# The cure for Cabin Fever



## thunderhooves (Aug 9, 2009)

gorgeous country! wow! that is some cure for cabin fever!  lol


----------



## Barefoot1 (Feb 19, 2010)

*Wow*

I am so jealous.........we do not have things such as that here in Va....... Well we get the snow, but not the scenery/ landscape like that.


----------



## PaintsPwn (Dec 29, 2009)

8O ... Where you living? Will you adopt me?!


----------



## trailhorserider (Oct 13, 2009)

Gorgeous! We have some country like that out near us too. We are in North-eastern Arizona. What state are you in, if you don't mind me asking? Here are some of our canyon shots.


----------



## Painted Horse (Dec 29, 2006)

Utah, 
The pictures I post were in the San Rafael Swell area, Which straddles I-70

You Have to be careful riding slot canyons in the sumer, because _IF_ a thunderstorm hits. Sometimes even 20 miles away. The water comes rushing down this canyons. I'm sure trailhorserider is aware of this. But folks back east probably are not.


----------



## RadHenry09 (Mar 22, 2009)

WOW, that is amazing ....would love to visit , ride there someday : )


----------



## kiwigirl (Sep 30, 2009)

Painted Horse, you know I'm going to turn up on your doorstep one day, right?

Speaking of flashfloods (kinda), this wednesday gone we had 97mm of rain in 2 hours. In my particular area floods aren't a problem, we have too much up and down. However slips on tracks can be real issues. On friday I managed to grab enough time to skive off and have a quick ride. I rode just behind our house, it is a good ride with everything that makes a ride interesting, steep ups and downs, a nice little bit of cantering country and a river crossing, while still only taking an hour and a bit round trip. Anyway Phoenix and I were half way down the first steep hill, we got around a corner and the rest of the track looked as though it had been hosed down, I could see where the massive volume of water rushing down had scoured it out. 

At the bottom of the hill was the first slip. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, it was not a particularly big slip, only 2.5 meters wide and just over half a meter deep, however it had some small trees in it's midst. I was tossing up whether to get off Phoenix and let her get herself across and I would wade through as best I could or whether to just chance it and ride her through. I don't know how long I mucked around trying to make up my mind but it was obviously too long for Phoenny, she took matters into her own hands and charged on through. She is so awesome! 

Near the top of the rather steep hill nearing home was the next slip. This one was a little bit deeper and nastier, made up entirely of red clay, very sticky and boggy ****. I didn't even get a chance to weigh up the 'to ride or get off' issue. Phoenix didn't even stop, it was belly deep and about four meters wide, she just plunged on through like it was something she did every day. All I could do was sit as still as possible, give her all the freedom she needed to get across and hope like hell we wouldn't get stuck. 

So my little quick ride turned into more of an adventure than I expected!


----------



## Painted Horse (Dec 29, 2006)

We continued to follow the prescription to cure this terrible sickness.

Todays dose of cure, involved a ride near home on Antelope Island. I ride out there a lot in the winter months. But the sun was out, it was warm, it just didn't matter that we were not exploring new trails.










Anybody for a ride along the beach









A few buffalo that we passed by. They are worried about feed, so they didn't even give us a second look.









We keep watching the snow line creep up the mountain side. Another couple of months and we can ride on top.


----------



## LoverofHorses (Jan 3, 2010)

All I can say is Wow! That is gorgeous! I would just love to go on a long ride there. Sigh...


----------



## Juniper (May 4, 2007)

I wish all fevers could be cured like that!


----------



## Cheshire (Oct 17, 2009)

Totally jealous. So beautiful...


----------



## HooverH (May 17, 2008)

Painted- I'm starting from Ohio now...Gun and I should be there by...July. :lol:

I could go riding...if the mud wouldn't swallow my horse whole right now. 

Ah well. That's Ohio for you.


----------



## reining girl (Jan 30, 2009)

o my gosh it is gorgeous!!


----------



## Elky (Apr 17, 2010)

Great pictures as always Painted.


----------



## RoadRider / Rios Dad (Jul 2, 2009)

Painted horse has the best riding of anyone in North America. I beleive Kevin is in the same state but he never talks or posts pictures about the mountains.
I too would love to live where Painted horse lives and ride in his mountains but it is too far from my family, my work so I guess I am stuck here in Ontario

I am sure Australia can rival the landscape and I would love to see Wild Spot post more pictures?


----------



## Painted Horse (Dec 29, 2006)

Went back down today and rode the same area. Snow is all gone now. In fact, it got downright warm. Sunburned my face and arms.

We rode up Chute Canyon across the back of the San Rafael Reef and down Wild Horse. The GPS said it was 22 miles. But I know we lost the signal a few times in the canyons.

This is Chute Canyon









Here we are coming through Wild Horse. It's pretty hard not to bang your knees if you stay on your horse, so we got off and led them.









Gives you an idea of how Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch evaded the law in the old days. It's not a really dangerous trail, But it is pretty technical. Your horse needs to trust you when you ask it to cross obsticles.


----------



## Painted Horse (Dec 29, 2006)

Central and Southern Utah are know for the Slick Rock formation. Here are a couple we crossed today.

















Lots of rough stuff that you need to get your horse through.

















Another photo of Chute Canyon


----------



## Elky (Apr 17, 2010)

Not a place I would want to be in should a storm blow in. LOL!!!!


----------



## NHCavalry (Mar 1, 2010)

Great pictures painted horse. Your riding is so much different than what we have here in New Hampshire, water everywhere (and shoe sucking mud). You can be 1/8 mile away from a house and not see or hear anything from it because of the dense woods and undergrowth. Sure would love to ride out your way sometime.

What do you use for your horses feet when riding in that rocky terrain? Shoes, shoes with borium, or barefoot?


----------



## Painted Horse (Dec 29, 2006)

My horses are barefoot.


----------



## Painted Horse (Dec 29, 2006)

NHCalvery, the beauty that I enjoy, is that I can ride in the woods or the desert. I just have to wait for the snow to melt before I can get up into the high country where the trees are. For example Alta Ski resort ( 45 miles away) reported that they got 47" of snow on April 6th and got 89" snow in between April 1st and April 6th. So it will be a few months before I can those kind of areas.

So we go to the desert areas of the state to ride. Goblin Valley, where these photos were taken is about a 4 hour trailer from my home. We drove down Friday evening, spent the night, rode all day saturday and come home late Saturday.

As far as shoes. I ride barefoot, but my horses would have more traction if I had shoes on. The barefoot horse, kinda slips and slides on the slick rock. steel horse shoes bite into the sandstone and help the horses. And I'm sure Borium would do even better. This differs from Granite rock where the steel shoes slip and slide on the much harder granite and a soft product like an aluminum shoe or barefoot has better traction. I guess that is why you folks add Borium or Dril tec to bite into the harder rocks you have in your area.

As long as we stay in the sandy bottom, where the flash floods have deposited the sandy granular material, It's pretty good footing. But when climb up the side to get around an obsticle, thats when the barefoot horse starts slipping on the slick rock.









You get trapped in the wash and just have to go forward or backwards








Once you enter into the canyon, You really don't have much options for cross country travel. You are pretty confined to follow the path that the waters have eroded.









Yes Kevin live in the same area. But I suspect you don't see a lot of his rides, because he is working cattle, whereas, I'm just out for a joy ride.


----------



## equiniphile (Aug 16, 2009)

WOW that us gorgeous


----------



## Juniper (May 4, 2007)

I had no idea horses could go through stuff like that. Those are some seriously trail broke horses.


----------

