A Day On A Horse

H and I took a day off for the first time in a long while and headed up to Beaver Creek Lodge to spend a day on horseback with some wonderful horses and an excellent guide, Tanisha.  Beaver Creek Lodge has a busy season in the winter and slows down some in the summer, but their horseback riding opportunities in the non-snow months are wonderful.  By the way, this particular ride might have been one of the best Western style trail rides I’ve ever taken.

 

We could not have asked for a better day to ride or a more beautiful fall day.  The temperature was perfect and the sun was out with scattered clouds.  I’d flown over this area a week before on the way to NYC and made a note of the changing colors and wanted to get back here on the ground this time.  The only drawback was smoke in the air from forest fires up in Idaho. This has been the summer that the American West burned.

 

The mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae) is proving to be a major problem throughout the Rocky Mountains as this particular outbreak is *ten times larger* than previous outbreaks.  This particular steep slope we rode up has been largely devastated by infestation.

 

Daisy, our guide dog owned by the owners of Beaver Creek Lodge faithfully traveled with us, smelling the world and flushing all sorts of creatures for us.  It must have been at least as glorious a day for Daisy as it was for us.

 

At the top of this particular mountain we could look East and see Bear Lake and West to see the Bear River Range.

 

It was a glorious day filled with horses, the sounds of elk bugling in the distance and sightings of deer, sage grouse, crows, hawks, ravens and coyote.

 

Many thanks to our guide, Tanisha who studies at Utah State and wants to be a large animal veterinarian.  Watching Tanisha with her mount for the day provided an insight into what a wonderful veterinarian she would be.  We wish her best of luck and hope she makes it happen.

 

My mount for the day was a wonderful horse named Marshall.  One of these days soon, I hope to see Marshall again as he is a strong willed, but wonderful and hard working horse.  Thank you Marshall.

 

 

 

6 Replies to “A Day On A Horse”

    1. It was a glorious day. Absolutely good to get up in the mountains and have a good time. Can’t wait until next season after the snow melts to do that again.

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