Horseback Riding in the Aspens

     We just spent a fun filled week in Arizona taking in many of the outdoor activities and sites including the Grand Canyon, Sedona, Jerome, Slide Rock, Meteor Crater, off-road Jeep tour and more.

     This story is about our high mountain trail ride (Navajo Spring Ride) through the Aspen Woods near Mormon Lake.  Our trail ride was Friday the day before we were to leave and it seemed like a fun way to spend our last day of vacation.  We reserved our trail ride on Thursday for a Friday afternoon ride.  

     Our group consisted of myself, Mimi, Maureen (daughter), Patrick (son) and Jen (daughter-in-law).  Jen had the most experience horseback riding (the most enthusiastic), Pat being next then myself, Mimi and Maureen had no experience at all.    

     The GPS directed us to the location but it the building seemed a little sketchy and no one was around but to be fair this was our cowboy adventure not a spa treatment, let’s get real.  We were early so we just waited and finally the owner Eddie showed up after clearing up a little confusion on the reservation, he and Chris went to get the horses.  They had asked about our experience with horses.  We boldly claimed that we had seen many pictures of horses and were experienced at sitting so why would there be an issue.  They meant riding experience, Oh!  That would be very little to none. 

     Eddie and Chris went to get the horses setup, that’s probably not the right term but you get the idea.  About 20 minutes later they brought the horses in to the corral where we would mount them for the start of the trail ride.  They had assigned specific horses to each of us based on our riding experience, which except for Jen was mostly south of zero.

    We were each give the name of our horse. My horse was Creampuff, what that doesn’t sound very manly, I guess they didn’t value my experience as a horseman from my riding days when I was 10 years old.  But Ok, I won’t judge, let me see the horse first. Pat would ride Chromo, Mimi’s horse was Luke, Jen had Teddy and Maureen was assigned Blue.  

     Creampuff was a big white horse, the biggest horse in the group.  I am the shortest person in our family, good to know cowboys have a sense of humor.  Seriously, the top of my head wasn’t as high as the Creampuff’s back.  The stirrup was 5 feet of the ground; I’m 5’5” tall (on a good day).  How was I going to get on a horse that tall and the girth of Creampuff was enormous, it would be like straddling a boxcar.

     I was laughing as I sauntered over to my horse. Hey! Anybody got a ladder?  It’s important to know at this point that I’m not very flexible, never have been even as a baby so I knew this would be a challenge.  Cowboy Chris said no problem you got this as I tried stretched my short stubby little legs toward the stirrup missing by 12 inches.  Cowboy Chris readjusted the stirrup lowering it as much as possible.  Now I’ll give it another try, I stretched my left leg (the good one) up as far as I could but I was still short of the stirrup by about 4 inches when Cowboy Chris said I’ll give you a shove and pushed me up and on the horse. Whew! Now I am perched on top of Creampuff, Hmm, I would have expected Creampuff to be a little softer but that was not the case.

     Everyone else mounted their horses but not with the same flair as I did.  Now we were ready for our trail ride. Off we go following in single file through the woods along the Aspen trail.  This 1½-hour ride was a pleasant trip through the woods up and down the rocky trail except for the fact that my legs felt like I imagine a turkey wishbone being tugged from both sides.  The horses stumbled a few times, pooped & peed a lot but everyone enjoyed the experience with Cowboy Eddie & Cowboy Chris plus Maureen overcame her fear of horses. 

     Now, arriving back at the corral my only worry was how was my munchkin body going to get off ginormous horse.  Well thankfully, there was a cowboy at the corral who gave assistance.   Finally I’m on the ground safe and sound.  One thing occurred to me is that in all the cowboy movies I’ve watched over the years I have never seen a cowboy help another cowboy on or off a horse but then again they weren’t riding CREAMPUFF.