Gallisteo Basin Preserve
By Patty Wilber
Last weekend was the first Pecos Chapter of the Back Country Horsemen’s training ride of the year! I have been looking forward to getting out on some new trails with old friends!
We went, as you may have already guessed, to the Gallisteo Basin Preserve.
It is a “Stewardship Community” –you can read all about what that means in the link above, but there are 13,000 acres and some home sites. There are also trails that traverse privately owned as well as state land within the preserve. There is a 321 acre equestrian parcel still available if you happen to have a spare 1.1 mil lying about.
This area is about 50 miles from our place and we trailer pooled with Squirt’s Dad, also known as the contractor in charge of the remodel. More on that later.
I debated about which horse to take but decided on Penny, just in case I needed to trade out and ride Squirt, who performed fabulously at that ACTHA ride back in December (see “The Obstacle Challenge“), but has not done a single thing since then except hang out with my ol’ buddy Longshot!
Squirt rode next to Penny in the trailer and definitely remembered her. When we got there, Squirt wanted to be near Penny.
Penny was down with that program–she wasn’t even very bossy! Penny was relaxed about the new location, too. Her laid back attitude about traveling is one thing I like about her.
Ready to go but not in a rush.
A lot of folks attended this ride, so we broke in to two groups of about 10.
We wound our way up into the hills you can see.
artsy fartsy shadow!
As the trail started to climb, I thought I’d get some photos. The trail got squeezed by junipers. They had been trimmed back, but only barely wide enough for a horse, so while I was busy trying to get some pictures…
See that limb on the right?
…that branch reached out and stabbed my pants leg! The nerve! Penny kept going (she had no idea I’d been attacked, and my hands were busy with the camera not her reins…) My leg got jerked out of the stirrup, but I knew I’d get free eventually because a tree branch embedded in your pants leg is no match for a horse moving forward with purpose!
No match at all.
And these pants were not that worn...
My leg was not much of a match, either.
Ow!
Just a flesh wound!
Jim and Cometa.
It was fun to ride through the different soil types. Here is the red. There was also yellow and white. Peter and Squirt.
Me and Penny. With Cometa's ears in the foreground!
All told we rode about 1.5 hours, and when we got back, a thoughtful hiker had wedged her car between our trailer and the rig next to us. Fortunately, Cometa is not claustrophobic. Unfortunately, he had the good manners not to leave them a souvenir on their windshield!
Took a lunch break at the trailers. Some folks went out for a second loop after lunch, but we all decided to call it a day.
Next BCH ride in two weeks, JD and his Mom Marcia and brother Junior and me are headed south to ride at Elephant Butte today, soak in some hot springs and ride at Caballo Lake tomorrow!
I’ll bring the camera!
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Remodel update: We put furniture back in! A dark-colored couch (which does not match the room), a dark pink lounge chair (which does not match the couch or the room), a blue lounge chair of the same style as the pink one (which does not match the pink one or the couch or the room) and an antique trunk that I think seems like a piece that can stay. Even though the furniture is not really working in terms of color and style, the basic layout seems good!
What you end up with if you still decorate using hand me downs (and antiques) from your family. Not the couch--we bought that ourselves--the second hand couch is in the other room!
New furniture eventually.
Bought two paintings from Robert Goff. (He was on the elk hunt in the fall.) They will go in the study once we get that arranged.
The big(ger) one. I have been to this place.
Ok, wow. Same ridge! Different view. (We had our cows here for a while.)
The little one. (12x12)
Robert also makes furniture using twisty juniper and old rough cut lumber. Covetting a desk…
Bought a Big Television (big for us anyway) that will talk to the computer….Yikes.
When I went to UC Davis as a freshman in 1979 I went to see The Wizard of Oz at the movies on campus. Holy cow! The whole Oz part is in COLOR! I had no idea. We had a 12″ black and white TV the whole time I was growing up (hey at least we had a TV!) From that to a 50″ flat screen soon to be mounted on the wall…amazing changes in technology.
And the TV delivery guy was really impressed with our tile floor–especially the inset talavera!
Until next week!
Tags: adventures, happy sigh, horses, New Mexico, riding, The Write Horse
