Even though I had to work this weekend, we were busy bees the rest of our waking hours.
I had a lot of help in the office on Saturday and Sunday. Emma showed Rowan the best bird-watching/nap spot for the afternoon hours.
(Disclaimer: This scene of canine/feline bliss was disturbed about 20 seconds later, when Rowan turned her head and smashed Emma with the "cone of silence". Emma was suitably offended and climbed up on my desk after that for the remainder of the work day.)
After work on Saturday, D and I drove down to Santa Fe. We wanted to try to find a feed/tack store that had been recommended to us, and while it was a little bit hard to find, we were able to do so eventually, and had a nice chat with the proprietor. He has a set of new fence panels, which we seriously need to separate the 2 halves of our lot, including one with a nice walk-through gate, that we'll pick up next weekend, but which he has set aside for us, plus a couple of feeder tanks, since the boys are otherwise eating their hay off the sandy dirt, which isn't very good for their digestion. (We've actually started giving them a monthly supplement to counteract sand colic, which is really prevelant around here.) We'll also pick up a few odds like T-posts and electric fence wire next week, and Tom, the owner, deals in hay, so particularly considering the expensive cost per bale, coupled with the craptastic quality of what we could find around here, we'll likely be ordering our 300 bales for the year from him. His guys will deliver AND stack and load all the bales for us for a 50-buck charge. Trust me... THAT is a deal.
While were down Santa Fe way, we also checked out a potential training site for the horse boys. I had been recommended a very good, detailed map of the Caja Del Rio. A recent endurance-rider acquaintance actually put the map together, complete with descriptions of the rides you can do in the region. With her good directions and the map, we were able to find the parking lot with no problems. There are several great training trails that leave from the parking lot.
From here:
You can exit the parking area to the left of the picture, and do a nice 17-mile loop (which is just about perfect for our long-day training ride) out to the base of the mountains, before heading back south, and picking up a stock-access trail (also dirt, also 2-track) and going back to the parking lot. If you exit the parking lot to the right, there are trails of varying lengths that lead out towards the Rio Grande, which you can ford in certain spots, and then head up into the mountains.
As the crow flies, the mountains you see in the distance there are about 10 minutes south of Los Alamos, but because of the Rio Grande and large tracts of reservation land and/or the land owned by the National Lab here, we can't access them except to drive down to Santa Fe.
We are planning on taking Sam and Bhen out to try the 17-mile loop next weekend. I rode Bhen on Friday just at the horse park, and he was RARING to go. Surprisingly (or maybe not, the boy is a brick), he has adjusted to the 7800 feet of elevation here pretty easily. He was breathing a little bit harder than normal at the end of our workout, but once he got to walk, he took a couple of deep breaths, and he dropped his pulse and respirations down to easy-breathing levels. Wish I was that in shape myself.......
Oh, and Marcia? No filters were used. It's just really that blue in the sky here. Almost every day. Just sayin.
All for now....
That sky!! NM has one of the best skies anywhere. It sounds like the boys will be happy in their new home.
Posted by: margene | February 23, 2009 at 05:22 AM
ahahahaha. "Cone of silence" is a funny way of putting it. i like that though. sigh, i so miss horseback riding. was cleared for that months ago, just am not back to work yet, so can't afford it again. but soon!
Posted by: rebecca | February 23, 2009 at 06:26 AM
So glad you are finding wonderful new places in the new place!
Posted by: Margaret | February 23, 2009 at 07:24 AM
Yikes, that sky is blue alright. Looks like nice riding trails though. Thanks for sharing your surrounds....while I look out on a howling wind and 8" of fresh snow!
Posted by: Nancy | February 23, 2009 at 07:35 AM
well of course it's blue way up there past the ozone layer. ;) sounds like a very productive weekend. :)
Posted by: lori | February 23, 2009 at 07:49 AM
I don't know whether to feel sorrier for Rowan or Emma over the head smashing incident!
Looks like you made some great horsey discoveries this weekend.
Posted by: Toby | February 23, 2009 at 08:48 AM
I think you're showing your age with that "cone of silence" comment.
(Sorry about that, Chief.)
Your blue sky is beautiful!
Posted by: Cheryl S. | February 23, 2009 at 09:41 AM
That is so pretty! I can't wait to see pics of the sky in summertime!
Posted by: elizabeth | February 23, 2009 at 02:26 PM
Ok, go ahead. Show off a beautiful sky. I'll consent to enjoy it. But crowing over temperatures? Yeah. I'll be suitably jealous. Especially with that 17 mile loop to ride. Someday... :)
Posted by: Chris | February 23, 2009 at 08:20 PM
Oh you just make me sick - blue sky this, yap yap yap. OOps, sorry - I've become "inversion fog layered in" for so many days that I've completely lost it. (Not that "losing it" was a far trek.)
Posted by: The Infamous Blonde Sharon | February 24, 2009 at 10:41 AM