Science Ranch - Horse Riding

This is the third post about Science Ranch 2014.  You can look at the previous post for more.

If you are going to a guest ranch, even a science themed one, you have to ride horses.  For the average geek this will be a new experience, possibly even a scary one.  It is, however, something everyone should try at least once.

Something unique about Wuanita is where they get their horses.  The owner prefers to get retired ranch horses, ones that have spent their life working.  He feels that a working horse will be better behaved for his guests.  The horses tend to be more than ten years old.

My horse bore this out.  I'm an infrequent rider, though I've had enough experience to be fairly good at trail riding.  My horse, Dr. Seuss (!), was easily the best behaved creature I have ever rode.  Not everyone had the same experience, but on the whole I think that was the case.  My horse was named Seuss because his forehead marking looks like a Truffula tree.

The trails around the ranch range through private land, Buereau of Land Management land and National Forest.  We caught nearly the perfect week this year, as nearly every flower possible was in bloom.

Finally, at the end of the week, we participated in arena games.  This is my first time with this and it was a lot of fun.  The kids gave skill demonstrations:

The adults competed in cattle penning.  We actually cut cows from a small herd at one end of the arena and moved them into a pen at the other side.

Great fun.

Bonus Track:

At the start of the kids demonstration, our host played this song.  In his words "the most cowboy song ever".  He played the original but this version is pretty cool: