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Title: My big black dog!
Tags: Black Dog
Blog Entry:  I saddled up my old friend for a New Year's Day ride.  It was nice to get away from the football and get some fresh air on a beautiful Phoenix 70 degree day.  The rest of the country seems to be covered in a shroud of cold, snowy, weather. Since I have been working to train Star, Maverick has taken the back seat for attention, but he knew that we were getting ready to partner up again.  I would have loved to find others to ride with, but I think that the rest of the world was either watching football or recovering from the parties of the night before. We rode right from the house across the south part of town into the South Mountain Mountain Preserve Park ( which by the way is the largest municipal park in the United States). I didn't see any other horses or evidence of other horses, just folks out hiking, and an occasional mountain biker.  Maverick felt good and we cantered down the trail and then climbed up to the first ridge over looking the Phoenix valley.  Here you can see the whole city.  Maverick likes to look over the city and listen to the vibration of noises that work their way up to this lookout point.  We can see probably 200 miles or so to the mountains to the east ( including  the Four Peaks).  I couldn't believe how clear it was.  The news said it would be smoggy and inverted, but not so! We headed down the backside passing the petroglyphs that get over looked by most visiting the park.  These were created by the Hohokam Indians that lived in the area long in the past.  The washes are dry most of the year and are fun to gallop down.  Maverick anticipates going fast in the sand since I can't resist galloping there.  Once out of the washes, we have to go  a bit slower since the area is so rocky and rugged.   Halfway through the ride is the main eastern entrance to the park at Pima Canyon.  This area is very busy with lots of people trying to get in.  There is a horse water tank here and we decided to stop for water.  There are lots of tourists here enjoying the weather and the rugged desert terrain.  Once large group we encountered were Chinese Tourists.  They were amazed by the sight of a cowgirl on a horse!  The funny thing though, was in very broken English, they told me that they liked my "Black Dog!"  Some were frightened at the sight of such a big animal ( Maverick is rather small for a horse though at only 15 hands and about 900 pounds). When we were all watered up, we rode on to Awatuki which is on the south side of the park.  Lots of mountain bikers there, but no sight of any other horses.  Not even rental horses.  What is the matter with people?   A cool breeze kicked up as the sun started to go down and we had to head home. We crossed two more ridges and valleys before we descended back to the edge of the city and back to our home. Another uneventful ride on my big black dog!