Red Mountain Ride

Yesterday at the last minute we headed out to Red Mountain Open Space for a quick trailride along our favorite loop.  It ends up being 7.2 miles, which we can do fairly quickly if we trot where the footing is good.  Highboy is definitely fit after a summer of training and eventing, so he enjoyed even the trotting through the deep sand in the wash.  Shambhu and Beauty had a good time too, but didn't seem quite as exuberant as Highboy (who is?).

My favorite parts of this trail are where the terrain is incredibly red, hence the name Red Mountain Open Space.  In the past I've had a hard time getting the photos to really show how steep and dramatic this part of the trail is, so this time I took a video while I let Highboy pick his footing through the winding parts.

After we finished that section of trail we got to the stock water tank.  Highboy loves water and after having a beverage he tried to eat the algae.  Beauty did some snorkeling, and also tried to coax Shambhu into a water fight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voCoQ4RPdz4

This video shows some of the super cool rock formations we ride through at one end of the loop.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6vAKsiyj28