The view over Casanova's ears

Snow and cold weather has not been conducive to riding in the mountains for a few weeks so we headed off to the Paseo del Bosque trail by the beautiful Rio Grande River.  After a few weeks of not riding we were all suffering from riding withdrawal.  Just off Coors; one of the busiest thorough fares on the west side , a short jog takes you into the Bosque.   Bosque means forest or woods in Spanish for the uninitiated!  When you live in the desert, which Albuquerque technically is, you really appreciate magnificent trees, water and woods!  Albuquerque Parks and Recreation has thoughtfully provided a parking area big enough for horse trailers.  However the one draw back which they haven’t addressed yet is no porta pottie! I’ll have to speak to the mayor about that!  Motorized vehicles are not permitted so there are no surprises from an ATV roaring up behind you.

Six riders, all but one on gaited horses; Paso Fino’s, Peruvian Paso and Single Footers,  kicked up some dust on that beautiful sunny day.  The weather was near perfect, 50 degrees and not a cloud in the sky, just a few contrails but miles of beautiful sunshine!  The horses were frisky and so were the riders!  Since we all had cabin fever we were more than ready to kick up our collective heels!  The ride out has taken as much as 3 hours when we had timid riders with us and we mostly walked.  When we checked our watches we had covered the same distance in 1/2 the time!  We gaited and cantered through the woods, only slowing down to give the horses a breather.   The trails are well marked and clean so a perfect area to pick up the speed.  Occasionally there will be hikers but the visibility is good so they can be spotted before coming up on them.  On the ditch bank where the dirt is hard packed you can really get some speed up as there is quite a lot of visibility!

Along the east side of the river the snow geese and cranes were resting and watching us across the river.  This picture was taken trying to photograph the cranes as they flew over but with the delay in the digital timing I missed them entirely and only got the beautiful sky!  Beautiful just the same, we’ll catch the Sandhill Cranes the next time!

Happy trails, may you be always be cantering through life!