Resting before Day 16

Hi! I've got power here at the fairgrounds and a really good cell phone signal. I'm sitting at a nice table inside a large covered arena where my horses are. It's really hot here, so it's sure nice to have them in the shade. The fairgrounds where we are at this weekend are really nice, there are quite a few very large trees for shade, bathrooms everywhere (with real soap and paper towels!), electrical plugs and horse corrals, arenas, etc. We're also not far from things like grocery, laundry and restaurants.

I tried uploading the rest of my saved up photo sets this morning, but was having trouble with the server at the other end so they didn't go. I emailed them so they may or may not go up this coming week. I probably won't get another land-line connection until next weekend and then I'll have quite a few more to upload. We've been putting all of the photos onto a CD so they are backed up, in case anything happens. I've been trying to get photos of everybody and think I did this last week. If anybody has a chance, can you look up the XP photos and tell me what days from last week are missing? Thanx! www.endurohorse.com

Wayne and Elaine are leaving to go home tomorrow. Darnit! Wayne got hurt early in the ride, so things haven't worked out real well for them. I wish they were staying. It did work out well for Dorothy Sue, who bought one of their horses. I got some photos earlier of Elaine riding Aboo, now I can get some of Dorothy riding him. :+) Louise Mahoney and Sue Hedgecock both left but are coming back. Clark P. left, and so did Janet Fredrickson, the lady with the 5 kids. I know Kat left and then came back, but all of her horses are out, or were, so maybe she's waiting it out......most everybody else is staying even if they aren't riding a lot. Karen N. said she has completed 2 days out of 7 starts. A lot of other riders have been injured too, and are hanging in there. Susan Dyke has a fractured pelvis, and Trilby's horse Clay went thru a barbed wire fence.......mostly horses have rope burns, though other horses have had some corral panel incidents too.....there is no safe way to confine a horse for this length of time, especially this many of them. I was really lucky that Rocky didn't end up with a bad rope burn. They are doing well on the trailer ties, but they have been used to much that they aren't tight anymore and everytime the horses move all night you here this eeeek eeeeeeek eeeeeeek sound, it's *really* annoying. So believe me when I say how great it is to have them in a corral somewhere safe on our days off. Sleep, at last! Just the sound of those lovely trains, turkeys, roosters and so on.

The wind is kicking up and dark clouds are looming overhead, looks like a thunderstorm brewing. Weaver is slobbering on my keyboard and Rocky is sniffing my computer screen. They want to help! I think they are doing okay with his mentally, Weaver is doing the best with it in that regard. I did just weigh them, and Weaver is at the same exact weight that he started the ride at three weeks ago, and Rocky is down 40 pounds, which puts him at his normal/regular ride weight. No ribs are showing but they might be in another week. He is eating well, but he really better get with it soon! If you guys look at some of the photos I've taken around camp you'll see that most of the horses look really good. Lots of them aren't going as often as mine have been though, so it's hard to compare. Rocky has done 7 1/2 of the last 15 days.

As far as how the ride is going on a daily basis, in case anybody is wondering.....it's just amazing at how well organized and managed everything seems to be. Maybe it's all an illusion :>), but in all seriousness it's obvious how much work was put into planning this event. It's just incredible to be here and experience it. Moving camp day after day is sure a challenge just for us riding, or crewing, I can only imagine how little sleep ride management has been getting and how many details they are having to contend with just so we can ride our horses point to point for forty days.

As hard as it has been for me to get up day after day, and ride in the heat, humidity, bugs, and rain.....I think that it's been just as much of a challenge for my crew. He's been doing a great job, some days he gets pretty wore out chasing water down, hauling pulled horses and trying to crew for me and take care of all the zillion things that crop up.

We went to the Purina dealer here in town today and asked for some Complete Advantage and they said "we only carry Purina products". Arrrrrggghhhhhh!!!! Criminy.....so.....we came back with three bags of Equine Senior. They have already eaten one bag of equine senior earlier in the ride. That should last us until next weekend when we get into Casper, since I had one bag of Complete Advantage left. Louise, if you are out there when you come to Casper can you please bring me 5 bags of Complete Advantage with you?

I've gone thru 150 pounds of beet pulp in the last three weeks, and have enough to last until next weekend (I think). Two bags of oats, 1 bag of Omolene, part of a bag of bran, and about 15 bags of Complete Advantage (some of that was crewing for other horses, or it got wet in the rain)......I've lost track of the hay we've fed so far. A lady drove into the fairgrounds yesterday with a big load of nice big alfalfa bales for $3 each so I bought two of those and will mix it in with the other hay I've got. The horses seem to be eating nearly everything I've given them so far. Their main hay has only changed twice since the start of the trip, and it's been mixed so they haven't had a lot of feed changes. So I guess after being on the road for over a month, we're doing okay. The horses are both sound, I just want Rocky to eat a little more but it could be worse.

Left their glued on easyboots on over the weekend. I hope I can do that for two week stretches at a time. It's sure a lot easier then taking them on and off every day. It worked good the first two weeks on Rocky, so we'll see how it goes. I did have somebody tell me that it wouldn't work . Well, it has only worked for 3 weeks so far, maybe it takes 4 or 5 for their feet to fully rot off? (ha ha ha)

Got the GPS ready for tonights waypoints for the coming week. This works out so well. After we get them, I download them into my map software on the laptop, and then Dave has them all week to navigate to the vet checks and finish, I go in and mark lunch and stuff for him, and also tell him where I want water. If he finds out where the other three water troughs are he'll try and fill them up too. Cindy Brown has been the one to arrange that, and it's been great just in case you get to riding inbetween crews. Most of the crews are really terrific, offering water for the horses (and people) and sponging. I usually have Dave meet me at the lunch stop, and then after that every 5 miles with water but that hasn't worked out most days because somebody gets pulled and he has to haul them to the finish and back again, so sometimes I've only seen him once just 5 miles from the finish, then he ends up being one of the last or second to last rigs getting into camp each night which is difficult because then my other horse has been tied to another trailer all day. At least he wasn't hauled all around everyday in the heat. This week we may have to try something different because I don't think this is working all that great for Rocky. It's okay for Weaver because everytime you look he has his head in the bucket or feed bag eating.

Allrighty....enough rambling, I need to go get more electrolytes mixed, water filled and my tack ready for tomorrow. Then go to the ride meeting and hopefully sleep. It will be a very long day tomorrow. We start at 5:00 a.m., but have to haul 40 miles to the start. It's going to be hot again.

Happy XP Trails,

Karen
in Mitchell, Nebraska
& Rocky
& Weaver, XP horses ready for week 4!!! :-))))

Hi everyone! I really don't know where I am exactly, but it's somewhere in Wyoming, and I got here by riding my horse from St. Joseph, Missouri! :+)) The time seems to be flying by, here we are into our fourth week already, can you believe it?

It was a pretty nice day today, pretty warm but later in the day we had a nice breeze which made it bearable. I rode Weaver today, he's just getting better and better every day that I ride him.

Camp is in a grassy field. Careful there are cactus. We are camped next to the Duck, Debby Lyon and Jeff Herton and Dave Rabe, and the Jacksons. There is lightning over to the left, and the wind is kicking up. The weather report said there was a chance for severe thundershowers later. Better batten everything down! The horses are beyond the point of being amused by bad weather.

The trailer trip to the start this morning wasn't as long as we thought it was, tho we still had to leave for the start a little after 4 a.m. A couple of people pulled along the trail today. Dave met us once with water which was nice, and there was plenty in irrigation canals and in places where the fields had been flooded. We are careful to ask and make sure that there are no chemicals in the water before letting the horse drink.

After lunch, Dave Rabe decided to pull and asked if Dave (my crew) would be along, since he usually is, only today he wasn't because he had to go back to the fairgrounds to pick Rocky up and bring him to the next camp. None of us in our group had a cell phone, but riding just behind us Tinker did so she called Dave and told him the waypoint and he just happened to only be one mile away and came over and picked up Dave's horse, gave him a beer....then came down the trail and watered about a dozen horses. So it worked out really well. Isn't technology great?

I see Chester sitting on top of his trailer on the cell phone. This morning he and Steve Shaw started out to do a RAT but came back because they thought something wasn't right with the horse. Cell phone signals can sure be iffy sometimes. One second we have a full signal and the next we have nothing at all.

We made it into lunch in about 4:45, not exactly lightning fast but since it was already in the 70's at 4 a.m. when we hauled to the start we figured what was the hurry. I started out riding with a bunch of different people, Pat Verhuel, Debi and Bernice from Texas, all the kids and April, and Dorothy Sue and Cindy from Wyoming. Tinker and Karen Nelson were also with us some of the way. We all go back and forth riding at whatever pace we are comfortable with.

Went right into the vet check and vetted thru, everything great there. Then up to the trailer where I was standing holding my horse when we heard a commotion and coming down the canal at a full gallop was a horse with his saddle underneath his stomach! A scary enough thing to see but worse because the horse was headed straight for me! It was coming at me dead on, and wow, what to do.....I saw that the horse saw me, so knew if I moved or if my horse had moved, one of us would have probably been mowed down, so we just froze and stood still and the horse at the last second veered over to the side. It was a pretty close call. The rider was okay, somebody went and picked her up. The horse had a cut but last we heard was allright. Spooked at a dog. That's my second close call since getting to this ride, the first one was with this idiot stallion that tried to attack my two horses, and it was equally as close.

Trilby's driver quit. Carol Hunt, there's a lot to that story, I'll let Trilby tell it if she wants it told. Clay was okay today I guess, he's been stapled and repaired from his accident with the barbed wire fence and is mending really well. Wayne and Elaine Delbeke left to go home to Canada and gave Carol their entries, so Carol says that as soon as she can get home she's going to get her own horses and come back and ride.

Somebody, I think it was Laney, found a beatle in some of the hay that was sold in camp so everybody was really worried about blister beatles. Dozens of horses ate that hay, and nobody else could find anything in it so let's all hope that it was just a long beatle and nothing happens.

Lots of people are asking about riders. Carol from Oregon has ridden 12 days now on her mustang, and he looks great! Jamie Mitchell (junior) has ridden Lance 12 days too, and Kathy Thompson has ridden Zane Grey that much or close to it as well. Most everybody else has been alternating horses, Kayla, MJ and Phyllis have still ridden every day so far. A few other people riding when they feel like it or only half days like Wendy Milner. Tom and Sala have been sightseeing and riding sections of trail. The kids that are here are all having a great time, lots of fun out on the trail and in camp for them. Most of the adults are also really enjoying themselves.

The sky is starting to get really dark, I better go make sure everything is secure.

Happy XP Trails,

Karen
in Wyoming!!!!

Today was another great day, a little cooler -- in the 70/80's and about 53% humidity. We had clouds most of the day and a little bit of a breeze later on. The trail today was really nice, good soft roads and some actual cattle trails. We're camped at Register Cliff, it's a really neat place. On the ride here today we rode thru some farmers fields that still have actual wagon ruts in them!

I think there were around 35 riders yesterday, and 36 today. I rode Rocky today, and he was a bit of a twit after having three days off. You'd think he'd be getting mellower and instead he's turning into a real doofus out on the trail. I don't know if he's bored or just wants to go faster.....he thinks everything is going to get him. Maybe he just wants to keep me on my toes, no sleeping allowed! It was kind of funny though, we took 9 hours today and came in 3rd place! Everybody else is slowing down. We were on our own a lot after lunch and that's when I made up time because we were keeping a more consistent pace then you do when you end up in a group. Some of those cattle gates are pretty difficult to do alone, but I managed with the help of my reins. The horse was much better when he was alone.

I've got some really nice photos from today. With the big dark thunder clouds above and the green scenery, the contrast is awesome. Wyoming is a beautiful state. This morning I rode with Sue Robinson from San Diego, CA and Terry Nance, from Tennessee. Then later I rode with Jim and Jamie Mitchell. Jim got BC today. After lunch I was with Tinker for awhile, then on my own the rest of the way. I kind of like riding alone, especially when we are on really neat trails like today.

We decided that if Rocky doesn't calm down and behave himself (at least pretend to be tired!), he's got a new name: Jim's New Horse. Boy, am I looking forward to riding Weaver tomorrow!

Last night a rattlesnake turned up in camp, we're waiting to see whose pommel it ends up on . I guess we better be careful about where we let the horses graze in all this grass. Tonight we can walk the horses over to the river and that's kind of neat.

Better get those photos all put together, maybe I can take a nap (ha ha). There is so much to do, and so little time! The Duck promises us that it'll be cooler tomorrow night, we'll be up at over 7,000 elevation. Right now we are around 4,000 something. That $10 fan from Wal mart is a lifesaver! Barney removed Whinny's stitches today and she seems pretty well recovered from her accident. Now we think she has a foxtail in her nose. :->

Happy XP Trails,

Karen
....near Fort Laramie, WY

Today's ride was the most beautiful and most difficult one so far, terrain wise. We had several thousand feet of climb. In fact, Jas, myself and Pat finished 10th, 11th and 12th together in 11 1/2 hours -- we were hurrying because we only had a half an hour till cutoff and most of the riders were still behind us! The terrain is really rugged, with lots of trees and mountains....and just what are those odd shaped hard things all over the ground? Could it be ROCKS? :+0

I rode Weaver today, his 2nd day this week. I think he's doing pretty good, about his only problem if you could call it that is that I need to warm him up good in the morning, especially when it's cold. He gets going and motors along beautifully all day long, I really enjoy riding him because he takes care of himself and doesn't act like an idiot.

Following the GPS and written directions is a lot of fun, everybody seems to have mastered it pretty well. The written directions are really good, it's hard to imagine putting together that much detail especially when we are now going over cattle trails and cross country. It's pretty cool though, since we're on a lot of the Oregon and Pony Express trails there are wagon ruts and things to look out for. It's kind of neat to imagine the pioneers going thru these same areas as we are, headed west. The difficulties they must have encountered compared to ours must have been staggering. I'm having a hissy fit because my cell phone doesn't work most of the time . As if that's important . Well anyway.....

This morning I think everybody kind of took off, figuring that hey what's going on with people top tenning and taking 9 hours .....so they left us behind. As it turns out, a lot of people must have pulled at lunch because we were only averaging a blistering ~5 mph and still managed to squeak into the top ten, since there were a couple of juniors ahead.

This morning we rode past more areas with wagon ruts. Lots of cattle gates to open. The good thing about cattle country is that there are lots of stock tanks so we often stop and water and scoop the horses. At lunch Pat says "I don't know if I can leave from lunch, my horse grew something funny during his hour hold". Somebody (me) had attached a scoop to the side of her saddle. So now we can all scoop in unison and cool those horses down. They are handing for watering them too, when the creeks are really hard to reach.

We went thru a lot of really nice cattle trails and soft dirt roads today, then near the end of the ride we had quite a climb up a very large mountain.......it was pretty hot today tho luck would have it some large clouds that would occasionally cover the sun and cool us. Once we got to the top we found a couple of large puddles for the horses to drink from and to scoop them with. It's always a delight at the end of each day to see camp off in the distance. Today it is in a large grassy field. A small group of us are parked out on the road alongside a grassy area under some large shade trees. Everybody in the field has to pay $10 a night. Dave knew I'd want the shade, and he is happy not having to pay another $10 to stay the night somewhere.

I hope that Rocky is okay to go tomorrow, Dave said he walked him about a mile from the lunch vet check and let him graze a lot. He looks good, I sure hope he isn't as big of a twit tomorrow as he was yesterday. He needs explaining to him that after doing over 400 miles these last four weeks he's supposed to mellow out! Dork.

Each night I try to remember to do everything, but I'm not sure I have it totally together. I really need to get a lot done and it's hard when we are taking so long to ride. It's funny how a 9 hour day seems shorter, finishing an hour or two before the cutoff seems so luxurious. I took so many photos today that I filled up the card on the camera, so it'll take me awhile to go thru them. Getting up day after day and riding 50 miles is getting a lot easier, it's all the other stuff that is difficult.

This morning we had to ride down past some railroad tracks and cross them. Wendy Milner's horse stepped right square into the center of a track and the wood at the crossing and got it's foot stuck. Luckily, the horse stood still and Shawn Bowling jumped to the rescue and wedged the foot out and got it unstuck. We were all a bit nervous because a minute prior we heard the whistle from a train that was coming.

Steve Shaw rode part of the morning and then from the vet check he, Kat and Joan rode out a few miles and then back again. Just to see some of the trail I guess.

As far as I know, the same four riders have still done every day. Phyllis, MJ, Terry and Kayla (junior). Where are all the guys? There are three horses still that have done somewhere around 14 of the last 18 days and those are Zane Grey, Lancelot and the mustang from Oregon that Carol rides. Lance is ridden by a junior, Jamie Mitchell and they are doing really well. Jamie has to take days off sometimes so the rest of her four member family can ride. Today her sister Alicia and mom April rode. Alicia and Troy (another junior) tied for first place, riding with Dave Rabe. Calina rode with Joan and Kayla who finished just behind us. Vicki Greene pulled at lunch, we passed them walking on the trail earlier so then Terry really had to catch up. She probably caught up with the last group with Trilby, John Parke, Shawn, Chester and a few others.

Ride meeting is in 15 minutes, I better get going! Geez, where does the time go?

Happy XP Trails,

Karen
....in Wyoming :+)

We are camped near Mud Springs, Wyoming for the evening. Today's ride was probably one of the best so far, the views are stunning and the terrain breathtaking. We're going thru some mountains and hills, with lots of green grass and real trees, winding our way thru the area. It's nice for a change not to be on a flat straight road, the change is very welcome.

Rocky was much less of a twit today, in fact I really enjoyed riding him. He was more his normal self, maybe because the terrain has changed, or maybe because it's the second day this week I've ridden him. He now gets three days off and starting next Tuesday will do three days, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. At least, that is the plan. After next week (week #5) we won't be on the 5 days on 2 off schedule anymore so I'm not sure yet how we will alternate the horses.

It took us 4 1/2 hours to get into lunch today, approximately half way. With such lightning speed, we were able to finish up front. The junior I rode with, Kayla, came in third and I was fourth. Not too bad for only averaging 7 mph or less. Lots of people are still continuing to slow down, I think a few people are down to only two horses, which is all I started with so now things are getting to be a more level playing field. Joyce Sousa and Kathy Thompson finished in front of us, and just behind were Jim and Jamie Mitchell.

At least three rigs broke down today on the haul out of camp, Kat Swigart's, the Jackson's (one of their rigs, they have two), Karen Nelson's, and Terry Wooley's motor home. One of the rigs was stopped going up a steep hill and blocked all of the other rigs from getting out of there. Eric Thompson seems to always be in the wrong place at the right time and gets to keep helping people who need it.

It was sure a beautiful day, the weather is cooler since we're up at over 7,000'. It was nice to finish a little earlier today, I think we finished at about 1:30 or 2:00 (with a 5:00 a.m. start). This way we get time to do all of the various chores that need to get taken care of. It's not easy to keep up, but at least tomorrow is the last day of our ride week and then we have two days off to get everything done.

Lunch was at a beautiful spot on the river today. The horses got to graze on all the grass and Rocky got a bath during his hold. Kayla went and took a nap, she's sure lucky to have her grandparents crewing for her. Her bother Troy did a ride and tie today with Jim Brown. Kayla had an exciting morning. We were stopped at a spot to either get water or go thru a gate, or both.....and she goes to get on her horse who didn't stand still. So plop, she went down on the ground and her horse disappeared into the horizon at a dead gallop. Yep, over the hill he went. At first I tried to catch him but when I went in pursuit he only ran faster so I stopped and then he slowed down and lucky for us headed back over to the trail and continued down it until he caught riders at the next cattle guard and gate. Luckily they weren't thru it yet because I don't think he was going to stop. Once he got over the hill I took off in hot pursuit and brought him back to Kayla, effectively adding 2 miles to my GPS odometer for the day. All ended well though, horse and rider were fine.

Camp is really full up tonight, we're not all that crowded together but it took some arranging to get all of the last of the big rigs in here late this afternoon.

I had a syringe of electrolytes leak out all over today. I also know why Gu has it's name, and how messy desetin can be when the tube breaks.

Pat Verhuel, Jas and Trilby all took today off. I think they are all riding tomorrow. Looks like Clark came back and otherwise most of the people in camp are the same. We all signed a card for Trilby, she just reached 53,000 miles!

After finishing today I took Rocky's four foamed on easyboots off. They had been on for two weeks, and everything looks good. :+) He'll get reshod this weekend and then get boots foamed on again that will hopefully last another two weeks. Tomorrow I'll do the same thing with Weaver, since he's coming up on his three day weekend too. Terry Nance did the same thing with his horse too, he says that he would have never believed it if he hadn't seen it.

I should get those photos sets put together. Wait till you guys see the trail! www.endurohorse.com

Happy XP Trails, Karen
.....in Wyoming
& Rocky, with 450 XP miles so far
& Weaver, 400 and going again tomorrow. :+)

Hi! Well, we just finished the week!! Now we are exactly 1/2 way thru the ride. Kind of hard to believe, it seems to be going by so fast. We had a really great week, I rode Weaver today and sponsored Kayla again. She has ridden every day so far, 1,000 miles, on her two horses Bud and Gem. I've missed a day and a half myself, so both of my two horses have done 450 miles in the last month. I have one set of easyboots that Rocky used on his front feet and Weaver has used on his back feet for about 700 miles alltogether. btw, in case anybody is wondering (since I was told that it wouldn't work)...both horses feet, all 4 of them.....are in excellent shape after having the boots glued on for two weeks with no heal straps. It really does work! It is sure nice not having to put the boots on and off each day, or worry about having to clean their feet out every day too. If they can keep going two weeks at a time I'll only have to glue them on two more times.

I'm not sure if it was because Weaver's last ride day was 11 1/2 hours and had a few thousand feet of climb, or if it was because he got to graze at the river a long time yesterday but he was sure nice and ready to move out this morning. He sure does feel good and is really happy about going down the trail, it's such a thrill to be riding him on this trip. We're having such a great time :+).

Yesterday there were 31 riders, Joyce Sousa got BC. I don't know about today because we'll miss tonights ride meeting but I'll find out later. Kayla and I finished 7th and 8th today and finished at a little after 2 p.m. with a 5 a.m. start. We were both lucky to have been riding our sane horses today, as we had an entire (large) herd of sheep being driven down the road that was part of our trail. Luckily, Weaver and Bud didn't have a problem with it, but our other horses would have probably gotten wound up. It's kind of fun to be riding horses with such different personalities.

We saw a lot of deer and antelope today. They sure are fast! The footing on the trail was really nice today with nice scenery. One of the locals we talked to said it was 100 degrees. It was definitely in the high 90's, but we're getting used to it, at least it feels more like home now because the humidity was only like 23% when I looked at lunchtime.

The terrain is rugged with rolling hills, and then we had a really huge downhill later in the day, kind of like a larger version of Darwin grade if anybody knows that trail. Kayla and I got off and ran down most of it, so I'll probably have shin splints, but hey, we've got two days off to recover! The horses were really pumped up. We had plenty of water on the trail today, and lots of opportunities to scoop and sponge them to cool them down. I didn't get a chance to weigh Weaver at the finish because the scales weren't set up yet so I don't know how much weight he gained (big grin). He is probably down a few pounds, but he sure looks good right now for just doing three days this week. Next week he'll just get to do two, and gets three days off in a row now. He's in really good shape -- both horses are actually, I'm pretty lucky. I can't believe that we're halfway already!! At least we are starting out the second half without any serious problems.

Well.....other than the truck doesn't have 4WD right now. We have to find a dealer in Casper this weekend and get it fixed. At least we don't have as bad of vehicle problems as some people are having. More rigs broke down today. We better get everything fixed and ready, it's going to get a lot harder on everything in the coming weeks.

Some of us were musing that the first week or two the riders were sore, then the next week the horses, and this week it's all the rigs that are having trouble moving (grin).

Next I have to find an internet connection so I can upload all of my photos.

Happy XP Trails,

Karen & Weaver,
450 miles down
& Rocky, same here :-)

We're about ready for bed, it's almost 7 p.m. Since we stayed in Casper, we have to haul down to the start in the morning. We think that'll take about an hour. It's just easier to leave the horses in the stalls here, they can lie down in them and have shelter in case it rains. It's also cooler in there than outside. We have both fans going, it's 89 degrees now. It should cool off after it gets dark.

The truck dealer here couldn't fix our truck, they were too busy so we have to hope that we can find somebody that can fix it later on in our route. And we have to hope that we won't need 4WD in the meantime. Murphy's law. We have it when you don't need it and then when you might it doesn't work.

The two days off sure do seem to go fast. I think that they are harder than the ride days are because we have so much to get done. It doesn't seem like much when you just think about it, but when you actually get to doing all those chores the time really adds up and next thing you know, it's gone!

The second half of the ride will be really fun, we're really looking forward to it. We've got the routine down now. There will be new people, and others will leave. Karen Fredrickson left today, she was injured when her horse fell with her on Saturday. Dr. told her not to ride, that's too bad. Kat also left. A few people have left and come back with fresh horses and are ready to go again.

Somebody said that it feels like we are a bunch of Jim Jones' followers.....following the Duck across country. It's really pretty funny in a way, everybody does what he says no matter what. It's not like anything hasn't happened that he hadn't told us would happen. There have been a few occasions when people have had to pick up and move camp, once...or even twice in the same day. Or you have to move once you get set up at the vet check, things like that but that's all part of the adventure.

I've got Rocky's four easyboots glued on his feet for the coming week. He's wearing red ones this time, and is ready to roll! He got shod this weekend, and his feet were in great shape after having the last boots glued on for two weeks straight. (twice now) Sure is a lot easier this way! Tomorrow after I ride I'll do the same thing to Weaver's feet. I longed them both tonight, and it's always a relief to do that and see that they are still actually staying upright and on all four feet! :+) (knocking on wood)

Hey, I just realized that we aren't camped next to train tracks! Isn't it funny how you miss something like that? Most of our ridecamps haven't been all that quiet, we've had trains and wild turkeys, or roosters, or else crews and riders arguing. There are definitely people you try not to park next to, when they come rolling in to camp you want to chant 'keep going keep going' as they drive past where you are parked. A few people have had crews/drivers quit and still need help.

The weather is supposed to stay hot, but at least it is getting drier. It's more like we are used to though. I keep being thankful that Rocky hasn't gotten scratches. I've been using lots of desitin on him, which is easy to do on the days where we get off a lot to open gates. We're going thru a lot of alkaline soil now.

This weekend I did get all of the cinches washed and the wool pads washed at the laundromat. All the tack is clean now too, which was a chore after having desitin, gu, licorice (ever seen red licorice after it gets wet?) and electrolytes leak all over my packs in the heat. I even squeaked in a shampoo bath on both horses. I can't seem to get Rocky clean, those darn grey horses -- the brass on his tack is turning him green and he just won't come clean. (sigh) Those trails in Nebraska also turned him green, but of a different variety.

I've got the hay bags all stuffed, half each with alfalfa and grass hay, the blue ice chest is full of carrots for the week and we've got plenty of drinks, bottled water and food for us. We've got a little BBQer so we can fix some food during the week in areas where there is no fire danger. I eat a lot of peanut butter and simple things like beans or bagel sandwiches, and cheese and crackers. Peanuts and licorice are good snacks, but mostly I'm surviving on gu. I put on a pair of shorts today and they wouldn't stay up (Grin), so I guess the elastic is coming out of them. lol!

Speaking of food, boy we have sure lucked out and every place we've eaten at along the way has been excellent! Don Skinner told us about this Chinese buffet, and boy was it ever good. Yesterday I had a 3 1/2 hour lunch at the Flying J truck stop while I uploaded photos, they have phone lines right at the table. It wasn't so bad, it's air conditioned and the food was *really* good. Better than sitting next to the trailer sweating in the shade and watching the horse swat flies. oh, and speaking of flies -- the ones here bite HARD!!!

We haven't had any trouble so far finding feed for the horses. Lots of people found some hay at a ranch this weekend for $5 a bale. We bought some at the feed store, very large bales for $6.50 each. The Complete Advantage I bought at the feed store in Casper was bagged in 1998, needless to say it's not feedable. Jim Mitchell got some too but they replaced it with something else because he opened it in time. Just what were they thinking selling horse feed that old? @#$%!!!!

The last two days of last week, Dave gave out 150 gallons of water to riders on the trail. If we get to drier parts he won't be able to do that because we won't be able to fill up as often. He does a good job of crewing for me and some of my friends, and I think my spare horse even does better on the days that he takes him (whichever one it is) too because Dave walks them a lot, like a mile with the dogs and lets the horse graze. I think those days the horses look better than the days that they got hauled right to the next camp in a different trailer and then tied up. The horses are both a lot better about being separated, they are sure dealing well with the large variety of changes in their daily routine on this trip. We figure that each horse has probably been hauled four thousand miles by now, in addition to the riding miles.

It's really amazing at least to me, how good some of these horses look. Most all of them do look good (really, I'm not just saying it). There were several of us at the fairgrounds this weekend, and lots of horses were out being walked or longed and exercised around. I didn't see any that were lame or that were too thin or that didn't look bright and alert.

Last night Joyce Sousa had a party at her rig, and we had a 4th of July cake and everybody got to see all of the photos I've taken in a slide show. All the memories come back, and it's really neat when you see a photo of something and 8 people instantly know what day and where it was!

The fans have nearly cooled us down to where we can sleep, so I better hit the sack. We've got a new week ahead of us! Keep your fingers crossed, we want to keep riding!

Happy XP trails,

Karen