First Utah Rides

We’ve explored about 15 miles of Utah by horseback since landing here last month. It’s a paltry sum, eeked out from the horses’ temporary digs in Payson. The biggest difference between here and Iowa and Maine? Space. You have room to see. In every direction, […]

A Ride with Unbranded’s Ben, Dino, and Chief

Last week I headed to Montana for the lovely opportunity to ride with Ben Masters, the team leader of Unbranded. We took two of his mustangs south of Bozeman into the Gallatin National Forest for a beautiful ride through the season’s first several inches of […]

In the name of horse-friendly open space

Horses need space. Riders do, too. If you look at Swisher, Iowa by satellite, you’ll see lots of open space. When I moved here from Maine, I was excited to explore the 14,000 acres of nearby Hawkeye Wildlife Management Area. I did. It was wonderful. […]

Horsemen and women are today’s heros

Hooray for the backcountry horsemen and women – Mary Young, Mike Young, Mark John, and Christa John – the four Idahoans who tipped off police to the whereabouts of kidnapper Joseph DiMaggio and his victim, Hannah Anderson. According to a […]

Bernice’s Big Bucket

NickerNews premiered Bucket Lists a few years ago. Since then, dozens have posted their goals and dreams. Bucket Listers look forward to riding in the Grand Canyon, volunteering at the Olympics, camping in Acadia, and riding on the sand hills in North Carolina. Exciting stuff. […]

Outrunning Rain

It started out as a lazy Sunday ride. We headed out with the two favorites, Comet and Pep. Sun high and hot. Nearby fields just cleared of first-cut bales. Down the road, new neighbors were having a keg party of sorts in their front yard. […]

Puppy’s first trail test

Lessons continue for our Australian Shephard pup, Kip. Next phase of Ride Along Dog training? Hit the trails! [Read past Dog and Horses posts.] Since she’s not entirely savvy about traffic or strangers, I had to work out some safety-related logistics first: We picked […]

“Pick Me!” attitude

With the warmer weather arrival, we’ve been enthusiastically hitting the trails again. Floodwaters be darned. [see facebook photos] It was nice to discover the horses seemingly as eager for the foray as us humans. When I brought out Pep and Shea, Brooke and Jodi seemed […]

Winter Ride, II

The second ride in two days was with Shea and Jodi. Shea’s such a lovely, quiet horse, so ponying the new girl is a Win-Win: It’s good for Jodi to see new things and good for me to practice that extra juggle. Jodi has some […]

Winter Ride, I

Call me a grouch. A wet blanket. There were times I had a more upbeat attitude about winter, this month is not one of them. Make that a frozen, wet blanket. The shorter, colder days cut down on saddle time. If we do ride in […]