“Yes it is, Henry.” She smiled, pleased with his concern. “I’ve decided that we’re going to take the day off and go for a ride.”

“A ride? What about the chores?”

“The neighbor boys are here,” she said, nodding over her shoulder toward the barn and pens. “They’ll take care of the place for the day. Come on, get your gear and let’s go.” She turned and walked down the steps, stopping at the bottom to look back at Henry, who, still standing by the door, was a little mystified by Jessie’s behavior. “Well?” she motioned for him to follow. “Come on! We haven’t got all day.”

In less than a half-hour Jessie, on her favorite horse Bree, an eight-year-old bay Mustang-Quarter Horse mare, and Henry aboard Mic were heading westward out across the ranch. Side by side, they passed by the red rock overhang down by the river where Henry had found a group of horses that cold, rainy morning. An hour later, they passed through a gate on the backside of the property, leaving the ranch and going on to BLM land that spread out over fifty thousand acres farther to the west and north. After another hour of riding, a slight breeze had come up from the south and began to heat the air, as Jessie and Henry passed through a shallow canyon.

“So ma’am,” Henry said, taking a short swig from his canteen. “Where is it exactly that we’re headed?”

“There’s a little place up ahead here that I wanted you to see.”

“With all due respect,” Henry put the cap back on the canteen and hung the strap back over his saddle horn. “I’ve seen the desert before, and we sure got a lot of work to do back at the ranch. Shouldn’t we be back there instead of out here?”

“We’ll be back soon enough,” Jessie smiled.

Just out of the canyon, Jessie eased her mare up into a lope, and Henry and Mic followed suit. They loped until the ground turned too rocky, and then brought the horses back to a walk. For the next four miles the pair alternated between loping, trotting and walking, depending on the terrain they were moving across. At one point, they both needed to dismount and walk their horses down a steep, rocky trail that led into a narrow draw. Still dismounted, they then led their horses back up the other side and once on top, they remounted and continued across the mesa.

By noon, they had come to the base of a large, winding hill where Jessie brought her horse to a stop, and turned to Henry with a finger across her lips telling him to stay quiet. They dismounted, loosened their cinches and wrapped their reins around the limb of a nearby Joshua tree. The horses immediately dropped their heads and began browsing on what little dry grass was in their reach. Jessie pulled a pair of binoculars from her saddlebags and motioned for Henry to follow her. The little game trail they started up was so steep and rocky they soon needed to get down on all fours just so they could make the climb. Near the top of the hill, and after an arduous twenty minutes of climbing, Jessie motioned for Henry to get lower to the ground and slow his pace…which wasn’t all that fast to begin with.