The all new Sentinel is here! Bred from pure speed and primal characteristics of man's first mode of transportation, the horse. When GiddyUp ambassador, Teddy Jaramillo, told us about his local trails and that he could probably ride a horse on some of them, we had to check it out for ourselves.

With the Sentinel release on the horizon, we packed our bags for New Mexico's high elevation desert. Teddy spent his youth riding both horses and bikes which came together perfectly to celebrate our new bike.

Teddy and his business partner, Henry Lanman, own Rocket Ramps, a trail building company in Santa Fe, NM. After coming to help on our Blue Ribbon trail project in Bellingham last summer he convinced us he could ride his dad's horse on some of the trails he grew up building and riding behind his house. We showed up on a Tuesday afternoon, scoped a few trails to shoot and hung on the mesa behind his house, when he admitted, "yeah, I actually haven't ridden Manzanita (the horse) in a few years, neither has my dad, and last time I rode her I got bucked off"

With a few beers and some coaxing that night, we made our plan for the next day. In the morning Teddy geared up with the new Sentinel and we hiked up the mesa to where he said his dad would meet us with Manzanita. Carlos, Teddy's dad, made quick work of assimilating back to Manzanita, and bare back at that, as he rounded the mesa corner at a gentle walk. With Carlos taking the edge off of not riding the horse in years, Teddy ripped his backyard trails hitting features he had first built when he was 12. 

We shot a few other spots that Teddy had built with Henry before him taking a turn at jumping back on the horse. "Yeah, Carlos gave me the approval to ride Manzanita, I just gotta go catch her." Teddy said the next morning with frazzled exposed hair sipping his coffee. "She won't get within 50ft of you if you're wearing a cowboy hat." He said as he dipped under the corral slowly approaching the horse. 

Calm and collected we watched as he slowly walked up the wash before Manzanita got spooked taking off up towards the mesa. "WOAH, woah!" Teddy exclaimed to her as he gradually got more acquainted to her and was able to calm her down. We bolted up the ridge and waited for him as he wrapped around the mesa. After filming a few passes he told us she was getting tired and we let them cruise down the ridge we had filmed Teddy riding the day prior. 

With four days of filming wrapped and some much needed sun for us PNW folk, we wrapped up the last evening with one of the craziest sunsets we had all seen. Thanks for bringing us into your world Teddy, Carlos and Abby, we're stoked to get back there at some point and maybe even swing a leg over Manzanita!