Scottsdale 2012, part 3

The next morning dawned beautifully in Phoenix, not too hot, but much warmer than what I'm used to, at 7,000 feet here in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. 

Did I mention that I had my In-N-Out cheeseburger fix last night on the way to the horse show? Oh yeah! It was just the way I like it, animal style, with ALL the fixings. (In-N-Out Burger is a chain of fast food restaurants located in the Western United States. Founded in 1948 by Harry Snyder and his wife Esther, In-N-Out Burger is headquartered in California. In-N-Out Burger has expanded to the states of Arizona, Nevada, and southern Utah. In-N-Out is privately owned and has never franchised.) They only sell burgers or cheeseburgers, fries, and drinks, but it tastes so good! See the menu here.

The last time we came to the Scottsdale show, we went to the horse races on Saturday. It was raining and, unfortunately, we saw the demise of several racehorses who fell on the sloppy track. I wasn't sure I was ready for the races this year, even though the weather was good. So my mom and I discussed all our options. We could go to the zoo. Or drive through a wild animal park. There was a Renaissance Faire with a jousting tournament but that meant a lot of walking and my mom isn't up to it. Ultimately, we decided to go for a drive. Why not? We'd only just driven almost 500 miles the day before!

We headed out towards Apache Junction. Along the way, I noticed a dirt side road so we pulled off.

Here are the Superstition Mountains. Pretty, aren't they? Suddenly, I was yearning to go on a hike.

We got back to the highway and then drove to another parking area with some trails. It looked like a relatively small hiking area so I decided to check it out. My mom wanted to sit in the car and read so I grabbed my camera and a water bottle and headed out towards the trails in this photo.

 I love the name of the area, don't you? After reading the lengths and types of trails I figured I could it hike it easy- in about an hour. I headed out towards the right.

 I took the Brittlebush Trail and then ended up on the Old Mine Trail. My goal was to reach the top of this mini mountain. The sign down below posted all the interconnecting trails. I found it rather confusing so I just hiked.

This is a back side view from the top. Surprise! There is a housing area behind these hills. 

This is the view towards the highway. You can see a row of vehicles just off the main road. That is where I started my little hike and where my mom was.

The little bits of color of the native flowers were quite lovely.

 Look how tiny this vegetation is. 

I liked their posted signs: 

DO NOT DISTURB

Mountain is resting and Healing

You are the biggest part of this restoration.

Every step hurts! 

Stay on designated Trails.

Apparently, this area was used for vehicle off road four-wheeling as well as hiking and mining.

Check out the gnarled trunks of this little native tree/bush. Mesquite, maybe?

This was one of the paths I took in the more difficult section of trails. Yes, it was very steep and rocky. I am proud to say that, although I am always aware of my ankle and I get little ouchies all the time, I am able to do much of what I used to do. The best physical therapy for me was walking the snow-packed path to the barn every day this past winter. I don't have full flexion yet (may never), but I was so happy to be able to hike a rocky trail again.

The summit is much rockier than it looks in the photos.

There was a marker at the top of each summit.

This is the view from the backside.

If I had studied the map better I would have looked for the grave that was listed. I never did find the old mine. I asked several other hikers and no one was even aware of it being there. Since I had limited time, I didn't go down the backside at all.

I'll have to save the big mountains in the distance for another hike at another time.

 My hike took just over an hour and I was hungry afterwards! Driving back towards the hotel, we found a little Mexican restaurant, Las Glorias Grill, in a strip mall. A $.99 margarita had my name written all over it. I was surprised that they serve warmed pinto bean dip with the usual chips and salsa.

I ordered a chile relleno (cheese stuffed chile pepper) with beans and rice, all smothered in cheese and green chile sauce, pictured below. My mom ordered cheese enchiladas. 

All the food was so yummy good!! And we got served fast, with HOT home cooked food! I would highly recommend it, if I can find it again. ;) (After reading some of the reviews on the link I provided, it appears that it's rated pretty well and their tilapia fish tacos are the best in town. I think we got lucky, finding it.) 

Aren't these flowers pretty?

I like that the highways are decorated with art. 

Check back for my next post about Saturday night, Finals night, at the Scottsdale Arabian Horse show.

Educating Yalla! Sack 'N Spin

Have you ever heard of the toy, Sit 'N Spin?

Last Saturday, Yalla! played a new game called Sack 'N Spin.

I was mucking out stalls and the horses were all wandering around loose. Annie and Nadia were grazing some hay in the arena while Yalla! and Scout wandered into the barn to clean up the loose hay in the aisle and to explore, I imagine. I was dumping a load of manure along the arena fence line when suddenly I saw commotion in the barn. Scout came running out to the arena in a startle and I could see Yalla! in the barn, panicking. I couldn't imagine what had happened. I was horrified that she might have gotten caught up in some baling wire that my son often leaves laying around the opened bales.

Suddenly, she came bursting out of the barn. into the arena, past me, with a feed sack dangling from her mouth. She began spinning and spinning with the sack flapping and hitting her. She ran to the corner and began spinning again. Then she ran a hundred yards and spun some more. At first, I didn't know if the string was snagged on her chin or not, but I figured that she was probably biting down on a small end of the string, holding it in her mouth. She obviously didn't know that she could just open her mouth and the sack would fall free. I considered going over to help her out and decided that I wasn't going to risk getting hurt. I watched her spinning wildly and decided that, if need be, a day or two with the bag hanging from her mouth would certainly settle her down.

As soon as I was satisfied that she wasn't going to get hurt, I decided I would try to get my camera, wishing I had it on me. After several minutes more of her wild spins, she finally stopped spinning and running and stood still. She must have begun licking and chewing as she assessed her dilemma because the bag dropped softly to the ground. The party was over.

I think that she somehow picked up a piece of the string from the end of the empty sack while grazing and scared herself dizzy when it moved. And then, when she picked up her head, it followed her! She couldn't see what it was, just that she couldn't get away. Boy, she did some pretty rollbacks though, double and triple 360s! And slide stops too, as she tried to run away from it, into the corners. I was just glad I wasn't riding her.

I went over and picked up the sack. I walked over to Nadia who was grazing on some hay I'd spread out  and she didn't even lift her head as I rubbed her all over with it.

Scout startled a little at first, but I was able to run the sack over both his sides too.

Yalla! was still scared of the sack. I stood between her and the hay, trying to get close to her with the sack, and not letting her eat. She continued to blow and watch, just a few feet from me, as I stood my ground, guarding the hay and holding the sack. Eventually, she walked up close enough to let me touch her nose with the sack. Eventually, I set it on the ground and she toed it without flinching, as I fed her some hay. I didn't push my luck by trying to get any closer or rubbing her body with it.

Annie stayed 15 to 20 feet away from me, choosing not to confront the sack and not get any hay. She  rolled twice so she must have felt comfortable at that distance although I could tell she wanted to come eat, she just couldn't get over her fear. I didn't even try to get any closer to her. She gets upset too quickly.

There's always the next time. I hung the sack on the rails of the gate and went back to the house. I figured that the horses would be after the sack soon enough.

Next morning, I noticed the sack was at the far end of the arena, far away from the barn. I went over and picked it up and Yalla! began trotting and running down the arena towards me, as I held the dangling sack. She slowed down and drifted towards me in a drunken straight line when she saw what I was holding. She came right up to me, however, and nuzzled the sack. I was overjoyed that she made the advance to me, in spite of the sack. Again, I didn't try to rub her with it but I was pleased that she wanted to touch it. I am glad that she is such a curious, friendly horse. Hopefully, her mother's fear trait will get overpowered by her own desire to investigate.

So, again, there's always the next time. I have a lot of work cut out for me with this little horse but I appreciated her efforts to sack herself out. Maybe next time, she won't go so spin-crazy.

Scottsdale 2012, part 2

This post will continue my trip to the Scottsdale Arabian Horse Show last month.

For those of you who don't know about the Scottsdale Arabian Horse Show, it is part one of the Triple Crown in Arabian horse shows and the most prestigious. Part two is the Canadian Nationals in August and part three is the American Nationals.

The first class was the Show Hack class. I love this class! The riders are asked to show at a walk, trot, and canter; collected, normal and extended gaits, and to hand gallop.

As you can tell from the line-up, it was a big class.

The next class was WESTERN PLEASURE. The horses were over-flexed and oh. so. s-l-o-w. but still, very beautiful. This lovely gray Arabian (with the ridiculously loooong tail) was named Grand Champion.

I llike how the two horses are looking my way. I wonder what they saw?

This little girl was having lots of fun with her pony.

Here we are!

Baby strollers aren't just for babies. We saw lots of pooches transported this way throughout the show.

The Purebred Arabian Native Costume class is always a crowd favorite with lots of pizazz, colors, and flash...and pretty horses. The crowd roars when they are asked to hand gallop and the class is over way too soon.

 

I like the golden tones of this photo. It really reminds me of the Arabian desert sands. And it's such a pretty horse!

Next, was an English Pleasure class, which is a Park class without the extreme action but still, very animated. I thought this rider was a bit large for his horse. Don't you think so, too? However, if I remember correctly, they took Reserve Champion. Crazy, huh?

I liked this girl's jacket, from a previous show.

 

The next class was new to me. It was called the Silver Saddle class for two reasons. One, because the winner got a beautiful western saddle with lots of engraved silver and two, because the horse and rider had to have a combined age of at least 70. 

It was open to half Arabians as well as purebreds. A horse with any percentage of other breed is known as a half Arabian.

I really liked this Appaloosa team. Because she's using a bosal, I'm guessing it's a young horse, so the rider must have been over 65? They took the title of Grand Champion. Yay!

This big bay sport horse ridden English was another favorite of mine. Too bad I didn't get it's head in the photo.

This is how big the arena is and how far away all the action was from where we were sitting.

Did I mention that I love my new Canon camera? Of course, I'm still learning how to use it and the lighting is simply awful for picture taking.

After the show, we drove back to the hotel and crashed for the night. Stay tuned for more of my trip...

Sunday Stills (3/5/12 Openings)

This week's Sunday Stills challenge was to find an opening and frame something on the other side.

While traveling last weekend, my camera "goofed" and took this of me driving. 

This is the judges' stand at the Scottsdale Arabian Horse Show.

While window shopping in the art galleries of Scottsdale, I couldn't resist this bronze life-sized figure framed in the window. Of note, the yellow and orange things in the left window are actually ceramic M & M's. 

Here's a better close-up of the figure.

A few week's ago, I took these photos at the zoo.

For more Sunday Stills, please visit here.