Our Horseback Riding Trip

As indicated yesterday, the post was late as a result of our early start to go horseback riding. It's been at least 15 years, and probably closer to 20 years since we were on a horse. The Bill Cody Ranch, located about 30 minutes west of Cody, was offering free rides for employees of the Village:

We arrived at the Ranch around 8:15 and went into the office, registered and walked out to the corral where all the horses were located and watched as the crew prepared each horse for the riders based upon height, weight and skill level of the riders. All of the horses to be used for this trip were lined up and ready to mount:

Before mounting the horses, one of our 2 wranglers gave some basic instruction on how to handle the horses:

Basically, he indicated that the horses will stay in line and told us what to do if they stopped to eat or wanted to stray off the path when we stopped. We then mounted up - with the ladies getting some assistance:

It was then time to head out to the trail:

The trail was carved out of the forest and was a slow, but steady climb for about an hour:

Josie and Karen were immediately in front of me, and George was directly behind me. There were a total of about 15 riders for this 2 hour ride. We finally reached the top of our trail about halfway into the ride and the views were fabulous every way we turned:

We headed down the trail and were fascinated the whole way by this beautiful area:

It was almost exactly 2 hours on the horse and we all felt that it probably ended at the right time. When you aren't used to sitting on a horse, and you reach our age, 2 hours is plenty. They also have a 4 hour ride that includes a cookout and goes onto another trail to the very top of the mountain. We all decided that, if we can get in shape and, if we return next year, we would do that trip.

After leaving the Ranch, we stopped at Arby's in town for some lunch and then headed home. The day was fun and provided a new and different experience for us in the Cody area. It doesn't get much better than this.

We are planning to go to the concert-in-the-park and the rodeo this evening for the last time this season. Before that though, there is a pizza party at the office that the front desk, maintenance and housekeeping employees are invited to in order to celebrate an award (The Best of Family Hotels in Cody) that the Village received. Josie and the Gift Shop workers were not included so I don't expect to stay too long. Until tomorrow...