Horseback Riding in Estes Park, Colorado
Todd Swank's Diary Entry for August 2, 2020
For my 50th and my twins 21st birthdays, we were supposed to fly to Vegas. Since the virus made us cancel that trip, we thought we should do a road-trip instead. So we hopped in the car and decided to drive 850 miles to Colorado. We drove through South Dakota and Nebraska before arriving and saw a lot of amazing things along the way including this field of sunflowers!
We turned South just short of the Badlands and drove through the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. It was a pretty surreal adventure because we literally drove for more than 100 miles without seeing a building. No houses or gas stations or anything. Just nature.
Eventually we made it to Colorado. Our first activity was horseback riding in Estes Park. The drive up Big Thompson Canyon is quite an experience. This thing floods every now and then which I can only imagine is quite terrifying.
Going to Colorado for vacation wasn't our idea. Krazy Kory was going there with his kids and invited us to join him. We debated back and forth for a couple of weeks until we finally decided to do it. We're so glad we did!
Kory used to live in Estes Park and remembered that Sombrero Stables offered horseback riding to the public. They had 1, 2, and 3 hour rides so we picked the middle one. I wasn't sure if my body was ready for 3 hours on a horse, but 2 hours worked out quite nicely.
We had 6 riders plus our guide. Cowgirl Harli was at the front of our crew.
Kowboy Krazy Kory was next in line and looking like quite the stud on his big ole horse.
Cowboy "Lasso" Luke was in the middle and kept us all entertained with his regular shout-outs that all didn't seem quite right with his horse. I think he was just teasing us because I never saw any real drama coming from his part of the line.
Cowboy "Ace" Avery had probably the orneriest horse in the group. He literally kicked my horse in the face a couple of times and was constantly trying to eat vegetation when he was supposed to be walking. My poor, sweet horse took it all in stride and just kept walking even though I have to think that must have really hurt to take a horseshoe directly in the chops.
I've ridden horses a few times in my life. It was a bit stressful climbing up and down the steep parts and I must admit getting a bit nervous whenever she stumbled over a rock. But all in all, I was pretty pleased with how things went. Until I stepped off that is. I had no idea how much of a workout it was on my legs gripping that thing for 2 hours straight. I definitely felt that ride for the next couple of days.
We didn't get as many pictures of Miss Cowgirl Sheri as we would have liked primarily because she was the one who had the camera and took most of the pictures during the ride. We're not quite skilled enough to pass the camera back and forth from horse to horse yet.
Estes Park is really beautiful and this was the perfect way to start our vacation.
The ride was relatively simple. The horses know the routes well and other than the occasional trip on a rock, there wasn't too much drama.
Miss Sheri got a nice view of a lot of horse butts for much of the trip. Some of those were even sitting on top of the saddle.
Horseback riding in Estes Park was a bunch of fun. We highly recommend it if you have the opportunity to do it yourself!
We turned South just short of the Badlands and drove through the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. It was a pretty surreal adventure because we literally drove for more than 100 miles without seeing a building. No houses or gas stations or anything. Just nature.
We witnessed a couple of bizarre sights including this cow who was all by his lonesome standing on a bluff looking like he was contemplating ending it all. We are very hopeful that he didn't jump, but really have no way of knowing if he did or not.
We also drove by what we thought looked like a funeral for a baby horse. Hopefully he was just resting and they were all gently trying to wake him up.
Going to Colorado for vacation wasn't our idea. Krazy Kory was going there with his kids and invited us to join him. We debated back and forth for a couple of weeks until we finally decided to do it. We're so glad we did!
Kory used to live in Estes Park and remembered that Sombrero Stables offered horseback riding to the public. They had 1, 2, and 3 hour rides so we picked the middle one. I wasn't sure if my body was ready for 3 hours on a horse, but 2 hours worked out quite nicely.
We had 6 riders plus our guide. Cowgirl Harli was at the front of our crew.
Kowboy Krazy Kory was next in line and looking like quite the stud on his big ole horse.
Cowboy "Lasso" Luke was in the middle and kept us all entertained with his regular shout-outs that all didn't seem quite right with his horse. I think he was just teasing us because I never saw any real drama coming from his part of the line.
Cowboy "Ace" Avery had probably the orneriest horse in the group. He literally kicked my horse in the face a couple of times and was constantly trying to eat vegetation when he was supposed to be walking. My poor, sweet horse took it all in stride and just kept walking even though I have to think that must have really hurt to take a horseshoe directly in the chops.
I've ridden horses a few times in my life. It was a bit stressful climbing up and down the steep parts and I must admit getting a bit nervous whenever she stumbled over a rock. But all in all, I was pretty pleased with how things went. Until I stepped off that is. I had no idea how much of a workout it was on my legs gripping that thing for 2 hours straight. I definitely felt that ride for the next couple of days.
We didn't get as many pictures of Miss Cowgirl Sheri as we would have liked primarily because she was the one who had the camera and took most of the pictures during the ride. We're not quite skilled enough to pass the camera back and forth from horse to horse yet.
Estes Park is really beautiful and this was the perfect way to start our vacation.
The ride was relatively simple. The horses know the routes well and other than the occasional trip on a rock, there wasn't too much drama.
Miss Sheri got a nice view of a lot of horse butts for much of the trip. Some of those were even sitting on top of the saddle.
Horseback riding in Estes Park was a bunch of fun. We highly recommend it if you have the opportunity to do it yourself!
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