Going Feral

There's a herd of horses that roam just north of Albuquerque. They are quite beautiful. People call them the Wild Horses of Placitas. But they're not wild. They are just feral.

How long did it take these horses to go from livestock to feral (to wild)? How long would it take me? 

Yesterday I needed to grade papers, go to meetings, and prepare an exam for a class. I needed to get up, eat my breakfast, pack my lunch, take a shower, and change into presentable clothes (a shirt with a collar and pants with a crease). Instead, I put the dogs in the back of the truck and headed to a trail head I've only gone to a couple of times. Embudito Trail is well-traveled, but someone showed me a much less used trail that runs from the same trail head. I purposely left my water at home. No food, no water means a run of 90 minutes or less.

But the morning was fantastic. I was in shorts and a short sleeve shirt. I headed up. And Up and Up. I made it to where the ground was frozen. I thought that this trail would connect to the main trail so I kept going. The dogs were having a blast. I was having a blast. Someone has found rocks that are heart-shaped and placed them along the trail. One is placed in a tree, where a heart would be. Others are on boulders or just by the trail. I was following my heart!! 

I met a man who was hiking down. He looked at me like I had appeared out of thin air. He had on hat, gloves, a jacket, hiking boots and long pants. He was using hiking poles. He asked where I was headed. I told him that I thought the trail would connect up to Embudito. He politely told me that it wouldn't. Instead, if I continued on my way, I would end up at the crest, where "the trail is really icy....you don't want to go there without poles." That was almost enough to convince me to proceed. Almost.

Knowing that if I continued, I would end up running for a good four hours, I turned around. We blasted down the hills, Scout tripping Sadie more than once. I do love to watch them chase and dodge. My one hour run turned into almost 3. I was thirsty and hungry but, oh how I wanted to continue to the crest and head north. Maybe if I had, I would have met up with the wild horses of Placitas.

An email was waiting for me. An emergency meeting of the administrative team had been called to discuss the lack of funding and the increased teaching load.

I don't even need to say that I would rather be feral......