This year I had the honor of being invited to an all women’s ride in the remote desert of Salome AZ. This area is located between the Harquahala and Harcuvar Mountain ranges, about 50 miles South of Wickenburg and located on Hwy 60.
The Valley is remote and sparsely populated. Perfect for a gaggle of gals and their horses!
Sea of Trailers in the Desert Hills
It seems this was the 28th year of this group of gals coming together for 4 days of bonding with women and ponies. The mantra of the group is ” We firmly believe that every horsewoman needs the opportunity to leave her worries and her diet at home, ride through the beautiful winter deserts, laugh until her sides ache, eat wonderful food, make delightful friends and be treated like the special person she is” I think from this photo you can see they accomplished this.. our first night and the festivities begin. Good times for sure.
Day One:
There are many ways to tether a horse, ground tie, trailer tether, tie lines, hobble, and my favorite corral. Val and I have always had the ease of camping at State Parks in CA that supply corrals for us. This would be our first trip of bringing our own method of corralling our guys. We choose corrals, Val and Cooled took a lot of time getting them ready for us, as you can see in our photo… they are looking pretty good with Hank and Pie safe and comfy in their temporary homes. I think my next option would be the trailer tether as it is much less effort and the horses are able to lay down while on the line and roam a bit too.
Trailer tether
Corral set up
Since we arrived one day early we were on our own the first night, no water, no outhouse and no food. Val and I made friends with our new neighbors Paula and Yvonne from the area of Parker AZ. Great ladies, Paula enjoying her 5th year and Yvonne her 6th. We are happy to have new friends showing us the ropes…
We bring our own water for the ponies, easy camping food, and of course free flowing wine…which by the way I found perfect for the event. It is bottled in a plastic bag with a plastic mouth and twist cap, the outside is surrounded by thick biodegradable paper… the wine from Paso. More on this latter….
Our evening passes quickly and we hit the sack early looking forward to our first ride at 10 am…
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