My Birthday Ride

I've always known I was a lucky girl by nature.....(but, that's a whole other post!) 

This year I spent my birthday counting my blessings.  I couldn't help but think how lucky I am,
A wonderful husband, great kids, precious grandkids, priceless cousins, treasured friends, good health, comfortable life, and the wonderful family members that are still with me.
 
So, let me just START by sharing with you, my wonderful Birthday evening!  This was spent with my husbands family.  And then, we'll get to my fabulous Birthday Ride!

He has 3 sisters, but only 2 of them spend time down south during the winters, So, we celebrated with them and their husbands.  We went to his sisters house (I'll call her "The golfer") in Palm Springs to spend the weekend.  She and her husband have a beautiful home and are fabulous hosts. The golfer is a self taught Chef who can make a gourmet meal out of a tiny chunk of leftover... I swear!!  I've seen her do it!  And it will be presented like a 5 star restaurant too!   She really enjoys that we "ooh and aww" over all her beautiful dishes...but, we really can't help it, they look like they should be in a magazine!  And, the funny thing is, it appears that she has spent days putting these dishes together and yet she makes it seem effortless while in the kitchen....She will be visiting or playing cards with you and somehow this wonderful dish appears.  Yea, ok, deep down, we kinda  hate her for that .....

I can only show you "The golfer" as the other sister just wouldn't let me post her picture..."sigh"  I tried to tell her Penthouse wasn't lurking here,....only Bossman,  but she wasn't convinced.

So, we went to dinner at "The Blue Coyote."  It's a mexican restaurant with a southwestern flair.  It definately has a unique presentation to the plates and we were all impressed with the quality of food.  Even the fish tacos were done with Mahi Mahi. The Margurietas were to die for, I think they had gran marnier in them! and the Spanish Coffee looked like dessert.  We all tried different dishes and of course each others!!

Spanish coffee, chips  and salsa, Marguerita

Carnita Asada wrapped in Banana leaf. This was cooked in some sort of fabulous spices and sauce.

This was a pork dish "The Golfer" had and actually I like it better than mine, The flavors were out of this world!

And then...they brought a surprise dessert,  A FLAN!  And boy this didn't last long...The picture doesn't do it justice! They nailed the flavor on this one.

It was a great evening... 

I wish I had pictures of more of the family, but the guys kept wandering off looking at things, and weren't interested in posing for pictures.  We had to corral this one to stand still for a moment! LOLO

 NEXT MORNING:  I get up and it's very windy outside....I was worried and I just KNEW we were going to get blown out for our ride... I have to say,  I'd tried everything to find out what Desert Rose and Bossman had planned for me, but they wouldn't give it up!  They just said "You are going to be the princess for the day,  so, relax and enjoy it!"   Well,...  I don't have to be told THAT more than once!  So, I drove through Starbucks, and bought myself a coffee.....my favorite way to start my day as a princess.
My thoughts:
 "Oooh, get Bossman one of those yummy looking muffins, afterall, he's tacking up for me"....
"  Should get DR one so she doesn't think I favor Bossman.  ;-) Even tho I knew she wouldn't eat that early.
"I wonder what they are planning?"  Could they have Bella there for me to ride?  The Desert Rose rode with Mama H just a while ago...I wonder?  Could that be my surprise?  That would be cool!....
"Maybe there is a neat trail that I haven't seen before?"  Dusty Devoe said something about that on her blog yesterday. I thought I'd done most of them...."
"I don't have a CLUE who I'm riding..."  "sigh"  Sometimes I hate not having my own horse, because the stress of not knowing who I'm going to ride each day wears me out before I even get started."

Ok, you get the idea, I was in a fog, driving to the stables, and realized  "I lost the trail!" Damn, I had to call the Desert Rose to get me back on track, I'd taken a wrong turn and couldn't remember exactly how to get there... "sigh.."  I wasn't far off but..... Soon, I arrived at the stables and after a quick hugs and kisses with my cousin, was informed that the  horse I was going to ride was standing right over there....It was Lady!  She was decked out in Torquoise blanket and what DR referred to as "my saddle."  I laughed because I didn't quite believe her..... I mean, common! Lady is HER HORSE!  What was going on here???  I've only ridden her once and that was during an "emergency situation".  She has been known as a bit too much too handle for me in the past....so to hear that both she and Bossman felt I was up to riding her for the day?  Well, I was flattered. 
But then,  I said "Well, who are YOU going to ride then?"  She smiled very SLY and looked over at ....SLICK.  I said "Are you kidding me???"  She laughed and said "I know!" Bossman had him all tacked in my gear for me, and Lady for you when I got in here."  So, needless to say, Desert Rose was just as excited to ride Slick for the first time as I was to ride Lady!  We were both like a couple of little girls giggling with excitement and pride that we both were about to do firsts....

Soon, the Bossman made his appearance, and of course he collected hugs and kisses from me as I was so  flattered that he'd felt I was up to the challenge of  riding Lady AND that he:
A.) Stole her from the Desert Rose for me
B.) He would give Slick up to the Desert Rose for the day!  To my knowledge NO ONE rides Slick!  But then, we all know the Desert Rose is special to him... 

As DR and I were drinking our first "Cowgirl Courage" and chatting about what the day would hold for us, I was telling her what theories I had had earlier about Bella being my surprise and what trail Dusty said we should go on....When she FINALLY told me that that was it!  We were going on the Liken Trail!  Whoo Hoo! 
SADDLED UP! 
Headed out, everything went beautifully, weather was gorgeous, trail was steep and challenging but VERY SCENIC!   I was in Heaven, Lady was being a perfect little thing, Bossman was mixing our Cowgirl Courage everytime we stopped, and we were having great conversations while riding....I trotted on her and I loped on her.  It was going to be a GREAT DAY!


Now as I told you in my last post, I saw some rare Desert Flowers. 

Here is one of them.

Whats that you say?

Not so rare???

Yea,  Well, ok,    you're right....


But, something that IS RARE is, the Desert Rose dismounting!  Now you cousins out there KNOW what I'm talking about.....The  "DESERT ROSE DOES NOT DISMOUNT!"  FOR ANYTHING!...(unless she's tending to one of us...) right? right!

Well,...... about half way through our ride,  I noticed that Desert Rose was doing something kind of odd....  She had dismounted.

So, I start taking pictures so I don't miss anything....She's obviously looking for something, maybe another surprise?   :-)



 ...

and then I thought, "What is she looking for???"

And then....I knew.

"Uh Oh....Well U'll be.... The Desert Rose has had too much Cowgirl Courage..."

 She tried to tell us she was having "motion sickness" or
"Horsea sickness"  but,....I never heard of that one.
But oh...I did feel bad for her!


Now, most of us would be all done in about this time...but not our Desert Rose.... No sireeee!  She cowgirled up real well!  

Here, you can see the beautiful Buckskin that Bossman rode that day. He was training him. He's a "no name" at this time, but he's a cutie! And he did excellant on the trails!

OMG, I had so much fun listening to Bossman and Desert Rose bantering back and forth like an old married couple!  I laughed so hard sometimes, my Mimosa came out my nose!! 




So, the next surprise was,  we come out of the desert trails, over to the other side of the mountain and WA LA! we are at this very nice restaurant that has hitching posts out behind it.  And it has a great little outdoor patio to have lunch on...So we get settled at a table, and we all go to the restroom.  When I come back to the table, I see this waiting for me.

How cute is this? 

 

Love my necklace! Thank you Desert Rose and Bossman!
I had more Mimosas, and the most wonderful Eggs Florentine Benedict for brunch...Yum!

SADDLE UP AGAIN!

You've seen drunk walking?  Well this is drunk riding......

We head out, across the field, and are just riding out again, when we come across the road, and Bossman stops by a truck and trailer....Huh?  Im confused?  What the heck? Are we done? Really? 
Yes, it appears the ride was finished there.  It had been a perfect day....but, I think  I had it in my head that we still had to ride back the same way, so I think I must've looked disappointed to DR and Bossman.
But, I wasn't mentally prepared for it to end yet. However,  we loaded up the horses, drove back to the ranch and when we got back, unloaded there, and THEN they decided we could still go out again from there and do the Shannon Trail!   (In hindsight, I think Desert Rose just felt sorry for me because she knew I wasn't done riding....)

SADDLE UP AGAIN!
Now, THIS trail is considered to be the steepest and toughest trail there.  When we finished this trail, my two buddies informed me that I had just finished the toughest trail of all!
So, now I feel pretty confident about riding all of those trails with them!  That's a good feeling.

I think after our experience in the mountains, riding terrain like NO OTHER, they must be pretty confident that I'm "ok" on most of those trails.
I wouldn't recommend that kind of experience for everyone, but It sure did get me over the fear of most scary trails! Although, having horses that are good on those kind of trails helps ALOT!  I think if I got a new horse, not used to that kind of riding, I would be pretty nervous until he/she got used to that kind of climbing.....

So, we get back to the ranch, and boy were those horses thirsty!  When we got to the gate, I felt a difference in Lady, it was like she took her head from me, and she trotted RIGHT over to the water trough, I knew where she was going though, so I kinda let her, because I knew she was soooo thirsty.  As soon as we got there, she stuck her head in it and kept throwing her face back and forth in it!   She was sooo funny. 
Well, that's another horse added to my list!  I now feel very comfortable on The Lady!  What a good girl...

WHAT A DAY!  I kinda like being a princess for a day....thank you my friends! 

Check out  jessedesertrose   (on my sidebar) for her version of our ride, I know it will be interesting!

Oh, I almost forgot!  At the end of the day, Guess who I got meet?  Bella's new Owner!   I enjoyed chatting with her...She's a trainer, seems very knowledgable and very caring about Bella.