next was how was I going to deal with it? I’ve not had to change a tire yet and it took me awhile to even decide I knew how. Not that knowing how would do me any good – I had no trailer jack! ugh…sometimes I really wonder. During all this wonderful thinking I was making phone calls – one to Kit to let her know I would be late and one to Randy for help. A couple calls back and forth ended in Kit and her husband coming to my rescue as they were much closer to me than Randy at this point.
Shortly after I finished getting the spare down and loosening the lug nuts on the mangled tire’s rim, Kit and her husband Bob arrived to complete the rescue! Dee was still restless, but not frantic. There were so many vehicles that went flying past us, (when did people stop moving to the far lane before passing a vehicle on the shoulder?) big trucks, little cars and loud motorcycles – it was a serious desensitizing session.
Anyway…that whole mess put me about 1 hour behind schedule, but it was not enough to stop the ride so we went on to Kit’s and got going on our trail ride.
It was really a great ride too. Kit and Staci discussed the best direction to go seeing as they had two novices on board – and we headed out with the promise of only facing one rather steep hill, and we would only go up it, not down. It didn’t sound too bad to me ---- then I saw the hill and thought someone had lost their minds..that was one steep hill! With Kit and her horse Jr. leading and Staci and her horse Renegade bringing up the rear we went up the hill….Dee did a really good job, she just went right up like she’d done it before. I definitely need a breast collar if we are going to do this more often…I had to get off and reset the saddle at the top because it had slid back during the climb. There were many more hills to come, as we went from the top of one mesa, down through and valley and right back up the next mesa. The landscape was beautiful and the difficulty of the trail was just right to keep Dee engaged.
I dismounted once to work with her on going down a steep (but very short) incline…once she figured out what to do with her balance and feet – she seemed to be wondering what the big deal was. After that, the hills were all faced from the saddle and with each one she got better and better until I was able to just give her the reins and let her work her way down. It was great for my confidence as well!
I was also very impressed with her feet during our ride. It was VERY rocky – I did have a pair of boots in my saddle bags, but never needed them. The loose rock did not cause her any discomfort at all, there was a bit of hard packed arroyo that we went through were she was a bit
ouchy in a couple spots – but she was careful where she put her feet down and got through it fine. It was very satisfying to put the theory of barefoot trimming to a real test – and boy did those feet pass the test!
All in all the ride was great – we didn’t have any problems and the horses got along great. Dee was exposed to all kinds of new things and took it all in stride. We came upon a windmill that was in operation – it was making all sorts of racket and did worry her enough for me to dismount. We approached the windmill and the other two horses were unaffected by the noise and focused on the small patch of tall grass that was growing underneath. In the end, Dee couldn’t resist the grass either and we took the opportunity for a quick break, a reset of tack (boy do I ever need a breast collar!) When I moved back from the patch of grass to put her bridle back on, she lifter her head high as if trying to get a good whiff of that strange noise-maker…it was really cute, she was so curious – the pic I got was after she was over the curiosity…of course I never have the camera ready at the right time.
We also had to ride along the roadside for about a 1/4 mile on the very last stretch… I didn’t know how she would react to traffic, but she took her cue from the other horses and took it all in stride, just calmly watching as the cars went by.
I hope Kit and Staci enjoyed the ride as much as I did and that they will have me back when we can all fit it into our schedules….maybe someday I can ride the BIG hills in BOTH directions! (ha…I have a feeling Dee will be comfortable with that long before I am)
It seems every time I find myself on I25, anywhere between Caballo Lake and Socorro you can expect me to say “boy I wish I could ride out here, what a great place to explore..” Randy has heard that I’m sure more times than he wishes. The landscape is so enticing - what great mesas, valleys and canyons! I wish every time to be able to explore the area on horseback. Saturday Dee and I did just that and it was awesome….SHE was awesome!
The trip to Kit’s should have been fairly quick – by car at speed limits maybe a bit under 1.5hrs. I figured pulling the trailer it would be 1hr, 45mins max. Of course, I did not take into account that the Hatch Chili Festival was starting that morning, causing Dee and I to be in our first parade! (well, they were closing the roads behind me and all the people were already lined up on the roadsides – I couldn’t resist a wave or two as we crawled through the crowd) – or that I would blow a tire on the trailer shortly after getting up to cruising speed on the interstate.
My first thought as I pulled to the shoulder was to wonder how Dee was going to deal with this one. She
gets antsy in the trailer when it is not moving and this was going to be a challenge, with traffic whizzing by constantly. Next was how was I going to deal with it? I’ve not had to change a tire yet and it took me awhile to even decide I knew how. Not that knowing how would do me any good – I had no trailer jack! ugh…sometimes I really wonder. During all this wonderful thinking I was making phone calls – one to Kit to let her know I would be late and one to Randy for help. A couple calls back and forth ended in Kit and her husband coming to my rescue as they were much closer to me than Randy at this point. Shortly after I finished getting the spare down and loosening the lug nuts on the mangled tire’s rim, Kit and her husband Bob arrived to complete the rescue! Dee was still restless, but not frantic. There were so many vehicles that went flying past us, (when did people stop moving to the far lane before passing a vehicle on the shoulder?) big trucks, little cars and loud motorcycles – it was a serious desensitizing session.
Anyway…that whole mess put me about 1 hour behind schedule, but it was not enough to stop the ride so we went on to Kit’s and got going on our trail ride.
It was really a great ride too. Kit and Staci discussed the best direction to go seeing as they had two novices on board – and we headed out with the promise of only facing one rather steep hill, and we would only go up it, not down. It didn’t sound too bad to me ---- then I saw the hill and thought someone had lost their minds..that was one steep hill! With Kit and her horse Jr. leading and Staci and her horse Renegade bringing up the rear we went up the hill….Dee did a really good job, she just went right up like she’d done it before. I definitely need a breast collar if we are going to do this more often…I had to get off and reset the saddle at the top because it had slid back during the climb. There were many more hills to come, as we went from the top of one mesa, down through and valley and right back up the next mesa. The landscape was beautiful and the difficulty of the trail was just right to keep Dee engaged.
I dismounted once to work with her on going down a steep (but very short) incline…once she figured out what to do with her balance and feet – she seemed to be wondering what the big deal was. After that, the hills were all faced from the saddle and with each one she got better and better until I was able to just give her the reins and let her work her way down. It was great for my confidence as well!
I was also very impressed with her feet during our ride. It was VERY rocky – I did have a pair of boots in my saddle bags, but never needed them. The loose rock did not cause her any discomfort at all, there was a bit of hard packed arroyo that we went through were she was a bit
ouchy in a couple spots – but she was careful where she put her feet down and got through it fine. It was very satisfying to put the theory of barefoot trimming to a real test – and boy did those feet pass the test! All in all the ride was great – we didn’t have any problems and the horses got along great. Dee was exposed to all kinds of new things and took it all in stride. We came upon a windmill that was in operation – it was making all sorts of racket and did worry her enough for me to dismount. We approached the windmill and the other two horses were unaffected by the noise and focused on the small patch of tall grass that was growing underneath. In the end, Dee couldn’t resist the grass either and we took the opportunity for a quick break, a reset of tack (boy do I ever need a breast collar!) When I moved back from the patch of grass to put her bridle back on, she lifter her head high as if trying to get a good whiff of that strange noise-maker…it was really cute, she was so curious – the pic I got was after she was over the curiosity…of course I never have the camera ready at the right time.
We also had to ride along the roadside for about a 1/4 mile on the very last stretch… I didn’t know how she would react to traffic, but she took her cue from the other horses and took it all in stride, just calmly watching as the cars went by. I hope Kit and Staci enjoyed the ride as much as I did and that they will have me back when we can all fit it into our schedules….maybe someday I can ride the BIG hills in BOTH directions! (ha…I have a feeling Dee will be comfortable with that long before I am)
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