Sunday, May 30, 2010 - Catch Up On Blog Day!

Whew! I can’t believe how long it’s been since I’ve done a blog entry! Since we arrived here at the ranch, we’ve settled into a rather pleasant routine. On days when our client is here, we work for a few hours, on days when she’s not we go about our business. We started out putting the horses in the overgrown arena, then bringing them into a couple of box stalls (not the same ones from the first night, they were a bit claustrophobic, but a couple of large foaling stalls) with split doors to an outside run. Unfortunately, the winds are so consistently strong here, we weren’t able to leave the doors open on most nights, as it blew the bedding around all over the place. Once the arena was played out, we started putting them into a larger pasture during the day and still bringing them in at night, until eventually we let them out into the pasture full time, once their stomachs got used to the green grass. We’ve ridden around the property on two different days, as well as done a little arena work with them. Finally, today, we loaded them up and drove down to the San Isabel National Forest, to the Indian Creek Trail. This is a 12+ mile linear trail that goes from it’s north Trailhead south to the Bear Creek Horse Camp. We weren’t ready to do anything like 20 miles, we just wanted to take a fairly short trip, so we estimated that we could go about 3.5 miles from the north entrance to near the top of Raspberry Mountain, the highest point on the trail for a picnic. The road to the trailhead was rough in some places, and if it had been wet, 4-wheel drive would have been a must, but we managed with our pickup. From the trailhead, it was all uphill, starting at over 8000 feet and working up to over 10000. The trail was dirt and some stone, so we decided to go without boots. I had done a really good trim the day before, and their soles were incredibly hard from the local terrain, so I was pretty confident they would do okay without boots. It was a lovely ride, the climb was mostly gradual, the views were absolutely spectacular! There was one place where you felt you could see all the way to Kansas City it was so flat and went on forever, and other places you could see the snow-topped mountains of the Spanish Peaks and even Pikes Peak to the north. Outstanding! We even passed a few snowbanks on the trail, and one blocked most of the trail, so I had to get down and persuade my gelding to edge around it along the dropoff. He did great once I showed him how, and Hubby’s mare followed right along As we neared what we thought was the top, my horse began taking breaks every 40-50 feet to catch his breath. The air is definitely thinner up there! I’m glad they had a chance to acclimate somewhat beforehand (the ranch is at 7000 ft.), but we took our time and eventually came to a nice spot on a ridge that had views in both directions, so we stopped there for lunch. Horses got oats and feed, we had a nice healthy snack. The way down was much easier, and the horses were much friskier going downhill. Passed a hearty hiker on her way up, one who knew trail etiquette, fortunately. We arrived back at the trailer before we knew it, following the babbling Indian Creek for the lower part of the trail, admiring the views along the way. A gorgeous ride, a beautiful day. We needed to get a few things at the grocery store, and discovered the cute little town of LaVeta didn’t really have a grocery store, so we had to drive into Walsenburg to go to the Safeway there, got what we needed and headed back to the ranch. The horses galloped across the pasture afterward, confirming my opinion that their feet have toughened, and had no ill effects from the stony parts of the trail. Settled in for the evening, then back to our adopted routine!