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Nothing is better than good friends/family getting to ride together. Our PONY cousin gatherings are all about this. So when I am in the desert for 6 months at a time even though I have good friends to ride with...I do miss that life long bond that I have with my family and the PONY COUSINS! So one of my recent blogs asked you all what kind of ride I should take my visiting PONY COUSIN on. I asked you all if I should baby her tender butt, break her in slowly so to speak...but none of you seemed to have much sympathy for her and said I should really just throw any/everything at her... that she should just "cowgrilthefuckupanddoit"!!! (25 cents in the cuss jar!) I apparently took your advise!
The 1st ride we ( from now on, we means the Bossman and me...he is my partner in crime!) take Bronco Betsy on is an easy up hill ( code for: steep drop offs, switch backs and LONG) that meanders up to Smoke Tree Mountain across from our stables. The trail then heads across a valley between this and the next mountain...that is IF we had stayed on the trail! Now I must admit that it was not intended to go off trail, but when we turned off to soon it seemed a shame to back track when we could see exactly were we were!
Bronco Betsy pretends to have a stirrup issue...just to see how fast the Bossman jumps to attention! 
Notice how you can see the trail before us??? About 15 minutes later...GONE! So we just went off trail towards the canyon we needed to get to. Nothing was very difficult...but this part did un-nerve her a bit. I will admit...it was steeper than it looks cause there was a jump down at the bottom. Bronco and I talked this through and then she proceeded to "justcowgirlthe~ fuckupanddotit!"( 25 cents in the cuss jar!) I filmed it here...keep an eye out for what went wrong!!!Yup...Jesse decided that Bronco was being not going to be "The Boss" of him and just said "NOFUCKINGWAY!" ( Jesse does not have a cuss jar!) However...Jesse was ever so gentle in his turn around and gave Bronco plenty of notice to stay in the saddle with him. Some horses would have taken advantage of this opportunity and spun around so fast you would have air beneath you! Good boy Jesse! Unfortunately as I was filming Bronco's 2nd PERFECT execution of this hill I hit the wrong button. Take my word for it...she did the 2nd try great!!!
We finally make it back on trail and Bronco was very happy about this!
Here we are almost down into the canyon where we will find tie rails and a wonderful shady Palm Tree Oasis for our lunch spot!
The horses are tied...notice we keep Slick a safe distance from Jesse and Little Lady, after all, he is a STALLION!
The perfect bridle rack!
In fact it is Bob Hope's house overlooking Palm Springs!!! It is still used for events/fundraisers.
Bronco Betsy had a cocktail party to attend and as usual...we were running late. So after we get off the trail into the sandy wash we tell Bronco that we have to lope to get back on time. Well she said for us to go ahead and she would just walk in. I then explained to her that...Jesse would not stay behind for her if we left ( he would for me or Bossman but Bronco may have a teeny weeny problem with that) so she "cowgirledthefuckup" ( 25 cents in the cuss jar!) and loped most of the way home with the Bossman coaching her along the way. When there is not a trail Jesse likes to try and race sometimes. He had her keep Jesse right in Slick's behind! Bronco was so proud of her self afterwards...so were we!!! Ride time 5 hours!
Your Desert Rose!
The Bossman~ Desert Trainer, Human Dad to Slick and Little Lady, Rides Bartender/Groom/ Driver, Does not dress warm for rides cause if stranded thinks he will be the guy in the middle, Mission in Life...to Get Slick LAID!!!
Bronco Betsy/Baby Doll~ Founding Member of the PONY COUSINS, Pastry Chef, Traveling Snowbird who just landed for a few rides with The Desert Rose, Foolishly believes that she is in good hands for her rides!
Lastly...every good adventure story needs a VILLAIN!!! And as much as I do love this trial... on this ride I do have to say that it lead us to the "HOWTHEFUCKDOWEGETOUTTAHERETRAIL"!
My loving husband had just left the house...maybe 15 minutes or so when I decided to go out by the pool and have a cigarette. YES...The Desert Rose smokes! (only get to have one or 2 a day....but will indulge if my Loving husband is away!) As I walked out the door towards my favorite smoking chaise lounge...I saw something out of the corner of my eye in the pool. My first thought was...Henry the Duck that frequents our pool. Upon 2nd look I realized it was a cat. I have had to grab stray cats from the pool before...and throw them out quickly before they kill me. Only this cat...was MINE!!! My Little Oliver was in the pool swimming at the far end near the hot tub close to the water fall. I yelled "Oliver" and ran to the end of the pool and reached out and grabbed him just as he was going threw the waterfall. I threw off my robe and wrapped him up. He was breathing very hard and shivering. I ran into the house with him and got a pool towel to dry him off. He was literally a drowned cat! I kept drying him and got out the blow dryer which he tolerated very well. He was still wet but not soaking wet, when I called "The Doc" to discuss whether I should bring him in. Since his breathing was back to normal now Doc said just to keep him as warm as I could and get him dry and watch him...if a change for the worse he could meet us. The Doc said Oliver had had enough stress for one day! I put Oliver's down blanket in the dryer and wrapped him up and got into my bed with the covers over us. He was still shivering on and off. I did this for the next 2 hours until he was almost dry. Then I let him down to see how he was. He seemed fine and was starved!
