A Trail Ride for my Birthday

So my aunt won a two hour trail ride last fall. She wasn't able to use it last year as she was recovering from hip surgery. She called me up last week and asked if I wanted to go with her as my birthday present. Of course I said yes (who would pass up this opportunity). We headed way out to a ranch in Tonapah, AZ for the the ride. It was a perfect day. A storm was blowing in so we had cloud cover to keep the sun off and the temperature was in the low 70s. The ranch was situated on the edge of the Eagletail Wilderness; we had a gorgeous view of the mountains during the entire ride. While we waited for the horses to get saddled the owner gave us a tour of their ranch house which is quite unique. It is 100% solar powered and they have an amazing system of cooling the house during the summer using a cooling tower and the simple science of hot air rising and air currents. If only every house down here could have one we would save a lot on electric bills.

My horse was named swayback and Marilyn's was spot. They were your typical Trail horses: gentle, older, knew the area so well that you didn't have to do much leading and of course they walked faster when we turned around to head back. Our guides took us through desert next to the ranch and it was relaxing wandering among the chaparral and ironwood. I enjoyed maneuvering the washes that frequently crossed our paths. On the way back in, my horse did speed up to a trot every now and then and I loved it; I wished I could have gone faster.

What was really amazing is that later that day and the next, I was not sore. When I first got off the horse, my legs hurt from being stretched for so long but later on I had no problems whatsoever. I think it has to do with all the hiking I've been doing, but what do I know.