We went searching for more cows again on Friday. Trailered up to the meadows at 9:45am where we met up with our trusty steeds ready for more cow hunting. We were with the same group so we were quite the team by now.

The morning started off slow for finding any cows but the riding was pretty tough – great but tough and thick through the forest once we were in there.

Just after lunch we were starting to lose hope of our group finding any cows, but then 4 of us wandered away a bit from the others and came across about 50 cows – woohoo, jackpot!!! We pushed them out of the forest, up the hill, down the road til we met up with another group for them to take them back to the homestead.

Then we were off again hunting for cows. Didn’t have much luck for a couple of hours and then the head wrangler advised us to head on home. On our way back we stumbled across another 5 – well this should be easy to try and drive these guys back to the ranch – we were dead wrong!!!

Driving them down the road was easy, but we hit a snag at the bridge crossing (only 15 minutes from home) where the 5 cows panicked and all ran in different ways, up into the forest, through another clearing, down to the river – every which way but across the bridge.

An hour later and at least 5 attempts of rounding them up again and trying to push them across that goddamn bridge, the Calvary arrived – in the form of Nate and KP on horseback. Nate is the safety manager and KP is the head horse trainer at the ranch.

Not long after that, we had the cows crossing the bridge and then cruising on down the road back to the ranch, thank god, as we didn’t want to turn up empty handed.

It was about 5:15pm by the time we arrived back – a lot later than everyone else. 7 hours on horseback – another big day. Once back at the ranch we learned that a few of the staff could see us trying to get them cows over that bridge – they found it quite amusing!

It was another great day and an amazing way to finish off our cattle drive.

Saturday was our last day of riding. So after breakfast we headed up to the barn to see if we could get a custom made ride that morning – a bit of loping, going through an obstacle course and then later playing with the foals. Just generally hanging at the ranch. It was a great way to finish our riding and end the week.

I’ve met some great people, had an amazing week – I couldn’t have asked for it to be any better.

And I’ve already booked for the same week next week.

I love cow week at Vista Verde!!!

KP giving us instructions before heading out

My sweet girl Hot Rod