Happy Trails...

Do you have a scene or an experience that you can recall that gives you peace, and helps you to relax? Something where the memory of it takes you to a good place and you want to hold it in your mind's eye forever? Yesterday was that for me. A beautiful day with blue sky, white white clouds and their shadows as they moved across the mountain wilderness were all seen from sitting in the saddle of a horse with a smooth, smooth gait for half the day.  My better (cuter) hat made it through the day  probably because we were on more cleared-out trails and it didn't rain or hail.

If you care to know, I'll share my passion for horseback riding...

<p>This shorter ride yesterday was much easier on the hunkas as compared to the incessant trotting of the horse named Cheyenne who bounced me to utter pieces for 22 miles on my last ride in June through hail, lightening thunderstorms, rain and sun, cutting through pine tree branches on less-worn trails. That ride <strong>bent my cheap hat all out of shape</strong> but it was wonderful to be so far into the wilderness, especially with my teenage daughter (who took the first pick of horses and got the smooth gaited one). <br /> </p>

<p><strong>My CHEAP hat was much more bent out of shape than I was after being bounced to H*ll in the saddle for eight hours on that June ride and it </strong>made me so<em> hurt-a** (rhymes with glass) mad </em>(even after a sip afterwards of Jose Cuervo black tequila - tastes like whiskey) when I couldn't reshape it when the ride was over that I <em><strong>finally crunched it in frustration (usually my husband or cousins can get the shaping done just right). </strong></em>&nbsp; Stupid, non-functional hat for riding, off or on trail.&nbsp; The wrangler, who keeps a loaded pistol on the dashboard of his pick-up and a dagger in a holster just on top of his beat-up leather-fringed chaps, waved me goodbye tellin' me my <strong><em>hat looked like that foreign cowboy wanna-be, country singer Australian Keith Urban</em></strong>.&nbsp; It is the brown squished-up straw hat in the upper right of the photo.</p>

<p><strong>Other than the hat, I was dressed just fine</strong> both times (especially compared to the PA. guy from the June ride way back into the Pecos Wildnerness).&nbsp; On that 22-mile trip, I rode behind a <strong>dweebie fly-fishing-dressed dude (definitely not an homme brut) </strong>who had only been on a horse one time.&nbsp; He was being taken near the stream headwaters to accomplish his mission of photographing an exclusive rainbow trout species for a book he plans to publish on all the trout species (he has two left to go).&nbsp; <a href="http://motherpie.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/img_4207.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href, '_blank', 'width=800,height=1066,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=no,left=0,top=0'); return false"><img width="200" height="266" border="0" alt="Img_4207" title="Img_4207" src="https://motherpie.typepad.com/motherpie/images/img_4207.jpg" style="margin: 0px 5px 5px 0px; float: left;" /></a><em><strong>
His fishing hat with flaps flopped as he loped</strong></em>, holding the saddle horn with both hands (he didn't lose his bear spray but did lose his watch on the way in).&nbsp; Even my crooked-shaped hat was more appropriate!!! I wore jeans and my <strong>roper boots made by <a href="http://www.lucchese.com/">Lucchese</a> </strong>(a company making cowboy boots since 1883, founded in San Antonio, Texas --where Longhorns and cowboys were gathered to start up the long Chisholm Trail). <br /> </p>

<p><strong>If you ever want to do these rides, here's the skinny: </strong>The <a href="http://www.pecoswilderness.com">Terrero Riding Stables</a>, operating as part of the Terrero General Store, in Terrero, New Mexico, offers guided trail rides through the forest and wilderness from mid-May through October.&nbsp; They'll take four or more riders up for a two-night, three-day wilderness ride if you want.&nbsp; The family has lived there and kept horses on mountain meadow leases for generations, probably dating back to when the Spaniards first settled in this valley.&nbsp; Most likely that paint horse, rough-riding Cheyenne, will be better gait-trained.</p>

<p><strong><a href="http://motherpie.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/img_4020.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href, '_blank', 'width=800,height=1066,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=no,left=0,top=0'); return false"><img width="200" height="266" border="0" alt="Img_4020" title="Img_4020" src="https://motherpie.typepad.com/motherpie/images/img_4020.jpg" style="margin: 0px 0px 5px 5px; float: right;" /></a>
Dudes and dudettes, if you want a custom-made or just a great western hat</strong>, go to Kevin O'Farrell in Santa Fe, on San Franciso Street across from the famous old historical La Fonda Hotel.&nbsp; He does cowboy hats the old way, with hand-made leather, beaded and silver-studded hat bands and horsehair and leather stampede strings.&nbsp; He hand-makes his hats the old-fashioned way and he doesn't have a website.</p>

<p><strong>Yesterday's ride, with my girlfriend (who, like me, had owned a horse as a child), </strong>was in the Sangro de Cristo range -- (the southern tip of the Rocky Mountains), through the Santa Fe National Forest.&nbsp; <a href="http://motherpie.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/img_4102.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href, '_blank', 'width=800,height=1066,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=no,left=0,top=0'); return false"><img width="200" height="266" border="0" alt="Img_4102" title="Img_4102" src="https://motherpie.typepad.com/motherpie/images/img_4102.jpg" style="margin: 0px 5px 5px 0px; float: left;" /></a>It was just the two of us and the wrangler. My better hat is real cowgirl-stylish and because it didn't have a stampede string, I didn't wear it on that first ride.&nbsp; My good hat has a red leather decorative stitch around the brim edge (the hat is a palm leaf <a href="http://www.sunbody.com/index.cfm">SunBody hat</a> from Houston, made in Guatamala),&nbsp; and it is dressed up with a hand-woven horse-hair hat band and <em><strong>red braided leather stampede string laced with horse hair tassels</strong></em> (the latter two from O'Farrell). <strong>Neither my hat nor I got bent out of shape this time. </strong> It was a most happy trail ride.&nbsp; Mes amis, je suis tres heureux (mis amigas, este es muy muy bueno y bonita).&nbsp; This is a <strong>memory that will stay in my mind's eye.</strong></p>

<p>This, to me, was <strong>better. than. heaven.&nbsp; What's your idea of heaven-on-earth?</strong>&nbsp; <strong>Do you make it happen?</strong> (and sneak-eating a carton of your favorite ice-cream doesn't count).&nbsp; The memories in the mind's eye can help you get through tough times, true?</p>

<p>P.S. Length of post due to passion for the subject! </p>

Comments

[Old Horsetail Snake]

So, where are the places we can drive to? Forget the damn horses. They're sweaty, and they crunch up hats...