Groom Creek Horse Camping

As a youth I belonged to a horse group,Westwind riders in El Cajon, California. We had in house horse shows that I participated in as well as some fun activities. Perhaps my favorite was horse camping at Los Caballos in the Cuyamaca Mountains for a week in the summer. I absolutely loved the freedom,the scenery and the new experiences camping offered us. I was blessed with wonderful parents who indulged me with my passion for horses. My mother is an accomplished equestrian and she shares this passion with me. 

I had not camped with my horses since those Los Caballos days and I was long overdue.  My friend Mary Morrow has done it all. She is an endurance rider and has done a lot of horse camping. Mary has truly help me expand my riding experiences and pushed me to be more adventurous and I really appreciate her friendship. We decided to go horse camping!

In September 2014 we packed up and headed to Groom Creek Horse camp in Prescott,Arizona up in the pines. Mary has a three horse trailer with living quarters so we weren't really roughing it but hey,we were still camping. This was my Arabian gelding,Santannah's first camping experience. The facilities at Groom Creek are extremely nice. Each campsite has one pipe corral and a high tie. Mary has two portable corrals that we were able to set up for her two horses Cali and Starlight. There are lots of nice trails to ride and we did plenty of that over the four days we were there. Santannah did really well.  He was a little out of sorts being away from home overnight and he didn't eat like the chow hound he is but overall I was proud of him.

One of the interesting things that happened on our first ride Santannah pulled a shoe.  Fortunately Mary had an extra boot that fit him so I slapped a boot on him and he rode the next three days with one front shoe and one boot. This episode convinced me I needed to take Santannah barefoot which I did once we got home. That's a story for another blog post. I also had bought Santannah a blanket because I was afraid he would be too cold up in the mountains.  I put the blanket on him that first night and when I went out in the morning he was sweating rather profusely.  Needless to say he didn't wear it the rest of the time.

I hope to do this again!