Spring Break is almost over, and what have we got to show for it? We have done a couple of shopping days out with my grandmother, keeping her up and going in life. But those days have not consumed all of spring break, so we have spent some quality time with the horses too. My goal is for the kids to be able to saddle up on their own and go for a ride together.
Tuesday of course was the day I got thrown off Precious. Yesterday Dylan and I got out on Patches (me) and Umber (Dylan). Both are well trained by comparison to Precious, so there was a lot less drama, and we got to actually go somewhere. Dylan and I headed north from the house to the little mesa that can be seen from the back yard. By little, I mean in breadth, not height. It was a pretty easy ride, and we did not have to stick to trails, so we took the most direct route possible. After arriving at the East face, we took one of the roads up the side of the mesa. It was a bit difficult to choose which of the roads to take because we had to pick the shallowest incline with the least amount of sand for the horses to walk through, but could not tell for sure which it was. After we made our choice, Patches made it fairly well up to the top with only two breaks along the way. Umber found it a bit more difficult, but finally came marching up to the top like a trooper.
Dylan and the horses and I checked out the top of the mesa from the north end back down to the south end again. From the top one can see the Mormon Mountains to the north, with I-15 stretching out in front of it, Angel Peak to the East, with the Mormon Mesa laying below it. To the West, over California Ridge lie the mountains over Great Basin Highway. To the south is Lake Meade, and views of the Valley of Fire, and Logandale Trails, as well as Overton and Logandale. The top of the mesa is flat and relatively featureless, apart from some sand dunes. There is also a gap that separates the part we were on from a little section at the north end of the mesa.
After taking all of the mesa in, and talking to some quad bikers who came up, we took off down the same road we came up. I asked Dylan if he thought it was scarier coming up, or going down. He was not sure, but I noted the fact that going down you can see where you are going to land if you fall off. We carried on down, and somehow before we got half way down, Dylan got Umber’s right reign twisted up in her front legs, and had to stop to get it out. Try that on a steep incline. I had trouble getting Patches to turn round and go back up, but Dylan was lucky that I had just happened to show him how to get a horse to lift its hoof before we left, so he used that skill to get Umber to step up out of her reign. He also did some neat trick where he showed me how to get Umber to step on his feet and almost sit on him, but that’s one I think I will forget as soon as I finish writing this sentence. What was I talking about? About three quarters of the way down we took a detour off the trail and cut our own way to the bottom of the south end of the mesa. We definitely went places that quad bikes and four wheel drives would have gotten hung up in.
By the time we finally made it to the bottom, I asked Dylan if he understood a little bit better why you sometimes hear a line in the western films where the guy says to the dude that he trusts his horse more than any man. ‘Yes,’ was his reply.
We carried on home, occasionally running the horses, but when we got in sight of the family in the back yard, we cut loose and ran full pelt to the road, turned sharp, and ran into the gate at the front of the property. It sure is nice to have such an awesome trailhead 30 feet from the front gate! The boys both cooled the horses down and unsaddled them.
I have told them that I want them to saddle up two horses today, and ride them around on the hillside in front of the house, where we can see them, and get some practice riding on their own, as I would like by the end of the week for them to be able to saddle up and go for a ride together when they want.
Today, Saturday, and Sunday to go!