Saturday March 21, the first day of spring found us on the ride through the

Boy Scout troup

Gutierrez Open Space.  It was a beautiful spring day and the ride was very pleasant with beautiful weather and an uneventful ride; which is a very good thing when you’re on horseback!  When we arrived at the fenced area between the Post Office, Ribs and Sandia Crust Pizza, we were surprised to find quite a crowd!  A local boy scout troupe in addition to some Open Space Officers were clearing a new trail into the open space.  This was a welcome sight to see this new trail head as on an earlier ride several horses slipped on the muddy hill and nearly went down.  This new trail head consists of switch backs that aren’t so treacherous!  Thanks to the Open Space Folks and the local Boy Scouts for their hard work!  We had just a few suggestions for the Open Space guys!  They are going to install 2 more tie rails to accommodate more horses, as it is only 5 or 6 horses can be safely tied, and the other suggestion was a water trough for the horses.   The water will have to be provided by the merchants as the Open Space folks have no way of funding this.  Hopefully one of the restaurants that benefit from our patronage will consider this, (hint  hint)!

We had a lovely lunch at the Sandia Crust Pizza, this is a very nice addition to the East Mountain cuisine!  I’m sure we’ll be frequenting them regularly!  We’re usually a hungry and thirsty group; not to mention we’re a lot of fun too!

Happy Trails!

Last weekend I was honored to meet several members of the Great Western Paso Fino Horse Association.  (GWPFHA)  One of the members is the current president of the club, Judi, or madame president as we addressed her.  The ladies were here to consider relocating to our fine state from Utah as well as invigorate our NM branch of the club.

We had a wonderful time touring the beautiful countryside of Northern NM in our search for horse property.  A slightly snowy morning greeted us Saturday as a major storm passed through the area but didn’t dampen our spirits or sense of adventure.  One of the less traveled roads we found ourselves on was blocked by a herd of cows.  Never to be daunted by a few dozen cows I stopped while Carol practiced her cow herding skills!  There’s a reason we’re called ‘cowgirls’!

Along the way we stopped by another GWPFHA member’s home; Jacquee’ of Beautiful-horses.com.

Medusa Horse Pendant of Beautiful-Horses.com

A amazingly talented artist of horse jewelry,  horse hair braiding and beautiful hand painted hobby horses, we enjoyed her hospitality with tea and home made cookies and visited with her beautiful Paso Fino Horses!

Thank you Jacquee’ !

Beth on Danza

Upon our return to Albuquerque, one of the members of the group, Beth hosted a meet and greet for the Paso Fino people.  Fine food and lots of wine and all the members made merry.  Of course Beth of the Cavalia girls group that ventured to Scottsdale the previous weekend to see the show purchased the Cavalia DVD and played it upstairs in the loft.  At evening’s end everyone was in front of the big screen watching Cavalia, it is always mesmerizing!  Horse Lovers don’t miss it!

Happy Trails till next time!

Several friends and myself journeyed to Scottsdale to see this magical performance.  After hearing that there was a Cirque De So lei type performance that featured horses I tracked down the Cavalia website.  When the DVD came I threw a Cavalia Party that has been the topic of many conversations whenever the horse people gather!

Cavalia

The intrepid 6, horsewomen all, consisted of  Liz, Susan, Beth, Kari, Nancy and me.  We drove, flew or would have crawled to get there.  We opted for the horse lover tickets that enabled us to visit the stables after the show in addition to having front row seats.  It was amazing to be so close to the action;  a 2 foot barrier was all that separated us from the flying horses.  When the trick riders galloped across the stage spraying us with dirt we were truly enthralled.  The show has several acts following the seasons so we were showered with leaves in the fall and ’snow’ in the winter.  ‘Mirror’  was an incredible dressage display and the ladie’s costumes were gorgeous;  long Renassance type dresses draped over the beautiful white Lusitano stallions.  The ‘Carousel’ was also an amazing show; 9 riders dressed once again in Renaisance type clothing performed dressage maneuvers on the incredible Lusitanos.  Some of the action acts were the trick riders on quarter horses, and the roman riding on the Belgium geldings.  As horse

Carousel

lovers all were mesmerized when the fantastic trainer  and creator, Pignon played with 3 of the stallions.

No head gear or saddles were used and the horses truly seemed to be enjoying themselves.  At the conclusion of the show 3 young horses were turned out on stage to just enjoy the crowd, action and lights as this is how their training begins!

The show is still running in Scottsdale until March 26th!  After that you have to go to Montreal!  Don’t miss it!

Happy Trails!

After living most of my life in New Mexico I was surprised to hear of the ghost town of Hagan, NM,  not far from Albuquerque!  Elaine of the Turkey Road Kill story, came up with another good one; this time in the form of a terrific trail ride involving ghost towns, petroglyphs and suicide cliffs!

Hagan was apparently started under the assumption that the railroad would be coming through the area.   The hotel was built along with several homes and a depot for the train.

Doorway to the past

The Grand Hotel in Hagan, NM

A large adobe wall of the hotel remains showing the only one wall of what was once probably a grand structure.  The wall exhibits remains of ceiling vigas for large beamed ceilings that would reflect the Indian influence in southwest architecture.  All that is left of the depot is a crumbling structure that is falling into the arroyo.

Crumbling walls of the Depot

It was a very pleasant ride due to the beautiful weather, probably about 60 degrees and miles of sunshine!  That’s why we live in NM!  We all voted that this ride would be too hot in the summer so we delegated it a spring and fall ride.  Don’t attempt it if there is rain in the forecast as it is near some major arroyos and flooding is a distinct possibility!  The dirt road is fairly wide with good visibility for most of it which is good because we did have to move over for a few cars.  The so called suicide cliffs on the right and a ship rock like cliff on the left make for some beautiful scenery along the way!

The bird’s eye view on the crest of the hill at the beginning of the ride was amazing!  Three ski areas could be seen at once;  Los Alamos, Santa Fe and the Sandia ski trails were all plainly visible from one vantage point!  Just north of Cedar Crest and east of San Pedro Creek is a very easy and interesting ride.  Between the San Felipe Casino off of I 25 and La Madera road from N 14  is the ghost town of Hagan.  It is about a 2 hour ride from where we parked off of La Madera Rd.  There were cattle guards to negotiate around through wire gates so it would be more expedient to trailer past the last cattle guard.  I would advise to at least trailer to the junction of Puerticito and La Madera.

La Madera ride

As always the view is better over a horse’s ears!

Happy Trails!