A Full Day of Fun

Bill Cameron has competed in many Extreme Cowboy Races.  (He's known for a whole lot more in Northern California - training, judging, competing.)  His ranch is about 90 minutes away and occasionally he opens the gates to the public for Obstacle Course Fun Days.  He has jumps, and obstacles spread out all over the ranch and riders are encouraged to use them all.  It's $40 a person for the day and you can add on a personal training session or a session with cows.  To top it off, there are miles of desert trails to ride.  The terrain is quite desolate.  My iPhone clocked the elevation at 2600 feet.  If you want to feel like you're riding in the old west, this is the place to do it.

We took Dusty and Scratch.  It was a big weekend of horse events around town.  There was a Cowboy Christmas event at one stable, a big barrel race at another.  As a result, we had most of the obstacles to ourselves.

We worked on our horsemanship approaching some of the scarier obstacles.  We worked on our timing going through the crossing obstacles.  Then, we played a game of Follow the Leader with each of us taking a turn at leading.  We went through cones, weave poles, up and down mounds, over bridges and dead fall.

Scratch and I worked the small herd of cows.  We used a breakaway rope and caught our first cow.  Very exciting.

After a short break from lunch, the winter day was quickly closing in, but we managed a 40 minute trail ride around the desert.  We got back to the ranch just before the desert temperatures began to drop.  All-in-all a very fun day.  And, from my last post, a excellent value!