Saddle Up Your Horses

The song "The Great Adventure" by Steven Curtis Chapman was dubbed our trip's theme song.

Saddle up your horses we've got a trail to blaze

Through the wild blue yonder of God's amazing grace

Let's follow our leader into the glorious unknown

This is a life like no other - this is The Great Adventure

Come on get ready for the ride of your life

Gonna leave long faced religion in a cloud of dust behind

And discover all the new horizons just waiting to be explored

This is what we were created for

We'll travel over, over mountains so high

We'll go through valleys below

Still through it all we'll find that

This is the greatest journey that the human heart will ever see

The love of God will take us far beyond our wildest dreams

Arrival

Goodness, what an adventure it was! Thursday morning started off bright and early and I was a bundle of nerves as we loaded our last few things then fetched the horses. But my sister steadily drove our precious cargo on the longest freeway haul she's ever done, and got us safely over the mountain to our destination.

It was sunny and hot and we quickly found the boarder pens and put up our horses with their buckets of water and a flake of hay. Then we lounged in the shade by the pool and waited for everyone else to arrive.

Accommodations

We slept in tipis. Four of my cousins and I stayed in one called The Spotted Fawn. They were on raised wooden platforms and had cozy twin beds in them with wool camp blankets and down throws.

The tipis were out in the dry pine forest, a five minute drive up on the ridge from the ranch. We were in a naturalistic setting. I fell asleep each night under a full moon, to the sound of cicada and owls and coyotes, and awoke to the sounds of ravens and shrews rustling in the dry leaves around the camp. Every night we checked our beds for spiders and snakes and all things creepy crawly. One morning a chipmunk ventured halfway down a tipi pole.

Rides

We had at least at least two horse events planned a day, one of them being a themed and costumed trail ride. We did not plan for the weather. It was 104 degrees on Saturday and 101 on Sunday. What does this mean for horses and riders? Unbearable. Hot, hotter, and hotter still!

My Boy and I dressed for the "vintage cowgirl" ride.

Many of us wondered why we felt like we had heatstroke and red faces and headaches and couldn't stand the thought of saddling a horse if our lives depended on it. A few rides were postponed or cancelled, or some riders opted out. Hot weather riding tip: soak bandannas in ice water, ring them out slightly, and tie them around your neck to help keep yourself cool!

The few trail rides we did venture on led us on dusty paths up onto the ridge, through meandering pines. We crossed far back onto the property and into open territory and saw alpine meadows. We spotted numerous deer and at one point came across what we thought was a small herd of horses grazing in the trees, only to discover they were elk. They moved off quietly but not before our horses caught their scent and raised their heads and pricked their ears.

Returning to the ranch after a ride.

Events

One event was an extreme trail course that we set up in the arena. Riders had to put on a rain slicker, back through an "L" of poles on the ground, shake a bag of cans, walk up to a blown up cactus (think Cinco de Mayo party display) and move rings from one arm to the other, back through barrels, walk over snakes (foam noodles) a tarp, and through hula hoops. My Boy did well and we placed 4th in this event (yes, we had ribbons! And trophies! Oh my!)

Another event was the pink pony breast cancer ride, to honor those in our family that have passed away from cancer. Because it was so hot and we had to wait until evening, we ran out of daylight to do both a ride and the trail course, so we combined them and rode in our pink outfits for the trail event.

Sunday morning started early with a heaven-sent cloud cover in the sky that kept things cooler for our rodeo. Many of us intended to trot our horses through the course (ahem, like this Pony Girl) but when we discovered there were both trot and lope events, we decided to see how the trot ones went and then, well, maybe we'd try the loping. As you can probably guess, most of us ended up loping! Nothing like a little cowgirl courage and competitive spirit during a rodeo to get even the novice horse riders crying "yah!" and galloping home. Yep, me and My Boy even did a lope/trot combination for most events. We placed 4th in Pole Bending/lope, barrel racing/lope, and the barrel racing/trot. We placed 5th in the champagne glass ride and the pole bending/trot. In the egg and spoon ride we placed 2nd. I even loped My Boy while holding an egg on a spoon! I was so proud of myself and my choppy loper. But our big victory was in the keyhole race. My spotted speedy boy won this event in 13.8 seconds! I don't know how he did it but I credit his reining training. We loped into the keyhole, stopped on a dime, and spun around and loped out. I really don't remember a thing about our run but someone got it on video camera and I can't wait to see it again.

Congratulating my rodeo boy!

My sister did very well in the gaming events on her Arabian/Paint, Brandy, which was a completely new and unexplored territory for this quick little mare. In fact, they did so well that she collected the most points and won the Rodeo Princess trophy of the weekend! My sister even got a tiara!

We had intended to paint our ponies for the cowgirls and Indians ride. I love Appaloosas dressed in native costume. What better horse could I have to paint up with some Native American symbols? Unfortunately, that was the hottest day of the weekend and only a few went on that ride. The rest of us dressed in costume and met the riders up at the tipis for pictures. And when we got back to the ranch, as the sun started to go down behind the ridge, I had my sister take a few pictures of me and my Indian boy. I had even handcrafted him a suede braided cavesson with beads and feathers. I put it on under his halter but it wasn't quite the same effect.

Food

The chuck wagon crew was amazing! We had a little cookhouse to ourselves and were literally rolling into our tipis with full bellies every night. It was hard to eat much during the heat of the day, so by the time we sat outside and ate alfresco by candlelight, we were too ravenous to carry a conversation.

We had lasagna and fresh green beans and garlic bread, blue cheese hamburgers and corn on the cob, and homemade enchiladas and cilantro and lime black beans. Oh, and a cheesecake to die for! Chocolate espresso swirl cheesecake topped with homemade chocolate Merlot sauce (okay, wipe off the drool. Do not even ask for the recipe as I can not give it out my cousin B is a pastry chef and she is hoping to open her own bakery someday.)

Departure

Our last morning, we packed ourselves and our horses and hit the road for home, beating the first few drops of a humid summer drizzle. When I unloaded My Boy at home and turned him out into his pasture, he immediately went to his favorite dirt hole and rolled vigorously, then galloped from one end of the pasture to the other in glee, happy for freedom.

The sun has set on our first annual Pony Cousins horse and rider reunion. But without a doubt, this will become an annual event. The time we spent together, both with our beloved horses and our family, was a memorable experience for us all.

Happy trails to you, until we meet again.

Happy trails to you, keep smilin' until then.

Who cares about the clouds when we're together?

Just sing a song and bring the sunny weather.

Happy trails to you, 'till we meet again.

Some trails are happy ones,

Others are blue.

It's the way you ride the trail that counts,

Here's a happy one for you.

Happy trails to you, until we meet again.

Happy trails to you, keep smilin' until then.

Who cares about the clouds when we're together?

Just sing a song and bring the sunny weather.

Happy trails to you, 'till we meet again.