Take me to Taos

August 26, 2016 Lauren Mauldin Comments 18 comments

My barn has a really awesome group of people. The age range is roughly 22 – 52, yet everybody gets along and has a great time together. Really when you mix good people with horses & wine, there’s no chance for anything to go south! One of these awesome ladies summers in Taos, New Mexico. Before the temperatures started to climb this summer, we bid her goodbye as she loaded up her two horses and headed north. “Come visit me!” she said at the barn goodbye dinner.

So here’s the thing about me – if you are a cool person and you live somewhere cool and you invite me, I’m going to show up… and that’s how we found ourselves driving to New Mexico last weekend for an impromptu vacation.

I have a lot of pictures about the trip, but not a lot to say about it. That’s not because I didn’t have a good time or was bored – far from it! There were scenic views, natural hot springs, amazing meals, great wine and of course… ponies.

Adventure trail riding tends to give me heart palpations these days, but my friend hooked me up with a rock solid trail horse that plodded along perfectly. We went trail riding in the land surrounding my friend’s property, which backs up to the Rio Grande Gorge.

It’s hard to tell from the pictures, but the land goes from flat and safe to HUGE GIANT DROP that goes down 800 feet. The mare I was riding has Wobbler Syndrome, and although she was pretty rock solid moving forward she tended to … well, wobble while grazing.

I may be smiling in these pictures but I’m thinking, I wonder who will settle my estate when we both wobble down into the gorge and are never heard from again. That’s a pretty baller way to go out though…

Maybe the real reason I don’t have much to write about my mini vacation is that it aptly served as a time for my brain to reset. I watched the sky around my friend’s property over the days I was there. It ranged from clear blue, to an angry gray and a vibrant red. With no agenda and no access to my “real life” in Austin, I relaxed and laughed. Made new friends. Listened to interesting people. Settled into the scrub like the rabbits and other wildlife surrounding the house.

To put it simply, I recharged with a group of good hearted people.

On our drive home through the mountains, my friend and I saw a huge stag on the side of the road. He was halfway up the mountain, and paused as we drove by with one of his front feet poised above the rocks. His massive antlers were still covered in velvet, but he wasn’t a young guy.

When I pointed him out to my friend, she called him a Patronus. I’ve never been a huge Harry Potter fan, so I then had to ask her what a Patronus was. When she explained it was a guardian to save you from harm, I joked if we could go halfsies on the deer we just saw. The stag slipped into the shroud of the woods, and my car rolled down the curves of the mountain on its journey home. I rested my head against the glass of my passenger window, and for a little while thought everything might be okay.

18 thoughts on “Take me to Taos”

I definitely want to go to Taos! (I was definitely sold on it thanks to a Taos visitors magazine I picked up in Santa Fe.) Looks gorgeous. I’m so glad you had a good time.

Sounds like the perfect trip away. Not everything needs to be talked about. Sometimes pictures tell the story on their own.
Also, with you on the palpitations out in the wild. I need fenced in security.

Expecto Patronum! The Patronus Charm is an immensely complicated and extremely difficult charm that evokes a partially tangible positive energy force known as a Patronus. The Patronus represents that which is hidden, unknown but necessary within the personality. A human, confronted with evil, must draw upon resources he or she may have never needed, and the Patronus is the awakened secret self that lies dormant until needed but which must now be brought to light. To successfully cast the spell, one must must the happiest memory they can think of. The charm is more difficult to produce in emotionally trying situations. The Patronus works as a shield against Dementors that feed on happy memories to render humans to drown in sorrow and saddness.

Sounds like a great reset button. So pretty!

So gorgeous! What a great trip. 🙂

Sounds blissful & the photos (as always) are fab.

If you ever fancy a jaunt to back to Europe please know you’ll have a free place to stay in Lux. Admittedly it isn’t a massively popular tourist destination so chances of you being in this neck of the woods are slim to none but the offer stands

what a lovely trip – i visited new mexico once for a couple days and fell madly in love. very glad to hear you didn’t wobble down into the gorge tho!!!

Restoration is good, glad you got that minute away to reset & enjoy life!

Sometimes we just have to get away.

The desert terrain is like that. When my friend was visiting in AZ, he would look at the mountains that seemed far away, but a quick 10 minute drive put us at the base of them. Sometimes between where you are and the base of those same mountains there were several deep ravines. You just couldn’t see them for the terrain until you were pretty much right on top of them.

Sometimes a break like that is exactly what you need. I had a similar experience recently and it was a game changer.

Beautiful scenery! I had the same thought about it being an awesome way to go when I was galloping across the mountains in Ireland.

Thanks for the Taos blog. I thought back to when I first met Taos, 27 years ago. My wife and I were both surprised by the grandeur of the Rio Grande gorge. We drove across and walked back and looked down from the bridge. It was terrifying. We were living in Philadelphia at the time and were continually being amazed at what we saw driving through New Mexico. Three months later we moved to Santa Fe.

SO I totally thought you were a cool chick until you didn’t know what a PATRONUS was! Extending the invitation now- come visit any time! We’d do all of the touristy SF stuff AND ponies!