California Riding Magazine • August, 2009

The Perfect Mother's Day in Cuyamaca Rancho State Park

by Diana Anderson

For those of you who have never ridden a noble horse or who have, but do not own your own equine friend, be the person in this account of the perfect Mothers Day.

Many imagine riding a horse as being a passenger on an amusement park ride. Change that concept to you and your dance partner choreographing each move in many dance styles, depending on the music. The dance floor is rugged terrain with objects in your way and others moving about.

It’s a beautiful warm spring day in the Cuyamaca Mountains. A gentle, cool breeze flutters the leaves in the trees and cools my face. My horse Velvet and my saddle feel so at home, kind of like my own personal easy chair. As we start our ride I enjoy the rhythm of her gate. I can tell she loves to be out riding too. It’s like when you take your dog for a walk, they are so happy to go with you. Horses are just more subtle in their excitement, fortunately. 

At first I just enjoy the quiet and take in the whole scene. Coming around a bend behind Stonewall Peak my horse looks to the right. In a meadow a deer raises her head and then goes back to grazing, as if to say “oh, it is just a different herd.” It is so exciting how close you can get to deer without alarming them when you are on a horse.

With my husband ahead of me on his steady mount on a clear part of the trail, I take a few moments to close my eyes and take in all the sensations. Knowing my horse carefully calculates where to place each foot, I am free to focus on my senses. I hear a red shouldered hawk soaring above and the melodies of myriads of birds singing. We ride continually though massive eight foot stands of white and blue full bloom ceanothus, the wild lilac. The pungent perfume is subtle but enveloping. It reminds me of the Song of Solomon. The breeze feels so good.

Later I watch Velvet’s ears as they rotate independently 180 degrees. They flash back and forth, focusing on every sound offered and flash to me each time I speak to her. In an instance her head comes up, ears forward, her muscles tense up - it puts me on alert also. Sure enough, around the corner come two bicyclists. She relaxes as if to say, “Okay, it’s not a mountain lion, just people with wheels.” We exchange greetings and they pass us by.

On a clear, pleasant part of the trail Velvet asks me if she can move out. Somehow I answer her ‘sure’ (I have yet to figure out what signal we give each other to communicate this, but we do it all the time). If she speeds up too much, I barely touch the reins and she says, ‘okay’ and slows down. I love it that she feels so perky at 20 years old. Down the trail we hear a lot of rustling and racket under a giant live oak. Velvet stops and is reluctant to approach. Up pop the heads of several wild turkeys. She cautiously passes the tree as if to say 'I don’t trust those prehistoric birds.' We come to another meadow where we see a coyote patiently waiting for prey to come out of its hole. Suddenly it pounces on its victim. In the same fields we see a kestrel hawk hovering over its potential pray.

We are in awe at nature’s grandeur and beauty that greets us at every turn. We come to a creek crossing the Stonewall Creek Fire road and the horses stop to drink their fill of cool mountain water and snatch a few succulent grasses.

It is such a blessing that God gave us these noble creatures to haul us over terrain we could not go, at distances we could never aspire to cover. I'm at peace here with my trusted equine friend, knowing she will take care of me in precarious terrain. Her massive strength and her four sure-footed feet, to my clumsy two, take me safely through our rugged terra firma of San Diego County.

As we ride, thoughts cross my mind of travelers in past eras, coming through these very mountain trails, going west. I imagine them on their trusted steeds stopping to water and beholding the pristine beauty and bounty of wild life greeting them.

Near the Cuyamaca Lake we come across a giant 50 foot deciduous black oak that has been overcome by its predator the Cedar fire of 2004. All appearance of life had been stripped from it. Now however, its triumph is plain to see as new life is growing successfully all over its massive structure. Everywhere in the park new life sprouts from the root stocks of burned out and gnarled oaks. It is grand to see nature’s resilience. In various meadows around Stone Wall Mind are patchworks of purple, pale yellow, and orange of flowers.

To experience all this in one day, never ceases to amaze me and brings appreciation of God’s creation of the Cuyamaca Mountains. God put it here for us to marvel at this symphony of life, his gift to us, that we may know that He is God.

We will be back, to be refreshed and drink in this beauty once again, possibly on Father’s Day. Each month will boast a new set of flowers in bloom to captivate us.

This is one thankful mother’s account of a perfect day.

Written by one of the Mountain Assistance Unit volunteers who has served the Cuyamaca Rancho State Park since 1994.