Pagosa Springs - Part Two

As I mentioned in our post yesterday, one of the highlights of our trip to Pagosa Springs, Colorado was our hike along the Piedra River. We drove about 16 miles into the country to a trail head for the Piedra River trail. There were several cars there, but we only saw one man with two Golden Retrievers.

The river goes through a winding canyon along the river. The day was beautiful with a cool feel to the air. Here are pictures from that hike.


All in all, a great trip.

Today is May 31 and if today is your birthday you share your day with: Colin Farrell (actor), Brooke Shields (actress), Sharon Gless (actress - "Cagney and Lacey"), Joe Namath (NY Jets quarterback), Clint Eastwood (actor - "Dirty Harry"), Walt Whitman (poet)

Pagosa Springs - Part One

We're back from our jaunt to Pagosa Springs, Colorado. The hotel we stayed at, The Springs, did offer Internet access - at $10/day. We love you guys who read this blog, but we're also cheap and $10 is $10.

Pagosa Springs is located in Southwest Colorado between Durango and Alamosa. It's situated along the San Juan River which has some of the best trout fishing in the country. And, it is surrounded by the majestic San Juan Mountains.

What gave Pagosa Springs its start are the hot springs along the river. Pagosa is a combination of two Ute Indian words - Pah - meaning 'water' - and Osah - meaning 'boiling.' It was a sacred, healing place to both the Ute and Navajo Indians before the settlers came. Today, Pagosa Springs is a tourist town, but it is still very much a small, ranch-based community as well.

The Pagosa Springs area has some of the most beautiful horse country you can find anywhere.




We stayed at the hotel that is associated with The Springs. The picture to the left is Betty sitting at the fountain with The Springs bath house in the rear. People can come and, for a daily fee, enjoy the hot springs. If you stay at the hotel as we did you can have access to the springs any time you want. The picture below was taken from downtown Pagosa Springs. The bath house is to the left, the hot springs in the center, and our hotel on the right.



Here are some more pictures of the hot springs. There are over a dozen different pools with the water temperatures ranging from 96 degrees all the way up to 109 degrees. We liked the pools that were between 102 and 106 degrees. For those hardy enough, there are steps down to the river where you can cool off at a bone-chillin' 46 degrees.




Besides the hot springs, Pagosa Springs is a good place for outdoor activities, especially on the river. This first picture is a rafting group coming down the San Juan River.



Here's a picture of a young man working the rapids in his small kayak (this is for my brother-in-law and his sons, our nephews, who are avid and experienced river folk).


There are lots of great hiking trails in the area and, in tomorrow's post, we will share pictures from a great hike we took along the Piedra River.

Today is May 30 and, if today's your birthday, you share your day with: Wynonna Judd (great country singer), Meredith McRae (actress- "Petticoat Junction"), Gale Sayers (Chicago Bears running back), Benny Goodman (muscian, band leader), and Mel Blanc ("What's up, Doc?" - voice of Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, and Porky Pig)

"That's all folks!"

Happy Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day! Stop and take a moment to remember the men and women who have given their lives for our freedoms.

It's a beautiful morning here and on a holiday that means we have a lot of hot air balloons as Albuquerque is the hot air balloon capital of the world. We were drinking our coffee and reading the paper when Betty said, "That sounds like a balloon is close."

When the winds are right, some of the balloons will fly close to us and on some occasions even land close to our house as we have lots of open sage areas around us.

This morning several balloons landed just up the street from our house. As they fly over at one height they move in a North Westerly direction. As they drop down the lower air currents bring them back in a South Easterly direction for a landing.



We have seen thousands of balloons since we have lived here. Each October the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta has 700 balloons and all through the year we see balloons flying most every day that's nice.


By now, Gletta and Morgunn have gotten used to the balloons. They usually just watch as they fly over. The only time I've seen them scared is when one balloon came over our house to make a landing behind us. They were only a couple of hundred feet high when they passed over the stable and the sound of the propane burners spooked them a little. I usually go out so they have someone to connect with while the balloons are around. This is Morgunn coming over for a little reassurance this morning.

We leave for Pagosa Springs in about two hours. If we have a wireless connection there I'll see you tomorrow. If not, see you on Friday.

If your birthday is May 26 you share your day with: Hank Williams Jr. (Country singer - Betty and I went to high school with him), James Arness (Actor - Gunsmoke), Peggy Lee (Singer), Jay Silverheels (Tonto with the Lone Ranger), and best of all - John Wayne (Actor)

Grandparents Once Again

As most of you know we're the proud grandparents of Juliet Elizabeth Cooksey, now 7 months old, who lives in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Over the past two weeks we have become the proud grandparents of Javier Benavides, a 16 year old boy, who is being adopted by our other son, Chris, and his wife, Tracy, who live in Mount Vernon, Ohio.


Chris and Tracy have been married for almost 15 years and, from the beginning, we knew they did not want to have any children of their own. They have always talked of adopting an older child and, in the past year and a half of working with the system in Ohio, it is becoming a reality. They have legal custody of Javier now and in six months the adoption will be legal. Both Chris and Tracy have extensive experience in working with teenagers so they're well prepared for this.

We will meet Javier for the first time in July when we go to the mid-West to visit with family. We'll spend about four days with them in Mount Vernon.

We're very excited and happy for all three of them and consider this one more blessing in our lives.

If your birthday is May 25 you share your day with: Frank Oz (one of the Muppet guys), Tom T. Hall (country singer), Beverly Sills, (opera singer), Miles Davis (jazz musician), and Ralph Waldo Emerson (poet).

(PS: Betty and I are heading for Pagosa Springs, Colorado tomorrow morning for a 3 night get away and reconnect time for us. We'll return on Thursday evening. I'm taking my laptop and, if I can get a wireless connection, I'll continue making posts. If not, I'll be back on by next Friday at the latest. I hope you'll check back in when we're on line again.)

Back to Narnia

Betty and I went to see the movie "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian" today. We've been looking forward to this movie for over a year. In February of 2007 we were able to take a three week trip to New Zealand. As part of that trip we visited the South Island to a place called Glenorchy, NZ. We took two horse back rides that day. The morning ride was the Rings Tour ride and it went through several areas where the Lord of the Rings was filmed. We saw where Frodo met the elves for the first time, the place where Borimer died, and the mountains in the mountain crossing scenes. Betty even rode a horse that had been used in the movie.

During that ride they said that we would pass a new set for the second Chronicles of Narnia movie. We rode about 15 feet from some workmen doing some paint touch up on this huge, gnarled tree stump. We were told that we couldn't take pictures, so we didn't. So it was neat to see our stump in the early part of the movie today:


On our afternoon ride we did a ride called the Dart River ride. This was one of the areas from the Lord of the Rings where Gandalf did his long horseback ride during the third movie. We were pleasantly surprised to see the Dart River in today's movie as well:


It's a fun movie and we enjoyed it very much. It was also fun to have been where some of the scenes were filmed for this movie and the Lord of the Rings.

If today, May 24, is your birthday you share a birthday with: Bob Dylan (folksinger), Gary Burghoff (Radar on MASH), Patti LaBelle (singer), and Priscilla Presley (Elvis' wife).

Books We Have Learned From

Every once in a while I will share some information about horses that has been particularly helpful for us. There's no question that experience on horses, especially in the company of better riders than us, has been the greatest teacher. However, there have been several books over the years that have been good teachers as well as good reads.

Without question, the books we have enjoyed the most and learned the most from are by a horse trainer named Mark Rashid who lives in Estes Park, Colorado.

His first book, "Considering the Horse" was the first book of his that we read. Unlike a lot of books written by horse trainers, Mark's books are good stories. His first couple of books tell about his experiences as a young boy when he worked with "the old man," a horse trainer by the name of Walter Pruett, and the lessons he learned from him. The most basic lesson he learned (and we learned from Mark) is to look at situations from the horse's perspective before deciding what to do next. I rarely read books more than once, but I have read this book at least three times and probably will read it again several more times.

His second book was "A Good Horse is Never a Bad Color" in which he continued his stories about his experiences with "the old man." He learned that buying a horse because of how he/she looks is never a good idea. He learned to evaluate a horse from the hooves up. If the feet are not good, then no matter how the horse looks it will not be a good horse.

His third book, "Horses Never Lie" helped us to learn that what you see in horses is what you get. They don't know how to lie or be deceitful. They don't play games with you. We have learned that we can learn a lot about ourselves from what our horses tell us. We know now that when something is not working with our horses, we look to ourselves first to see what we can do different. Our basic assumption for Gletta and Morgunn is they are always trying to do what they think we want and, if what they're doing is not what we want, then we're not communicating well enough.

We have read all his books now and learned something from each of them.

"Life Lessons from a Ranch Horse"

"Horsemanship Through Life"


"Big Horses, Good Dogs, Straight Fences"




If you want a good read and perhaps learn something about horses along the way, then we highly recommend Mark Rashid's books.

In the Beginning

One of our blogging friends recently shared her introduction to her life with horses. I decided it was time to share how we got started.

Betty had hurt her back in the mid-90's. As part of her recuperation she read a lot of books about strengthening her back - exercise, stretching, etc. One of the books said that horse back riding was good for your back if you learned to ride properly - with the correct posture. We were planning a trip to Alaska and one of our stops was at a wilderness lodge East of Denali where the only things you could do (besides veg out) was to hike or ride horses. She suggested we take some riding lessons to see if we liked it and if her back would handle it.

So, we took some lessons at a local riding stable that basically focused on defensive riding - what to do to keep yourself out of trouble. Betty fell in love with riding and, eventually, I did too. Our trip to Alaska was great. At the lodge we rode along glacier rivers during the day and, after supper, we would ride to an area where we could have a camp fire. On those evening rides we would see moose grazing next to a little pond. We even did an all day ride up to a mountain pass where we saw caribou, mountain goats and evidence where grizzly bears had been recently. At the end of that ride a river we had to cross to get back to the lodge had risen significantly so we had to swim our horses across. It was all a great adventure and we were hooked.

That was about 12 years ago. From that point on we would schedule horse back rides wherever we went on personal vacation or business trips. In 2001 we decided to go to see the Calgary Stampede, a big rodeo/fair in Calgary, Alberta. We asked our travel agent to find us a guest ranch where we could go riding for a week while we were in that area. That's how we found the Lazy M Ranch and Lane and Margie Moore. All the other ranches we had visited prior to this trip were places where your horse was saddled and ready in the morning and they took it from you after the last ride of the day. At the Lazy M Lane wanted us to learn all we could about horses so we were responsible for everything. They taught us how to groom, pick feet, saddle, and take care of the horse after the ride. They also had riding camps in the Canadian Rockies where we had some real riding adventures. We loved it and went back to the Lazy M every year after that. We learned about horse training in the following years and talked a lot with Lane about what it meant to own a horse. They encouraged us that we could be horse owners and do very well. They have also become some of our best friends as well as horsemanship mentors.

In 2004 we moved to Corrales, New Mexico with the idea that we might buy our own horses. However, we decided we would take at least a year to make that decision to be sure we didn't rush into anything. During that year we went riding at a stable South of Santa Fe - Broken Saddle Stables - where we were introduced to gaited horses. They have both Missouri Fox Trotters and Tennessee Walkers. Gaited horses have a flat, running walk that can be extremely fast, but is also extremely smooth which was nice on our older bodies.

In the Spring of 2005 when we decided to buy horses we met a gaited horse trainer who lives in Corrales and he introduced us to Icelandic Horses. As he told us, "Their tolt (smooth gait) is easy on old bodies and their shorter stature means that when you fall off you're closer to the ground." We rode one of the Icelandic Horses that lives in Corrales and fell in love with them. We started researching Icelandic Horses that were for sale - all out of state at that time.

About that same time we decided to keep our horses at our house rather than board them which is a decision we have never regretted for one second. The man who built our house is a horseman - he breeds show Appaloosas - and he built our two stall stable over the next several months.

In late July of 2005, the owner of one of the Icelandic Horses we had ridden, decided she needed to reduce her herd and reluctantly put Morgunn up for sale. One day later he belonged to me. The neat thing is we bought him on July 1 which is our anniversary.


A month later Betty spotted an Icelandic Horse for sale in Utah. Our trainer friend joined us, we hooked the trailer to the truck and headed for Spanish Forks, Utah about the middle of August. After meeting and riding Gletta and getting a vet check (which she passed with flying colors), Gletta belonged to Betty and we brought her home.

Since then we've ridden around our neighborhood, through the Bosque (woods) along the Rio Grande, along the many irrigation ditches, in the foothills of the Sandia Mountains, and even in a gaited horse show at the Sandoval County Fair in Cuba, NM. We've had our bumps and bruises, but we've also had some of the most enjoyable times of our lives.

What started as an enjoyable vacation experience flowered over the years to a way of life that we now love.

Bridles, Bits, Bosals -- and Hackamores, Too

I thought I would talk a little today about where we are on how we communicate with our horses, Gletta and Morgunn. When we first brought them home to live with us we were using the traditional bridle with a metal bit. Over time with the assistance of our trainer we tried different bits and they worked reasonably well. We didn't have any problems getting Gletta and Morgunn to take their bit, but Gletta particularly would 'mouth' her bit all the time while Betty was riding her.

About two years ago I started researching the idea of bitless communication. There is the traditional bosal, a tear-drop shaped piece of tack, usually made of rawhide, that goes over the horse's nose. The reins are attached to the bottom of the bosal. A bosal is often used with young horses before a bit is introduced to them. Here's a picture of a horse (not ours) wearing a bridle and bosal...

Another traditional, non-bit item is the hackamore (sometimes spelled hackimore). This is a mechanical device that again goes over the nose, but uses metal shanks to create pressure on the nose. Here's a picture of a horse in a hackamore...


The third traditional non-bit item is the side-pull. This is a bridle where the reins attach directly to the side and it allows a direct pull from each rein. Here's a picture of a horse (again not ours) wearing a side pull bridle...

A little over a year ago we finally decided to go with a bitless bridle similar to the side-pull bridle. However, instead of a direct pull as in the side-pull, our reins are attached to a leather strap that goes under the horses chin. When we pull the right rein, the pressure is applied to the left side of the horse's head instead of the right side as with a side-pull. This bridle was developed by a vet named Dr. Cook. We have almost a year's experience with both horses and we're very happy with the results. Both Gletta and Morgunn are just as responsive as they were with the bit, but they both seem much more relaxed with this bitless bridle. Here's a picture of each of them with their bitless bridles on...



So, that's probably a whole lot more than you ever wanted to know about bitless bridles.

I Let the Day Get Away From Me

Sorry, but I let the day get away from me. I had a post planned for today, but it's almost bedtime. I'm not like my friend Michelle who will stay up until all hours of the night to get things done. I need my beauty sleep (and no comments about really needing beauty sleep, please). So, mea culpa. I'll try to do better tomorrow.

Do you know why horses can't dance? Because they have two left feet.

Ditch Pony Promenade

Today was the Ditch Pony Promenade in Corrales. It's an annual horse show for kids. It's an all day event and includes everything from costume classes, stick pony classes for the little bitties, driving classes, and riding classes in both English and Western for all ages up to age 18. Your's truly is the 'official' photographer for the event which means I'm the only one who volunteered to take pictures.


It's a lot of fun for me as photography is a hobby of mine. I enjoy watching the kids and some of these youngsters are good horse folks. I learn a lot from watching them ride. These pictures of me at work were taken by Betty, my lovely better half.


Here are a couple of the costume class participants. First is the bride and groom. The horse is dressed as the groom with the lovely bride riding side-saddle.



But, perhaps my favorite of all is Piglet, with Winne the Pooh on his back, riding Eyore.



There were plenty of good riders in all the classes, both English and Western, including this young girl on her white pony doing a nice little canter around the arena.



I thoroughly enjoyed myself and, God willing, I'll do it again next year.

Sleep Well Friends

We give thanks, O God, for revealing your Son Jesus Christ to us by the light of his resurrection: Grant that as we sing your glory at the close of this day, our joy may abound in the morning as we celebrate the Paschal mystery; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Guide us waking, O Lord, and guard us sleeping; that awake we may watch with Christ, and asleep we may rest in peace.

Lord, you now have set your servant free
to go in peace as you have promised;

For these eyes of mine have seen the Savior,
whom you have prepared for all the world to see:

A Light to enlighten the nations,
and the glory of your people Israel.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.

Guide us waking, O Lord, and guard us sleeping; that awake we may watch with Christ, and asleep we may rest in peace.

Have a blessed Lord's day tomorrow.

May Snow Brings June Glow

I know, the title makes no sense, but it rhymes. Our rain yesterday brought snow to the Sandia Mountains.


That's a little unusual for mid-May. The mountains in Northern New Mexico often get snow in May and even early June in the highest elevations, but our Sandias aren't that tall (10,678 feet) so a May snow is not normal. Yet, it was neat to get up early this morning to feed the horses and see the snow.

Have a great day.

PS: There's an exceptionally insightful post on Max and Michelle's Galloping Grace Youth Ranch blog today. Check it out.

Rain, Rain, Go Away... No Wait, Stay!

I was supposed to go out to Galloping Grace Youth Ranch to work with the horses, but we have had one of our rare rainy, cloudy, windy days -- and we need the rain. So I was a Sunshine Cowboy and stayed home where it was warm and dry.

If you recall, we feed Gletta and Morgunn in separate stalls and we have to lock Gletta's run out. Morgunn eats about twice as fast as Gletta and he would eat her food if we didn't do this. When I went out to let her out this morning, this is what I found -- smart horses staying out of the rain.

However, when I opened Gletta's run out gate, it didn't take long for Morgunn to brave the rain in a dash for her stall.

So, when I went back inside both were happily ensconced (How's that for a word, Michelle?) in Gletta's stall.