Lockwood Valley Trail Ride with American Jousting Alliance

All the things I love 

Turn off from Lockwood Valley Rd,  follow the signs to 15568 Greenleaf Springs Rd.

In need of some old fashion family fun in the Los Padres? Well if so look no further than to Southern California Horseback Trail Rides (American Jousting Alliance). This place is an absolute gem and the owner James is a rad person. I don't normally post such things however my family and I had such a great time I feel obliged to share. Hard to find these types of authentic experiences this day and age, especially when they come with a reasonable price tag as does this. 

James Zoppe and my girls at his ranch. With a side of horse ass, your welcome.

Aside from trail rides and lessons, James offers a myriad of other activities. Try your hand at Archery, western roping, braiding, dirt skiing, spear throwing, sword play and of course jousting.

"A third generation rider, James was born into a family of trick riders. His early riding career, which included somersaulting from the back of one galloping horse to another, slowly gave way to entertaining audiences with jousting. His choreographed jousting shows broadened into presenting medieval style jousting tournaments. He once wrote the American Jousting Alliance Book of rules and Guidelines. James now turns his lifetime with horses and his 30 plus years of jousting experience into training people and horses in the sport." 

Brief safety/training lesson complete it was time to mount up.

Not long into the ride it was obvious these were not your typical cattle call horses. What I mean by this is they did not have the feel of a horse that gives multiple rides per day, doing the same activity over and over. They had real character, a mind of their own if you will. We were responsible for controlling our own horse. When the animal wanted to stop and eat or meander off trail a bit you needed to correct the action. Felt real and was a great learning experience for myself and the girls. 

I started on April she was a good girl. Half way through Haylee stole her from me.

Musical horses became my theme. After Haylee got April (white horse) I ended up on Swissy, the black horse. Ultimately though Skyann (probably spelt that wrong) the brown horse was tiring out Caitlin so she became mine and should be yours if you like a horse with some attitude, as I do.

Toward the tail end of our ride James says "were gonna stop here, rope up the horses and do some exploring. I want you all to hike up to the Sandcastle." As we approached the castle he says "these are so unique I want to show you something you may have never seen before." To which I replied "oh yeah these are great we've climbed this type up Apache Canyon." Ahh man you've climbed these, oh well it will still be fun come on." I got to hand it to James he motivated my girls to get to the top of this rather steep and slippery formation, which for them was no easy task. Alone I might have never convinced them to keep pushing on. I remember thinking man I love this guy he's a hoot.

Victory

Ride over and back at base Camp James finished us off with some Archery. I honestly couldn't believe we had spent well over 3 hours with him on this adventure for a mere $75 bucks per person. That's cheap. Search and you'll find some of his competitors (while I'm sure they are nice people) charging over 200 bucks per person for just trail rides alone into the LP. If your wondering we received no special treatment either. James has no computer or tv and will most likely never see this post. Hell his flip phone is probably a decade old. Mention Lost In The Los Padres and he will have no clue what the hell your speaking of. Do me one favor though, if you visit please tell him Chris with the cowboy spirit sent you. He will most likely get a kick out of that. Before we departed I offered to trade volunteer work for riding lessons should he feel so inclined. Will see if I ever get the nod. I feel an immense sense of wild and freedom while mounted. Sure would enjoy getting to doing it more often. 

Bullseye

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