Colorado Trail Riders Magazine

There are three different dimensions of the horse that we must be aware of as we train our horse. The physical, mental and the emotional sides of the horse are always directly linked.

For most of us all we ever see is the physical side of the horse. We see what our horse does. This is the physical evidence of what the horse is thinking or feeling. One of the main reasons we do groundwork is to access the mental and emotional state of our horse. The physical way a horse reacts to pressure and release lets us judge the way the horse is feeling and thinking.

The other day I was helping a student of mine as she worked her horse. She was asking and getting her horse to do the things that she wanted, but the way that her horse looked as it did them told me that the horse was not happy about doing the maneuvers. Helping her, we worked through her horses attitude and when we ended the training session her horse looked more fluid and relaxed. It really doesn’t matter what you can get your horse to do. What really matters is when you can get your horse to do an asked maneuver in a relaxed manner and responding to your cues with softness.

So the question that I ask is “how” is the horse doing what you ask. The way a horse is doing and asked maneuver is what I call form. And form, I think is more important than speed or precision. I always tell my students “ If you get the form right first you can always add speed later. Form is not only what you are doing but how your horse looks and feels as it’s doing it. We see a lot of people today teaching folks technique. Hold the rope this way, Do this, Don’t do that. And that’s Ok, but what folks really need to learn are the concepts behind the techniques. Understanding why you are doing what you are doing is more important than what you do.

What it all boils down to is the next time you are working your horse think not so much about achieving a particular maneuver but rather ask some simply questions. As you are working how does your horse feel under you and how does it look. Is your horse responding to your cues or reacting out of fear. Are the movements of your horse fluid and soft or are they hard and ridged. The old saying “ if it looks pretty it is pretty “, “if it feels good it is good.” I have a saying “ You want to keep working everyday until your horse does it like butter sliding off a corn cob.” If you are working your horse and it’s not like butter then work at it a little each day until it gets better and better. The thing you want to keep in mind is, you are looking for your horse to be more relaxed and fluid as you progress through your session.  Until next time Pray Hard, Stay Strong, & Rock On .

Moses A Woodson

Trail Ride Recommendation

James M John State Wildlife Area
Las Animas County
8,339 acres

View the Photo Album

August 2007, as I was searching for locations for an upcoming fall hunting trip, I discovered the James M. John State Wildlife Area in southern Colorado.  This turned out to be a little known and unexpected treasure.  If you enjoy viewing wildlife, especially turkey, eagle, deer and elk, this is a great location to visit.  This area is fairly popular with the bird watching community.  Other features include willows, ponderosa pine, scrub oak, pinon-juniper, grassy meadows, and much more. 

James M John SWA sits on the eastern slope of the Raton Mesa, just outside of Trinidad, Colorado.  Access to James M John SWA is through Lake Dorothey State Wildlife Area.  Interestingly, public access to the wildlife areas is through Raton, NM.  To get there from the Colorado Front Range region take I-25 South to NM-72 in Raton, NM.  Head east on NM-72 to NM-526.  Head north on NM-526 through Sugarite Canyon to the Lake Dorothey State Wildlife Area.  According to the Colorado Division of Wildlife website, public access to the James M John SWA area is open from April 2nd – November 30th and can be accessed via foot or horseback only.  See the Colorado Division of Wildlife for additional details, including accessibility dates, camping regulations, etc.

The trail begins from the gravel parking lot at Lake Dorthey SWA (~7750’) where you have an amazing view toward the top of Raton Mesa.  From the parking lot you follow the established trail in a general North West direction.  Shortly after leaving the parking lot the trail crosses Schwachheim Creek and begins its ascent up the mesa.  At the time of my last visit the trail was in good condition although it was apparent that it is infrequently used.  In many areas the grass was so high that it obstructed my view of the actual trail, however after a short distance I would pick it back up again as though I had never lost sight of the trail.  Anywhere I was unsure, my horse plodded through confidently. 

The trail to the grasslands at the top of the mesa is about 3.5 miles in length and gains ~1250’ in elevation.  It’s not terribly steep but a consistent uphill grade.  Once at the top the trail opens into striking grassland as far as the eye can see.  The trail passes a stock pond shortly after entering the grasslands.  One note here…if you have a GPS you should mark the location where you leave tree cover on the trail.  If you are not using a GPS you should take a number of mental snapshots of where the trail leaves tree cover.  Once out on the grasslands it is easy to lose the trail in the high grass and it can be difficult to pick out the opening in the trees where the trail heads down the mountain.  From this point it is simply a matter of exploring the top of the mesa. 

Rusty Gabriel

We all know that horses are bilateral, right. We know that a horse has two halves of a whole brain that process thought individually. When we train our horses, we know that we have to teach them everything on both sides. An old cowboy I once knew said it like this “what you have there is two animals all wrapped up in one hide”. But the more I train horses the more I realize that horses are far more complex than this.

I have found that horses are not only bilateral, but also multileveled. The reason I know this is, the more I travel and work with people and their horses, the more I see a continuing situation play out. The first thing that people tell me is how great their horse is, and all the things that their horse is good at. But, and it is always a big “BUT”, my horse has problems with one issue or another. This is where the multilevel part of the horse comes into play. On so many levels people can be a good leader and deal with their horses “BUT” on other levels they have no control what so ever. Once we realize that these horses are so complex we can start peeling back the onion so to speak and deal with the different levels of the horse and become a leader on all of the different levels that are within our horses. One good way to do this is by making a list. Take a sheet of paper and divide it into two halves by drawing a line down the middle of the page. One side is for the left brain of the horse, the other for the right brain of the horse. Then list all the things that you do with your horse on both sides from catching all the way down to competing or trail riding, and be specific, list all aspects of the activities you do with your horse. Once you do that be honest with yourself and place a check mark beside the things that you know you and your horse do really well and that you have total control over. Once you are done look at all of the empty places with no check marks and you will begin to see all of the holes in your relationship with your horse. This is a good thing because now you know what levels you have to work on. Now you can work to become a better leader for your horse in those areas.

Continue to work on those things until next time, and we will discuss the three dimensions of our horses, the physical horse, the mental horse, and the emotional horse.

By: Moses A Woodson

Moses will be at Latigo in Colorado Springs on April 17 & 18

Location: About 12 miles West of Crested Butte on the North side of the West Elk Wilderness area.

Dates: June – September

Photos: Click to view album

Getting There: From Gunnison take Colorado 32 north 32 miles to Crested Butte. From Crested Butte take Colorado 12 west, which is also known as Kebler Pass. Kebler Pass Road is a well-maintained dirt road for its entirety, and is part of the larger West Elk Scenic Loop.

The Dark Season Change Photo by: Kevin Day

Camping: While there are many places off the beaten-path to get a rig into, there best place is right off of Kebler Pass Rd called Horse Ranch Park. Horse Ranch Park is a beautiful area for an extended camping with your horses.  There is incredible riding from every direction out of this scenic spot, located on Kebler Pass Road.

The park is a well equipped facility with numerous areas to set up camp and keep your stock well fed and watered.  With the camping area between West Elk Wilderness (South) and the Raggeds Wilderness (North) there is no shortage of riding trails that will keep you well away from city-life, ATV and even most hikers..  Longer adventures to Beckwith Pass and into the Cliff Creek area are something you’ll remember for the rest of your life. To the South, and to the north your journey leads up the Dark Canyon Trail and eventually on to Erickson Springs. 

In the fall elk and deer hunting is popular from this comfortable camp ground – so make sure to arrive early, and check with the Colorado Division of Wildlife for season dates.

Description: The West Elk Mountains comprise a large remote wilderness west of Gunnison. The volcanic ridges and long valleys of this area offer countless opportunities for extended rides. As an added benefit, West Elk receives relatively few visitors outside of hunting season, probably because the area lacks fourteeners or numerous alpine lakes which typically attract recreational users. Lost lake does attract city folks, but can easily be avoided.

Aspens blanket the steep-sided valleys, and hikers, traveling tourist and some off-roaders will travel up and down CR-12 (Kebler Pass) but generally stick very close to the road and usually are visiting in late September to be rewarded with golden fall colors, clear blue skies, brisk temperatures, and the unmistakable sound of bull elk bugling. Elk and deer herds numbering in the thousands also attract crowds of hunters in late fall. An extensive network of trails along ridgelines and valley floors creates a multitude of loop trips, allowing for multi-day or week-long excursions with plenty of off Pass camping large enough to fit full rigs and even groups.

Maps to Download:
Google Earth KMZ file with Camping Waypoints

Fossil Ridge Wilderness is a small wilderness of about 32,000 acres and is located approximately 16 miles northeast of the town of Gunnison. The area contains several high mountain lakes. The 26 miles of trails within the wilderness are open to foot and horse travel. Fossil Ridge is classic Rocky Mountain wilderness: rough-hewn granite peaks tower behind glittering alpine lakes resting at the head of long, timbered glacial-cut valleys. On the surface, this properly describes the area, but looking deeper within Fossil Ridge, we find one of the Rockies’ wildest and most inaccessible stream drainages – Crystal Creek – an uncommon juxtaposition of limestone and granite ridges.

Fossil Ridge takes its name from a high limestone ridge rich in fossils. Ancient seas laid down thousands of feet of limestone and dolomite, some say between 600 and 275 million years ago, creating the Leadville Formation, which yields fossils of varied sea life, from sharks to invertebrates. How odd it seems to find fossils far above timberline, 13,000 feet above sea level, and to consider the monstrous tectonic forces it took to so drastically alter the earth’s surface.

The wilderness is surrounded by the Fossil Ridge Recreation Management area which is approximately 44,000 acres in size. Roads and trails within the Recreation Management Area are open to mechanized and motorized uses. The Fossil Ridge Trail on the South end is a very popular motorcycle trail within the RMA, however in the past twelve years of riding the North end I have never seen a motorcycle or ATV – just the occasional 4×4 on a Sunday drive. This place has latterly hundreds of miles of horse trails, cattle trails and wild game trails that you don’t really ever need to take any of the so-called roads within this area.

Accommodations: We have ridden and hunted this area for the past 12 years. We have packed horses in the wilderness for 10 day stretches and have had many overnight campouts, and there are many different state campgrounds all up and down CR 742 as well as camping in the RMA; but our most favorite place to stay is the Harmel’s Ranch Resort right where the Taylor River & Spring Creek meet – more below.

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Photo Album: Click to view

Ride details to come.

Photo Album: Click to view

Ride details to come.

Photos: Click to view album

Ride details to come.