Angeles park horse riding

On Saturday, we took Duncan to his favorite place to go horse riding. He loves it but doesn't drive so bribed us to take him. I finally tackled driving in LA traffic and LA freeways for the first time. Going wasn't too bad but there were more people coming back and I am not a fan. But it wasn't as bad as I was expecting. Once we left the freeway, we got onto roads in the Angeles National forest. Though I have to admit I wouldn't have called it a forest. It was missing one main thing: trees! Still the views were impressive.

Angeles mountains

Super excited about a tunnel

Trees!!!

The drive was really pretty. Or so I've been told. I was focusing on the road. It was a bit twisty and there were quite a few cyclists and motorbikes out and I really didn't want to kill any of them!

When we got to the ranch, Duncan disappeared and we amused ourselves for a while before we got our horses. I got Gypsy who was lovely and quite calm thankfully. Though she liked to do what the other horses did regardless of what I told her. 

On Gypsy

Duncan, Rachel, and me on the trail

The trail was through pretty much dessert. There were some amazing trees, some burnt, some sun bleached, all strange shapes. I wish I could have got down and played with my camera. (But I would never have got back on again, assuming Gypsy even stuck around!)

Dessert

Sun bleached tree

More dessert

 I took a small camera with me and when bored, took some selfies. Though sometimes apparently even I wasn't paying attention to me.

Correct way to take a selfie

How not to take a selfie

The horses were very cool. It was not like the rides I have been on before. These ones were a little less ... trained. They liked doing what they liked to do. At some points I didn't exactly tell her to so it was a bit of a surprise. But I was pleased when I finally actually got her to do what I asked. (Or at least she pretended to.)
But I did got to canter. It was so cool going fast. And terrifying. But lots of fun when I wasn't worrying about falling off! Especially along the tops of ridges.

Cinnamon and Raja

A rare photo - Raja staying still

Classic Duncan photo

Pleased Rachel (and King)

I really enjoyed being in the dessert though. I liked the little flowers dotted around occasionally.

Dessert flowers

Near the end Duncan switched horses and got to ride his favorite, making him very happy. He hung around for a bit, jumped her over a small jump and then just disappeared off off into the distance.

Happy now.

 I was pretty exhausted when I got back. And my knees were really hurting. I got off the horse (I was supposed to jump but that was never going to end well if I tried that) and pretty much collapsed on the floor in pain. It is not a sport for people with bad knees! But I did manage to get a selfie with Gypsy. (I tried to get a few but she was camera shy.)

After the ride

At the ranch, they also had a pet baby goat, called Zues who was very cute and really like practicing his head butts on anyone nearby.

Zeus launching himself to head butt off a chair

Cuddles.

They also had the cutest Dalmatian who I wanted to take home. She was so sweet and gave a good lick to clean my up. (She meant well.)

It's a hard life.

After that I had to drive back to Pasadena along the same winding roads. We all had an early night - combined with the hours of driving, it was a lot more work than I expected. And now, 2 days later I still ache.

Windy road