On a Horse! Bucket List item checked off

Rachel and I rode to the top of Bull of the Mountain, she on Badger and I on Rio, both bundled in parkas "Big Al" insisted we put on over our own jackets.  The trail was up and up and then down and down to the very top of the mountain beside Wheeler Peak, the highest in New Mexico.  We could see almost forever.  We were at about 12,000 feet and, happily Badger and Rio did all the hard work. They were good horses trained to carry all kinds of riders, even those seniors checking off their bucket lists.

We were accompanied by Robbie, a personable college student, Big Al's summer employee.  Big Al is a bona fide cowboy-- although it is definitely horses (he has 13)  and not cows that he loves.  He wore a black stetson, red leather-tooled boots with spurs (Robbie had awesome fringed chaps), and was not your average cowboy: he had visited 54  countries in the world, rode a mountain bike through Central America as a late teen (and was stopped  5 or 6 times by armed guerillas), has surfed off Nantucket and is doing just what he decided to do when he was 15: work with horses.

The ride was beautiful, early morning, through fragrant pines up to the point in the picture.  I had expected my horseback riding to be in a gentle meadow.  This was much better and far prettier.  Loved

it.