Our next adventure at Pine Butte Guest Ranch was a trail ride to an evening steak fry cookout. Today’s lunch was hastily consumed between Great Falls and Choteau earlier in the day and I was looking forward to a meal with more than one food group.
Nikki, one of Pine Butte’s wranglers, was already saddling horses for the trail ride to the cookout.
To say that Nikki is high energy would still be an understatement. This gal can toss a saddle, keep her eye on all of the horses at the hitching post and carry on a conversation at the same time. And make it look effortless! We followed her around, cameras in tow, and took some great shots.
I’m not sure how old Nikki is but she has great knowledge of the outdoors. She identifies and points out flowers, trees, anything she sees as she rides in front of her group. And, keeps a watchful eye on everyone riding behind her. Pretty amazing!
When I met my horse, well, he was mine for a few hours, I wondered why someone would have named him “Spot”. After I was introduced to him I instantly wanted to change his name to Argyle or Diamond or something a bit more imaginative. Good old Spot seemed pretty content with things though and, I think he liked me. Actually, he seemed to like everybody.
In this photo ranch manager Jim Culver is adjusting stirrups on Spot/Argyle/Diamond. The other guests that were riding to the cookout were assembling at the corrals. Some would take the van ride over to the site. We were eager to get started so we could get ahead of the other group and get some photos of the riders coming towards us.
My camera was stuffed carefully in a saddlebag, always a scary thought, but it traveled well. For those who didn’t have a camera, ooo la la, the scenery was one photo op after another. Stay tuned…