Ruidoso, New Mexico

Hubbard Museum of the American West

2002

For an old cowboy and horseman, this is a must-see museum.  Larger-than-life bronze horses, the "Free Spirits at Noisy Water" monument,  grace the hillside in front of the museum right on U.S. Highway 70.  It is a wonderful drawing card to the remarkable collection of more than 10,000 horse-related and western items inside the museum.  Included are rare carriages and wagons, farm implements, firearms, as well as the Ruidoso Downs Race Horse Hall of Fame.  We enjoyed the special exhibition by Gordon Snidow whose work vividly portrays the vanishing cowboy way of life in gonache and bronze.

Larger-than-life sculpture at the Hubbard Museum of the American West

These are even bigger than the Clydesdales

Chuckwagon at the American Museum of the American West

This two-dimensional bronze was impressive

Crazy Quilt like one I have that my Grandmother made