Barebackin'-- > Snowbashin'

I had decided that this weekend would be a good time to practice just swinging my leg over the horses' backs until I could do it with a little more finesse.  Washoe was the clear candidate as he is the taller of the two; if I could swing clear of him, Jesse would be no problem.  The weather could not have been better - in the high 50's and sunny.  Well, you know how it goes....since we are mounted up, let's go for a ride...a bareback ride...on the mountain....Y E S!

Jesse's foot was still a little sore, so she didn't complain - too much - about me taking off on Washoe.  I was feeling very comfortable just riding on a towel so we decided to do one of the steeper trails over to the neighbor's ranch.  We found deep snow banks.  Washoe, who has become quite comfortable in snow, plowed right through.  When we ended up in chest deep snow, he started rubbing his face in it, like a dog does when it finds something on the ground really interesting.  I think he felt slighted when I insisted we move on.

 This wasn't the deep snow; Bill was too busy dodging branches to get a picture of that snowbank.

On the north slope, the trail was pretty covered.

We had to do some scouting around some of the deeper stuff.  I had to duck branches while Washoe watched out for stuff under the snow.

 

Meeker Mountain, all snow covered.

It got really breezy on our way home, as you can tell from Ranger's 'bad hair' day!

We were only out about 45 minutes, but it was sure wonderful.
Juanita