At last, an opportunity to ride! It promised to be an interesting day, too,
beginning with a herd of cattle passing by, again in waves, right along
the fenceline, just 10 yards or so from where the horses were grazing on
their anchors. Our brilliant horses, having been there, done that with
passing cows, simply ignored them! A week ago they were having fits!
Smart horses, they can get used to anything! What I found most
intriguing is the curiosity of the cows, many of them just came down to
the fence and stopped, staring at us for a long time, until they looked
like an audience waiting for the show to begin! How funny! Eventually,
they mostly moved on, though, and after breakfast, Hubby and I got
started saddling, and before long we were out on the trail, if you can
call it that. Pretty much it's open grassland, though there are a
couple of tracks that start out as roads but quickly dwindle, and many
paths of where cows had trampled their way around, but nothing
definitive. Apollo wasn't quite sure what was happening, he's so used
to following a trail he was a little confuses about where to go, and I
wasn't much help either, though we finally decided to follow the fence
line south to see where it would take us. Eventually we came to a gate
we had to pass through, and that led us out into more grasslands. We
headed to a high point, and were rewarded with a fantastic view that
just went on for miles! We were trying to get to a place called Young
Man's Mound, which had a variety of stories explaining how it was named,
but discovered that the recreation area didn't extend that far.
Eventually we made our way to the western section of the park, where we
met up with the herd of cattle wandering around. Except, when they saw
us, they stopped wandering and started heading in our direction! We
slowly circled around them, taking care not to get them going, but at
one point it meant taking the horses straight through them, and so we
did. They were brilliant again, not minding at all, and in fact, Apollo
had an epiphany, realizing that these critters would actually move out
of his way on his command! He flung his head around at this sudden
realization, and his whole attitude changed, from crouching from
potential danger to, "HA! Take that!" Later, when we were running up
one side of a creek bed, part of the herd saw us coming and starting
running next to us, which only got Apollo so excited he galloped along
with them, feeling very proud of himself. Silly horse! Anyway, it was a
wonderful ride, very different from most that we've taken. The sense
of space here is enormous, and openness of not having a trail to follow
was an awakening for all of us, and the freedom to just set off in
almost any direction at any speed was refreshing. The only negative
would be that it all looks pretty much the same from one section to the
other, so it would definitely be a case of just spending time with your
horse, rather than really "exploring" the countryside. After all, you
can see practically the whole darn thing from any high spot! After a
couple of hours, we were back at camp, delighted with our ride and our
horses' new appreciation for "running with the cows." Settled in for
another perfect evening, with day temps in the 70's and night temps in
the 50's. Perfect!
At last, an opportunity to ride! It promised to be an interesting day, too,
beginning with a herd of cattle passing by, again in waves, right along
the fenceline, just 10 yards or so from where the horses were grazing on
their anchors. Our brilliant horses, having been there, done that with
passing cows, simply ignored them! A week ago they were having fits!
Smart horses, they can get used to anything! What I found most
intriguing is the curiosity of the cows, many of them just came down to
the fence and stopped, staring at us for a long time, until they looked
like an audience waiting for the show to begin! How funny! Eventually,
they mostly moved on, though, and after breakfast, Hubby and I got
started saddling, and before long we were out on the trail, if you can
call it that. Pretty much it's open grassland, though there are a
couple of tracks that start out as roads but quickly dwindle, and many
paths of where cows had trampled their way around, but nothing
definitive. Apollo wasn't quite sure what was happening, he's so used
to following a trail he was a little confuses about where to go, and I
wasn't much help either, though we finally decided to follow the fence
line south to see where it would take us. Eventually we came to a gate
we had to pass through, and that led us out into more grasslands. We
headed to a high point, and were rewarded with a fantastic view that
just went on for miles! We were trying to get to a place called Young
Man's Mound, which had a variety of stories explaining how it was named,
but discovered that the recreation area didn't extend that far.
Eventually we made our way to the western section of the park, where we
met up with the herd of cattle wandering around. Except, when they saw
us, they stopped wandering and started heading in our direction! We
slowly circled around them, taking care not to get them going, but at
one point it meant taking the horses straight through them, and so we
did. They were brilliant again, not minding at all, and in fact, Apollo
had an epiphany, realizing that these critters would actually move out
of his way on his command! He flung his head around at this sudden
realization, and his whole attitude changed, from crouching from
potential danger to, "HA! Take that!" Later, when we were running up
one side of a creek bed, part of the herd saw us coming and starting
running next to us, which only got Apollo so excited he galloped along
with them, feeling very proud of himself. Silly horse! Anyway, it was a
wonderful ride, very different from most that we've taken. The sense
of space here is enormous, and openness of not having a trail to follow
was an awakening for all of us, and the freedom to just set off in
almost any direction at any speed was refreshing. The only negative
would be that it all looks pretty much the same from one section to the
other, so it would definitely be a case of just spending time with your
horse, rather than really "exploring" the countryside. After all, you
can see practically the whole darn thing from any high spot! After a
couple of hours, we were back at camp, delighted with our ride and our
horses' new appreciation for "running with the cows." Settled in for
another perfect evening, with day temps in the 70's and night temps in
the 50's. Perfect!
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