I have had a bee in my bonnet about a road that I could see on Google Maps that skirts along the western edge of the San Pedro River. I scrutinized the 3D satellite view to try to get an idea of what we would need to do to get to the southern end of the road where it stops at what looked like the top of a steep bank above the river.

Of course looking at an area on satellite view, it all looks like nice smooth grassy field, hahahaha. I was pretty excited to try it though, and Wayne was game. We set off around 10am, it was a gorgeous sunny day with a little breeze. It is around a three mile ride to the step over gate on Border Monument Road into the BLM land. We had both shed two layers of clothing as it warmed up into the high 60’s on the way there.

Minnie was pretty amped up, and it wasn’t nervousness. She was feeling feisty and it could have been due to that the group she is pastured with had been moved the afternoon before. I have found it usually takes a few days for horses to settle whenever you change their accommodations in anyway, so I wasn’t terribly surprised by her attitude. She was basically full of hell and sassy, but in a way that wasn’t crazy, scared or stupid.

I had a clear plan of where we were headed as the crow flies, and also knew there was a big wash that we would need to find a good crossing point through. In the satellite view there appears to be faint old single track cow paths I was hoping to follow, but on the ground they didn’t exist. We made our way through large patches of tall grasses and around mesquite trees until we came to the edge of the wash. It had several narrow fingers of land that dropped steeply into the wash. We skirted the top of the drop off until we found the main channel of the wash. After scouting it briefly Wayne found a decent way to drop down into the main channel. Once we were in the wash he then said “Ok trail boss, you pick a way up the other side.” It all looked about the same to me, roughly a 4 foot vertical wall to jump to get out. I pointed Minnie at it, gave her a slight nudge with my leg and let her have her head. She leapt straight up, landing on the top of the bank. In the feisty mood she was in, I think she would have jumped the moon if I pointed her at it.

We then entered a long really rough section of solid tumbleweed that was chest high on the horses. As much as we could we wound our way in between them, smashing the smaller ones where we had to go through them. They are a nasty prickly plant. Minnie and Wayne’s horse Cinnamon were not impressed with our choice of route. Note to self, if you want an easy way to teach a dressage horse to Piaffe and Passage, ride through a sea of tumbleweed. I think her theory was to stomp them as much as possible so they wouldn’t continually get caught in her tail and bang against her hind legs. There were a couple spots I managed to check google maps on my phone to see if we were getting near the mythical old road I thought was there, and finally I saw it was about 20 feet away and we were riding parallel to it - YAY!

Once on the road it was lovely! It skirts right next to the river on the top of a tall bank. In the photo, the trees are much taller than they appear. The tree bases are growing down in the riverbed. We continued up the road for a couple of miles, enjoying the peaceful easy ride. Wayne casually mentioned that it was going to take us as long to get back as it had taken up to get there. That is something I usually keep in mind - but it was a good reminder. I looked at the time and we had been out for 2 hours, we went on to where we could see the traffic on highway 92 wasn’t far ahead, then we turned back.

We had passed a sheep ranch off to left when we were coming out of the worst of the tumbleweed, and had noticed that they had mowed outside of their fence line, so they had to have a gate into the BLM land. We headed toward the ranch on the way back to see if there was a way to take a shortcut. We skirted the perimeter hoping to see someone outside the house to ask for permission to cross their land, but no-one was around. Their two sheepdogs shadowed us on the other side of the fence, guarding their property. Minnie resumed her Passage when we went past the herds of sheep, but she kept a level head and was soft and responsive to the bit.

Isn’t it odd how sometimes it is so much easier on the way back than when you have blazed a trail out. It was a clear path through the very smashed “Passaged” tumbleweeds. We went along the fence line this time because we saw a group of people working on something on the other side of the fence. So we stopped to chat with them a minute. That put us at an easy access point down through the wash and up the other side. Then we found that faint old cattle trail I had seen on satellite, it made it a much easier ride back to the gate we came in through. Minnie decided she would rather jump the “step over” gate (that is well above her knees), and did a beautiful graceful jump over it from a walk. I had a feeling she might.

I thought she might get tired at some point during this 12 mile ride, but no. She put on her Welsh Cob business walk for the 3 miles back and she was as fresh as a daisy when we got back to the ranch. I am really proud of Minnie, there was so much that was new and different on this ride. In her feisty frame of mind I was very pleased that she was a manageable fire breathing dragon. Well done Minnie.