While the summer sun beats the West Coast into wilted submission, let’s take a walk back in time to Winter 2016, when the place to be was HITS Desert Horse Park in Thermal, California.

You can’t beat the good-for-the-soul feeling of that warm, February sunlight; those slightly foggy, dew-covered mornings; and the sight of palm trees swaying softly in the breeze. Today, most of our horse show mornings around the country are slightly less… idyllic. But that doesn’t mean we all can’t remember the good days gone by.

Welcome to the desert.