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Trail Riding - Arizona
Winter Riding in Arizona
The Prickly side of Life and What to do About it
by
Janine Wilder
 This spectacular section of the Sonoran desert with the Santa Catalina Mountains as its backdrop is absolutely breathtaking. It is even more impressive as you traverse along the well maintained trails lined with prickly pear, prickly trees, prickly cactus, and prickly prickles. These are the normal desert vegetation with its sticky attitude and its spiny stance.
Life in the desert is different than most places in the country. Riding your horse in the Catalina State Park and the surrounding Coronado National Forest will give you a taste of what it is like to survive in this kind of existence. Be prepared to enter a realm from different than the northern mountains and that of the surrounding states. Come on in and enjoy yourself, however be careful for you will find your surroundings a little tougher to get along with than you are used to.
Desert life is tough and everything that lives here has to protect itself one way or another. The flora here in its desert environment protects itself with their small sword-like stickers and hurt anyone or anything that gets close enough to get stuck. Or in the case of the choila, the variety in this area of the country is called “jumping” choila for a good reason. Just get close enough to it and you soon see why it is called that.
 When riding your horse along the trail you have to be particularly careful that your equine doesn’t get too close. You can bet there may be a “wreck” (accident) in your future if your horse happens to get too close to a choila. It can be a very nasty situation, so carry a comb or a pair of pliers to flick the testy buggers off of you or your equine buddy just as soon as possible.
I had a young horse one time, that upon placing his nose on the cactus, instead of the usual smelling the plant in an effort of figuring out what it is, the choila quickly attached itself to his upper lip. This quickly prompted him to raise his head and wrinkle and unwrinkled his lip in an attempt to dislodge his newly acquired appendage. I quickly got out my trusty comb and flicked the pesky cactus as far from my trusty stead as possible.
We have seen several horses twirl, hop, and buck in their efforts to get rid of the stinging veggie. However, such incidents can lead to more tragic events such in the case of our friend Ron. While maneuvering a tough and very rocky trail the young horse he was training lost his footing and stumbled into a large choila. Trying to get away from the painful beast he backed up into another one, which prompted him to go to bucking. Ron finally got him under control and was able to dismount and remove the numerous painful intruders.
 He had several more miles of trail riding in order to reach home. Upon his arrival back at home it was evident that Ron wasn’t feeling well. We asked him if he was alright and with his nod yes, was about all we got on his way to the house. Within minutes his wife, Linda had him in her car and on his way to the emergency room. From there he was taken by helicopter to the nearest hospital that was equipped to handle his internal injuries.
We found out later that unfortunately while his horse was bucking violently, Ron was thrown upon the saddle horn. The force in which he hit the horn caused a lot of internal injuries and a stay of several days in the hospital.
Of course these are not the most common reactions to cactus pricks but, you do want to be ready to extract them quickly if you horse gets stuck. Even when your horse doesn’t have violent reactions he may still have been stuck by other prickets. When I get back to camp in cactus country I always run my hand lightly over my horse’s legs. This allows me to feel if there are any spines embedded in this legs, upon finding anything I can then take a pair of pliers and gently pull them straight out.
 Another cactus that can cause problems for your horses and should be avoided at all costs is the barrel cactus. These cacti can be any height or diameter, and look like a barrel, hence the name. If you look closely at the barrel cactus you will notice the fish-hook-like spines. These are certainly not horse friendly. If your horse should get into one of these awful things, try to remove the spine very carefully, slowly, and make note if you got the whole spine. They can cause the area to get infected and therefore may render the horse unable to get around or worse.
It is certainly not my intent to scare any horse rider from exploring the beauty of the desert. To the contrary, it is absolutely magic to ride in this kind of desert. The saguaros, in particular are worth a tour of the arid land. The wildflowers, plants, trees, and wildlife are incredible and should be experienced especially by the horseman.
Life is precious and as we all know, way too short in duration. Explore this beautiful country when you can and enjoy your noble steed all that you can and most important enjoy your life to the fullest. I hope to see you on the trail, whether on the flatlands, mountains, or desert – enjoy the ride! Happy Trails – Janine.
Janine is a freelance writer and photographer, author of her first book “Trail Riding”, a lecturer, clinician, and a Long Rider.
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