Hunting season is over,So we got out for a late November ride last weekend. Snow in northern Utah, So we headed down south to ride the high desert

We rode Willis Creek on Friday and Coyote Gulch on Saturday.
Here we are dropping into Coyote Gulch



This is Coyote Gulch Natural Bridge



This is Jacob Hamblin Arch also in the same canyon


Fridays ride in Willis Creek turned out to be a challenge as the creek was frozen solid making for a very slick ride.

Nice, Painted.
Too much rain up here.

When we get too much rain, Everything washes down stream. New debris piles up on trees and we get a new trail


Its why the ancient indians built their homes and storage up in the cliff walls

Looks like a nice ride

A bit more scenic than our ride today in flat country

Thanks for the Pictures of the home country. We were about 3 miles from the Utah border and at the beginning of the canyon country.
Note: One thing I just won't do; lead a horse downslope. If he is going to be sliding along, I want to on him not under him. Each to his own on that though. (Don't like Leading upslope much either...) Learned both of those things as a little boy. Horse can both slide down and jump up faster than me.

Interesting to see a horse being lead downslope in the "cowboy country" - don't think I've ever come across it before.

Down here in our NZ mountains we always lead our horse downslope, they've been good enough to carry us up and walking down isn't so much effort. However the main reason we do it is to save their knees, where I grew up we were in very steep country (anyone who doesn't think that mountain ranges vary a lot in "steep" hasn't been out much) and we had several older horses who had worn out fronts !!

Cheers
Foster

Oh and in half a lifetime of leading down I have never been stood or rolled on by a horse !!

Since horses carry most of their weight on the fronts it only stands to reason that the fronts go first, whether being rode down or walked down.

From my limited experience it's the fronts that go first even here in flat country.

But riding down steep hills will only hasten the process but how much of a horses life is spent going down hills? Unless being ridden every day for a living, I wonder how much effect riding down steep hills really has. Just curious.

I know my one mule really doesn't like going down hills.

Hills or no hills, like this old guy told me once "Just when you have a horse about where you want them, they go lame."

One of my friends, who rides & packs a lot in our Big Horn Mountain range, always

gets off & leads his horse down steep inclines. Whether it is soft grass or

rocky, he swears it protects their front legs & makes them last longer?

Here's a pic of my wife riding up a canyon on our ranch, it's actually quite a bit

steeper than the picture makes it look!

At the very top of that downhill slope was a stretch of slick rock. Most of us got off and led the horses down because we were concerned about them slipping and sliding on the slick rock. It was not only steep downhill but sloped off the side. If the horse went down, somebody was going to roll a long way. We just didn't get back in the saddle for the sandy part of the descent. This is from a different ride, But just shows we sometimes feel it's safer to get off vs ride over some bad spots

You can see some skid marks where the horses were sliding on this slick rock


And if the horse goes off the ledge here, it's a pretty steep drop into the bottom


Good footing or not so steep of drops offs, We stay in the saddle

That's my kinda ridn'. Great pics.

Happy New Years to the pony gang!

We did a Dude ride in Red Rock canyon, near Vegas, last March. Gorgeous country and something totally different for us norther Rockies folks.

Grizz