Explore Outdoor Activities: Equestrian and Horses

Ask Sarah Invicta Williams what is fun about charging a 1,000-pound-plus horse around a grassy course, jumping five-foot obstacles that would make a normal equine flee back to the barn.

The Santa Fe equestrian is likely talk your ear off about the joys of show jumping.

Shamrock, an elegant, solid-muscled gray mare, stepped lightly into the horse trailer behind trainer Mike Sikorski at The Horse Shelter near Cerrillos.

Then the 13-year-old mare suddenly barreled backward out of the trailer like she'd seen the entrance to a slaughterhouse.

Sabinoso Lands Could Soon Be a Protected Area

The absence of the Sabinoso wildlands in eastern San Miguel County from most road maps is perhaps fitting given the forlornness of its hulking mesas and dry streambeds during these long, dusty days of summer.

It exists near where the high-desert plains along N.M. 104 east of Las Vegas abruptly sink and form sandstone canyons more than 1,000 feet deep.

Ranchers once called this place home, as evidenced by abandoned homesteads still filled with items like a rickety rocking chair and a yellowing copy of “Casper, the Friendly Ghost.”