Article and photos by Allanna Jackson

Memorial Day weekend started warm and sunny with Stage One Fire Restrictions in effect. My horse trailer was back in service. My horses needed an outing more interesting than their annual trip to the veterinarian back in mid-April.

Friday afternoon I hitched the trailer and adjusted the length of the new trailer chains. I wanted the chains short enough that they couldn’t drag. When crossed underneath the trailer tongue, I wanted the chains to catch the tongue and keep it off the ground if some unexpected problem caused the trailer to pop off the hitch ball. Yet I also needed the safety chains to be long enough that they wouldn’t interfere with turning the trailer during normal operation. Adjusting the chains and giving the rig a pre-trip inspection, I loaded the tack and caught both horses.

Velvet nickered nervously as I led the horses to the trailer. I reassured her we were all going on this trip and it would be a short outing. I loaded Velvet first, momentarily forgetting that she prefers to be the last one on the trailer and the first one off. Velvet put her head into Cinnamon’s manger just as Cinnamon was climbing into the trailer; I straightened Velvet out. After double-checking that both horses were safely settled on their respective sides of the trailer, I set off for the Panorama Trailhead on Porter Mountain Road.

There was one man with an e-bike at the trailhead. He kept looking down the road, as though expecting someone. There were no other vehicles there when I parked. Several OHVs went by on the dirt road beside the trailhead while I groomed the horses. Velvet fidgeted, moving around, swishing her tail, and stamping at more flies than I could detect. Cinnamon stood quietly while I saddled her. A pickup truck arrived while I was grooming the horses. The man with the e-bike and the lady driving the truck loaded the e-bike onto a bike rack on the back of the truck. Velvet interrupted her fidgeting to watch them. They paid no attention to us.

I mounted Cinnamon, and we led Velvet down the dirt road to the Flume Connector Trail, where we turned left. We followed Flume Connector up toward Porter Mountain. The New Mexico locusts were just beginning to leaf out. Some yuccas were sending up flower stalks but had not yet bloomed. There were only a few roses in bloom and a smattering of other flowers, but few. We were quite happy that no one was shooting in the Porter Mountain cinder pit, as they often do.

Flume Connector trail crosses the dirt road that goes up Porter Mountain itself, then begins a short, steep climb partway up the south side of the mountain. We had just started up this slope when I lost my grip on Velvet’s lead rope. She stopped and waited while I turned Cinnamon around on the side of the hill. While turning around, I glimpsed a purple flower in the ditch but couldn’t tell if it was a lupine or the first New Mexico Locust flower of the season. As we caught Velvet, I noticed one of Cinnamon’s boots was coming undone. Back on the road, I dismounted, fastened Cinnamon’s boot, mounted again, and we headed back up the slope leading Velvet. Both horses climbed steadily as the Flume trail wanders up over the shoulder of the mountain and down again to cross a dirt road. Cinnamon had more trouble with the downhill than usual. We turned right onto this dirt road that has become part of the Porter Mountain loop of the Maverick motorized trail, which is a segment of the new Alpine motorized trail.

The motorized trail is rutted and lumpy, making the footing a little tricky for the horses. Apparently, it was tricky for the machines too, because there was an alternate route around the most deeply rutted section. Cinnamon seemed a little unsteady on her feet, which concerned me because it is out of character for her. I immediately suspected that the antihistamine the veterinarian prescribed for a skin condition might make Cinnamon dizzy. I took her off the medication for the rest of the weekend to test my hypothesis. Cinnamon’s balance was back to normal when I rode her Saturday afternoon.

Reaching a road junction, we stayed to the right, following a route that loops the base of Porter Mountain. This section of motorized trail climbs up and over the flank of a hill on the west side of Porter Mountain and was also rutted. It merged with yet another dirt road where we again stayed to the right to continue our circle around Porter Mountain. It was early enough in the weekend that most of the visitors had not yet arrived, so we had the trails and roads to ourselves. When the road smoothed out, I put Cinnamon into a running walk with Velvet pacing, trotting, and walking beside or behind her. We slowed down when the road got rutted again.

The Panorama non-motorized trail crosses the dirt road we were on, so we turned right onto the Panorama Trail and followed it along the north edge of Porter Mountain. By this time somebody had begun shooting in the cinder pit on the opposite side of the mountain. There were only a few flowers here and there. I saw more yuccas budding, but not yet blooming.

When the Panorama Trail crossed the dirt road on the east side of Porter Mountain, we turned right onto the road to go back to the trailhead. Somebody had parked their RV on the west side of the road, though I didn’t see anybody there. The Lakeside Ranger District allows dispersed camping in much of the Forest, so I expected to find someone camped there on a holiday weekend.

Back at the trailhead, we found another truck and horse trailer parked. The people and horses were out of sight on the trail somewhere. Velvet kept a curious eye on the other horse trailer while I unsaddled Cinnamon. First, I loaded Velvet into my trailer, and she again got into Cinnamon’s space. I reminded Velvet to get over to her side of the trailer so Cinnamon could get in. We headed home, where I unloaded them and fed them supper. I made another fine-tuning adjustment to the length of the safety chains before parking the trailer and

unloading it.