Water is the Desert's Gem

On the rim, Horseshoe Canyon.  The Great Gallery is about 5 miles down the canyon

On an early October trip to southern Utah's San Rafael Desert, we began a ride  the Horseshoe Canyon Unit of Canyonlands.  Horseshoe Canyon (sometimes called Barrier Canyon) features the world famous Great Gallery, a panel of ancient native American petroglyphs. The trail into the canyon follows an old roadbed blasted out of the sandstone  in 1929  This time, we followed the road out of the canyon to the east, where it is mostly washed out, but enough of it remains for a horse or hiker to follow.

Faint trail crosses the arid landscape

After crossing Horseshoe Canyon, we rode 15 miles across old 2 tracks and trailless desert to reach what is known as the Spur.
From the air, the bends in the Green River create what looks like the rowels (points) of a spur.

One of the rowels of the Spur as seen from the Moab (east) side of the Green River

From the Moab side of the river (east), each rowel looks like a peninsula sticking out in a river bend. Last week, we were on the west side, up on one of those peninsulas.
As we neared southernmost rowel of the Spur, the horses were ready for a drink.

Light Green Tree Marks Water

The lighter green tree, a cottonwood, in the left middle of the photo shows us where to look, although Steve had already scouted out the waterholes on Google Earth.  We needed to be fairly certain water was out there before making the ride.

Desert Gem

Here's that tree, close up, where a pool of water awaited us.  Boss and Coco enjoyed a nice long drink.  Shortly after this photo was taken, Boss moved on into the pool, reaching belly deep in a few steps.  He intended to go swimming, but I was able to turn him around before he got carried away and soaked his saddle.

view of Green River from the Spur (west side of the river) 

We rode out onto one of the rowels of the Spur for a view of the river.  We dubbed the area Pothole Spur, because it was covered with potholes filled with water from a recent rain.

Boss looked at one of the potholes, then at me, as if to say, "How the heck do you expect me to go swimming in this?"

Some of the potholes were more sizeable, but not deep enough for Boss to get his belly wet.

Some areas have good grass.  No cows graze on the Spur, and even the burros don't venture out there very often, possibly because the water holes are so scarce.
We did see quite a few jackrabbits, and as we explored a small canyon, we surprised a large owl, probably a Great Horned Owl, which are said to be fairly common in the Canyonlands.  The land between Horseshoe Canyon and the Green River, known as The Spur, encompasses well over 50 square miles.  All of it is nearly untouched, lonely and wild.

Old Trails and Noisy Burros

Still looking for the historic cow, cowboy, and outlaw trail leading down to the Sand Slide (which eventually leads into the Green River corridor), we rode the length of Goat Park, a huge expanse of grassland.  No goats live there now, but maybe there were some once. (Or maybe "goat" is a misnomer for desert bighorn sheep?)

An abandoned sandy 2-track makes an excellent place for a gallop.

Near the end of the old 2-track, we found what we were looking for.  Long ago, someone had marked the spot with a pile of juniper branches.  This way down was safer than the Dead Donkey Trail ...

but only marginally.
A horse could make it down, and undoubtedly many have, but since a wrong step could mean a long fall followed by an unpleasantly sudden stop, we didn't ride it.  Steve did walk down, of course.  Not me.  I don't like getting too close to anything cliffy.  Anyway, he was convinced it was indeed the way the cowboys and outlaws descended.

On the way back, we found some potholes for the animals.  Boss drank, but Coco wouldn't.  You can't see the water, but it's in a sandstone depression right in front of Coco.  The old saying, "you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink," is only too true.  Daisy patiently waited her turn.

As we made our way back toward camp, we saw some wild burros.  Daisy went up to meet them.  They didn't approve and hee-hawed loudly in protest that anyone would dare invade their "pasture."

Going Barefoot

We started reading about natural hoof care and "barefoot" riding several years ago.  One of our first sources was The Natural Horse: Foundations for Natural Horsemanship by Jaime Jackson. Jackson's theory is that mustangs go barefoot over incredibly rocky territory in the mountain west, and they seem to do fine.  In fact, when their hooves are studied (usually after death, because nobody's picking up the feet of a range mustang!), the hoof walls are beautifully self-trimmed. This Wikipedia article  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaime_Jackson  talks about Jaime Jackson, a man who researched wild mustangs in the Great Basin (where we live) and found that they have far less hoof problems (navicular syndrome and laminitis) than domestic horses.  He started a movement toward natural hoof care that is growing in popularity. 

At first we were skeptical that horses could be ridden safely over rocks without shoes, but we did more reading on how to trim the hooves correctly.  The correct trim, as illustrated  in Horse Owners Guide to Natural Hoof Care, again by Jaime Jackson,  is shorter than the usual trim for shoeing, and with a "mustang roll" around the outer hoof wall to prevent chipping. 
Through reading Jackson's work, and also Making Natural Hoof Care Work for You by Pete Ramey, which has a lot of "work in progress" photos of trimming techniques, we learned to do our own hoof care.  As we spent more and more time riding barefoot, we found that the soles toughen up, the hoof walls strengthen, and the horses seem comfortable going over all kinds of rocks.
At the beginning of the spring riding season, our horses are long in the toe, but we trim them back as work over rocks causes the sole to scoop out into its concave natural shape.  After a few weeks of steady riding and trimming, the hoofs look better and better.

The more the horses are ridden over rocks, the tougher their feet become. Because the hoof naturally flexes (and shoes prevent the flexing), we've come to believe that barefoot is generally better for them and provides safer footing over rough terrain.

We do have front hoof boots (EasyBoot Bare are the ones we've found work best) that we use for multi day rides carrying overnight equipment over very rocky mountain terrain. We used to use them on all 4 feet whenever there were any rocks, but we've found that is unnecessary.  In fact, the hoofs do better if we use boots as little as possible.  However, we do have the hoof boots handy in case the horses show any sign of getting sore feet.
For horses ridden infrequently without adequate time to toughen up, no doubt using protection (iron shoes or rubber boots) is the best bet. Or, for horses ridden more than the 50-70 miles per week that our horses usually go, protection might be necessary to prevent the hooves being worn down too much and cause them to be tender for that reason. 
We're amateurs at this and still learning, but so far going barefoot (with those rare exceptions when we need boots for extreme rocks) seems to be working out very well.

The Rough Rides

Steve has kept a journal on the Utah trail rides and Utah hikes we've enjoyed over the last 15 years.  Most have been within the Uinta Basin, including trails in the Uinta Mountains, the Book Cliffs, around Dinosaur National Monument, Indian Canyon, Tabby Mountain, off of the Red Cloud Loop north of Vernal, and in the Currant Creek and Strawberry River drainages.

Compiling the information into book form has been more difficult than he expected, but since he retired from a real job, he's been hard at work on this project in his (limited) spare time.  I edited and added my two cents worth here and there.

The result:  Uinta Basin Rough Rides, a list of 66 Utah backcountry adventures, with trail descriptions, diary entries, and some of Steve's acquired wisdom ( the old aphorism, "Good judgment comes from experience and experience comes from bad judgment" applies here!) on horseback riding, GPS techniques, and general horse sense.

Here are maps of the area, with our routes outlined in red:

  Most of the areas have been featured in this blog.  If any of our rider/hiker readers are interested in buying a copy of the book, it sells for $12 plus $4 shipping.  Send payment and your mailing address to:

Steve Meier
RR 4 Box 3070
Roosevelt, UT 84066