A Complete Cowboy Evening

One of the things I really wanted to do while “out west” was go horseback riding. It’s something I haven’t done in years, and after I let my weight get out of control I couldn’t find any place that would let me ride. All had weight limits and I exceeded those limits by more than a couple of lbs. But when I researched the area online I found one ranch in the Sedona area offering trail rides with no weight limits. I even emailed them to verify this.

It seems they specifically breed their trail horses to be larger, cross breeding with draft horses to result in larger, stronger, saddle horses. They explained that over the years they had seen the average weight of the tourist they were servicing rise so rather than turn people away, they bred larger horses to accommodate the load. They said it has nothing to do with “fat” but people are just larger in general, taller, broader and yes in some cases, fatter but not always.

As with everything else I’d encountered in Sedona, there were choices to be made. How long a ride, did I want morning or afternoon, a package with lunch or dinner? Did I want to add a jeep tour? In the end I decided to keep it simple. I hadn’t ridden in years and was bound to be rusty so I chose a package with a short trail ride and the Cowboy Cookout. That was on the agenda for today.

Finishing up at the airport I had the rest of the morning and the early part of the afternoon before I had to meet the group in upper Sedona for the ride to the M Diamond Ranch.

I could have headed back to the time share for that visit to the pool but preferred to do some more exploring in Sedona. I’d been up and down the main street but I hadn’t had a chance to walk any of the side streets. I found benches and fountains and more little shops. I bought post cards and chatted with shop owners about their favorite places in Sedona. In no time the morning had passed and it was time to meet the tour bus for the ride to the ranch.

The M Diamond ranch was established in 1908 and is a combination of 110 deeded acres and a 44,000 acre grazing allotment from the US forest Service. Because using the land for grazing requires so much space, most Arizona ranches are a combination of owned land with leased grazing rights. The M Diamond is not just a tourist ranch, I hesitate to say Dude Ranch because it is definitely not that, but is an actual working ranch with a commercial herd of cross-bred black angus cattle. They also buy, train and sell working ranch horses.

Because the ranch covers such a huge area, there is plenty of room for wild “critters”. I was told those wild residents of the ranch include elk, mule deer, pronghorn antelope, white tail deer, javalinas, turkeys, Gambel’s quail, western bluebirds, eagles and hawks. Occasionally mountain lions and black bear wander through plus there are rattlesnakes and tarantulas.

Finally at the ranch I made friends with the resident mouser and got a “kitty fix” since my two cats are being spoiled by their cat sitter while I’m away. I watched as the wranglers brought out a bunch of horses and got them saddled up. Then they lined us up and began assigning horses.

Now what happened next is both embarrassing and , in retrospect, very funny. At the time, I was glad no one had a camera but now I kind of wish someone had got a shot.

This is what happened. I am comfortable around horses but I like to “introduce myself” to any horse I’m going to ride, take a minute and pet them, let them smell me and so forth. Well, there wasn’t much time allowed for animal introductions and I was being shoved to the horse’s side to mount but he was a HUGE horse. He was so big I couldn’t reach the saddle horn or get my foot in the stirrup. I’ve ridden some big horses but I’ve always been able to reach the saddle horn! I asked for a mounting block and was told they weren’t allowed to use them due to insurance restrictions. The wrangler told me to take a hold of the rope that was tied to the saddle horn and use that to pull myself up. Before I even had a grip I felt 4 hands on my but and I was unceremoniously lifted onto the back of this enormous horse by two other wranglers. It must have been a sight! At the time I was really embarrassed but as time has passed I’ve found myself chuckling over it more than cringing. J

Back to the mounting block. The reason they don’t use it is because if something were to happen on the ride and the guest falls off or dismounts, there wouldn’t be a mounting block on the trail and the wranglers have to be able to get the guest back on the horse. If they take someone out who they cannot get on the horse and something happens, their insurance won’t cover them. So they play it safe and don’t use the block.

Anyway, now that I was properly mounted up, we all got in line and headed out. The wrangler had warned me that “Maxy” as my horse was named, was not trained to neck rein. Now to me that is like driving a car without power steering. “Maxy” was a sweet horse and put up with me trying to get his attention but basically did what every other trail horse in the world does…followed the one in front of him. I finally gave up and just let him do his thing only intervening if I thought he was going to run into the horse in front who loved to stop quick to try to graze. If I was having a problem, the guy on the horse in front of me had no control at all, which made it harder on me, but at least I had enough control that I didn’t have to be “rescued “ by the wrangler like he did... I don’t think my bruised ego could have taken that!

The trail was very dry and covered with loose rocks that rolled under the horses hooves so that they stumbled sometimes. I couldn’t help comparing the difference between riding here in the desert to that in the east on trails of soft soil and pine needs or leaves. I couldn’t imagine galloping the horses across this terrain even though they all do it in the westerns.

We didn’t see any elk, deer or mountain lions but we did see a couple of hawks circling and some Gambel’s Quail scooting out of our way. Then we were back at the corral where we started. The wranglers came over to give us each a hand down. They took my picture with my camera before I dismounted. I am pleased to say I completed the dismount with far more grace that I mounted so may have partly redeemed myself.
With everyone off the horses we loaded onto a flatbed wagon pulled by two beautiful , black, percheron draft horses for the ride to the “mess hall”.

It was a short ride and they had a big fire going. We all got in line to pick up our plates of beans, corn, steak and baked potatoes. We sat in a covered area at picnic tables and enjoyed another singing cowboy. He took requests and we tried to play “stump the entertainer” but he actually had more songs in his repertoire than any of us knew. No one could come up with anything obscure enough to fool him. His favorites seemed to be the old standards and most of us knew at least some of the words and sang along. All in all, it was quite fun.

It was full dark when we loaded back into the van for the trip back to Upper Sedona. After picking up my car, I headed back to the condo. Tomorrow I was not setting an alarm or a wakeup call. I wanted to go back out to Slide Rock Park but this time with my bathing suit.
　
http://www.mdiamondranch.com/