A good time was had by all as usual in the Corrales Christmas parade last Sunday!  It is a yearly event hosted by the Village of Corrales and the local Marine Corp to benefit children who might have a less than Merry Christmas!  Its usually quite a show to see who can outdo who with their costumes and hanging red and green glittery things on their horses!  Then it is a show to see how the horses will put up with all this foolishness!  Kids and adults alike line the streets and hope that Saint Nick will come by and grant their every wish and hopefully have some candy to share as well!  It is quite a party and a great way to start the holiday season!

Corrales is located to the north and west of metropolitan Albuquerque.  It is a very horse friendly village and as such they are very tough on anyone exceeding their 30 mph speed limit!   Its a sleeply little village nestled next to the Rio Grande but don’t let that fool you there are many homes that exceed a million dollars!

Another beautiful late fall day ride. The temperature was a bit chilly but nothing that avid riders couldn’t overcome with jackets,hats and gloves! As usual we headed over the ridge to relax and have lunch at Ribs. The group was a little larger than usual, consisting of Liz, Leigh, myself, Elaine, Ron, Susan and Beth and of course the gaited horses: Dulce, Grace, Casanova, Pumpkin, Luna, Holy Smokes and Danza. Beautiful views and great trails are the course of the day but those were topped by Elaine’s story of her 1st experiences in the East Mountains.

Elaine is a transplant from California, a polished executive type that wanted to get away from the CA scene!  She moved here to enjoy life more, ride horses, raise Alpacas and spend more time with her young son!  Shortly after moving in to her country home with acreage and room for those horses, Alpacas and chickens she needed to fix her fence so she found a local person to take care of the fence.  I hope you have the vision of good looking California executive transplanted to the wild wild west because here is where it gets interesting.  The fence mender casually invites her to dinner at his place.  Feeling flattered and enjoying the hospitality of the west she accepts.  The fence mender then tells her that on his way over to her house he saw a wild turkey on the road, swerved to hit it and they were having Wild Turkey Road Kill for dinner!

My hat is off to Elaine for actually joining the fence mender and enjoying Turkey RoadKill dinner!  She said acutally it was pretty good!  I have lived in New Mexico most of my life and first of all have never even seen a wild turkey much less had the pleasure of dining on one, road kill aside!  Just another example of the Wild West Hospitality!  Way to go Elaine!

One of the delights of trail riding is observing nature at her best!  On the rides in the Sandia Mountains we typically see the Abert Squirrel.  My first exposure to one of them was on my third story deck hopping around and making a nest of the chair cushions.   It was amazing that this little critter climbed the stucco exterior of the house 35 feet straight up.  Of course I was worried that he couldn’t get down so I supplied him with peanuts, bird food and water.  He visited 2 days and then disappeared, fortified with the gourmet food I furnished!  I always kid about Linda’s Bed and Breakfast in the mountains, I guess that goes for squirrels too!

These squirrels prefer the nuts, seeds and  bark of the Ponderosa tree.  Although they exist in our area there are not any very close to our house.  My little visitor must have possessed a wanderlust spirit.  I hope he made it back to the Ponderosa forest!

In celebration of our beautiful November weather there were 3 rides last week!  The weather has been treating us to mid 70’s and the bluest of skies, only in New Mexico do you get the azure skies with the golden leaves!  Truly all the beautiful colors!  Wednesday, Casanova, a fantastic Peruvian Paso, took me over the ridge from La Cienega and one of the steepest trails I’ve see and successfully I might add or I wouldn’t be penning this!  Then over the weekend Amazing Grace, a Singlefooter took me on several amazing rides.  These horses have everything going for them, amazing gait, great temperment and a great mind.  Grace is just 3, only went through training in the spring and is calm and secure!  All in all a very satisfying ride!  The name Singlefooter came from the fact that as they show their tremendous speed, pictures will show they only have one foot on the ground; pretty darn close to flying.  Some of the faster horses have been clocked 25 mph or more in gait!  Check back here for information on the upcoming Amazing Gaits Farm website, featuring gaited horses.