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Hi everybody! We had a really great day today. Enjoyed our two days off
in North Platte, Nebraska. Now we are camped 10 miles east of Ogallala,
and tomorrow will ride into Julesburg, Colorado. Then back thru Nebraska
into Wyoming in the coming week. Today was the first day of our third
week, and we're still hanging in there. Last night it rained and there was
quite a bit of lightening. But we got up, hauled our horses to the start
and were off......and what a beautiful day it turned out to be! It was
cooler and we didn't get rained on. We started at 6 a.m., and finished at
3:15, my fastest day so far I think.
Trilby didn't ride today. I keep hearing names of a few other people who
have ridden every day so far, but there are not that many. I didn't count
all the names at the ride results tonight but I'm guessing there were less
than 30 riders today. There are new horses in camp, and a couple of people
have gone home.
I am feeling pretty good, this day was a whole lot easier than the first
day of our second week. I am a lot less tired, and more into the routine I
think. The horses are doing really well too, I just weighed them and Rocky
is maintaining his weight and Weaver has...ummm....well, you guessed
it....Lard Butt has continued to gain weight. It's no wonder with how much
they are both eating and drinking, I even had to switch Rocky to a larger
girth today. Most of the horses here look really good, you'll see in the
photos (www.endurohorse.com).
Barney and Linda and Ann are back from Schellborne now. Everything has
been going along pretty well.
Todays ride was really nice, we rode thru more corn and wheat fields,
cattle, cemeteries and rolling hills. The roads were soft from the rain
last night and as usual there was plenty of green grass for the horses to
graze. Crews were out providing water and we had a great day. Debbie from
Texas joined us today and we rode a lot of the day together along with Pat
V. and had a great time. Our horses are doing really well, giving them two
or three days off in a row is turning them into idiots though and they are
just too full of themselves. Maybe a few more days of riding and they'll
mellow out. Everybody is still in really good spirits and we're all having
a good time, even if we have forgotten how many corn fields we've ridden
by. Today we rode on more of the original pony express trail than we
probably have up until now.
Dave is crewing again tomorrow, and Rob is going to the next camp with all
of the extra horses. It should be another great day. I'm riding Weaver,
it's his turn next. I foamed his four easyboots on tonight after I
finished riding. The night before I had done the same to Rocky. Now I
won't have to take easyboots on and off everyday and they can stay on until
they wear off! The two boots I did that with on Rocky in St. Joseph stayed
on two weeks and it worked great. I'm cutting the heel strap off. A lot
of riders shoes are wearing pretty thin, so I'm sure more and more will be
using easyboots. Today in a group this morning I counted 8 out of 11
horses wearing easyboots.
Whinny is doing a lot better and getting around easier now. She gets to
have her drain tube removed tomorrow. That should make her happy.
time for bed! We have to set our clocks back an hour tonight because we
changed time zones. So tomorrow we start at 5:00 a.m. Tomorrow is 51.6
miles, another long day.
Happy XP Trails,
Karen
We had a really great day today. We are in Julesburg, Colorado right
now. I'm in the truck working on the computer, just finished all my
photos. I got some really good ones today. Dave is busy bbq'ing chicken
breasts for dinner, and the horses are grazing on the tall green grass.
The weather was a little overcast, in the low 70's today. When I finished
and got back to camp it was 70 degrees with 45% humidity. We were actually
really comfortable today, it was nice. I rode Weaver, before lunch I rode
with Pat Verhuel, Skip Dyke, Terry Nance and Debbie (from Texas I don't
know her last name). Then after lunch I walked and let everybody leave me
but later caught up to Terry and rode with him the rest of the way in to
the finish. He was riding his mule Benny. We rode thru more of Nebraska
today and the last 5 miles or so was in Colorado. So now I've ridden Weav
in Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska and Colorado. Pretty cool! Tomorrow I'm
riding Rocky so he'll also get to go thru some of Colorado, and then back
to Nebraska again. The scenery has changed some, at least there is some
different looking grass here.
It was an easy day for us, at least for Pat and I. We were both riding our
sane horses so just kinda cruised thru it. We both also have horses that
think that Nebraska is terrifying
This week is a lot easier on us I think, than the last one was. It's the
third week now, and we've got two days of it down and three to go. Maybe
we are just getting used to doing this on less sleep, or our bodies have
figured out that we don't really need any (sleep that is). I mean, how
hard could it be to get up at 4 a.m. every day and ride a horse 50
miles? Today we passed thru a time zone, so started at 5 a.m., which made
it seem really early for some reason when we got up but it is nice
tonight. I'm waiting for the sun shower to heat up a bit more.
Everybody has it figured out to where they don't have to get up until 20
minutes till start. At least it seems like you don't hear a peep in camp
until then, and then just like magic.....poof......all the horses instantly
be tacked up and have riders aboard. It's kinda strange.
I've been seeing a lot of the regulars out on the trail every day. There
are a couple more people that have done each day that I may not have
mentioned before just because I didn't know -- Terry Wooley, and can't
remember if I mentioned Sandy Skinner or Phyllis Bartholomew or not. There
may be another person or two, I just haven't ridden with or seen anybody
else enough to know. I think that Bud from Alabama may have ridden every
day too. There were less than 30 riders yesterday, and a little over 40
today. There are several new horses and some new riders in camp. Pat
Verheul, MJ Jackson and Kayla Ramsdell (junior) have still also ridden
every day. Kathy has ridden Zane every day, except for two half days he's
done them all and is getting BC a lot. I haven't been paying attention to
who is winning or finishing in the front every day. I usually don't even
see those people, just the regulars farther back.
We have train tracks right next to us here, oh joy we get to hear more
trains. Will we ever be able to sleep again without the sound of trains
all night?
Last night Rocky rolled and got his rope wrapped around himself somehow and
the bungee tie at the top broke. The bottom half is cotton rope. We
checked him over and couldn't find any rope burns or anything so hopefully
he wasn't hurt. I have him tied shorter now (he wasn't tied that long
before), so hopefully that won't happen again. So many horses in camp have
rope burns it's not even funny.
It was kind of nice not having to take any easyboots off tonight, or put
them on this morning. Right now both horses have easyboots glued onto all
four feet without a heel strap. It works really well, I'll just leave the
boots on until they wear out or until they come off. Sure makes things
easier, and no worry about losing a shoe.
Tomorrow we ride back into Nebraska. It should be another nice day though
I think it is going to get warmer again. I rode a little faster today on
Weaver, mostly because it was cool, we still took nearly all day, I think
we may have averaged as fast as 6 mph
Trilby rode today, hope she does okay. I saw John Park out there on
Skoldjur again, the Mitchells rode today along with Kayla and Troy. They
are supposed to ride with me tomorrow. They've been riding with Jim or
Dave Rabe. Dave (crew) trailered Troy's horse from the vet check
today. Horse was okay but Troy had been bucked off and didn't look too
good. There are other juniors here, but I think Troy and Kayla have been
riding the most, Kayla hasn't missed a day yet. Elena and Jamie did a ride
and tie one day, and another day Elena did one with Kat. Tinker rode Wes
today. Louise and Clark, both from UT, went home. Wayne and Elaine took
the day off, as did a few other people. I think it's better to take a day
off and get the horses in good shape than trying to keep going and screw
them up. Most of the people are pretty sensible about that....but.....I
won't name any names but rest assured, there are a few people here with dim
bulbs!
Smells like dinner is done.
Happy XP Trails,
Karen
Hello again! We're now camped on the Rushcreek Ranch in Nebraska. We had
another great day on the trail. It was a bit warmer but still
comfortable. Time sure flies, it seems like we are going along pretty good
but then it still takes nearly all day to get thru the ride. Today I had
three juniors with me, Jamie Mitchell and Troy and Kayla. Kayla ( 14 y/o)
has ridden every day so far and is doing really good. Jamie and Troy have
ridden almost every day. They all have really nice horses so should get to
ride a lot more days. You'll see plenty of them in my photos for
today. www.endurohorse.com
Doesn't appear that Rocky suffered any ill effects from his entanglement
with his tie rope. Whew! I took him over to Barney last night and asked
him to look him over and watch him trot to make sure nothing was wrong. I
asked him did he see anything wrong and he said yeah, the horse needs
rode. So we took care of that problem!
When we rode out of Julesburg, CO this morning we were lucky and missed any
trains going by. The scenery is changing a little bit, less corn and more
wheat. A few rolling hills, and then later in the day we got onto the
Rushcreek ranch property and it's really nice. All green grass, hills, and
water.....plus lots of trees. It's really beautiful here.
The horses look good, I think most of the ones out there still are doing
pretty good and getting into the routine. I still have to clean Rocky up
some from today but at least I put ice boots on him, well, I have to do one
ice boot at a time because if I put more than that into the freezer then
the refrigerator doesn't work. Anybody for warm yogurt? They probably
don't even appreciate being pampered and just want to get fed. I didn't
get to weigh them yet today to see how they are doing. Sure am glad to see
them slurping up their soaked beet pulp plus all the other stuff they are
going thru every day, they are even eating stuff I put electrolytes
in. Everybody is surprised at how well my horses take their electrolytes
in a syringe (when I'm on them), but that's just because they are so used
to getting them all the time. They have given up trying to argue.
Dave is doing more repair work in the trailer. There is always something
to fix or repair or replace. We don't have any cell phone signal here, so
I won't be able to check mail for at least another day. We could use more
hours in the day, these 5 a.m. starts are killer once you figure in that
you aren't finishing until after 3 p.m. the next afternoon. I still have
to mix up more electrolytes, I've been trying to do that every two days,
just don't have enough room in the fridge for more than that. I have been
using Lyte Now a lot, it's more convenient.
I better go get my chores done, horses walked and grazed, then sunshower
and finish up the photo sets and get my card filled out for tomorrow's
entry on Weaver. Nite!
Happy XP Trails,
Karen
Still in Nebraska, boy it's hot! We had another really good day though,
Weaver completed his 300th mile on the XP trail today. When I say it was
hot, boy do I mean it was hot out there. It was like an oven. It was
really hot. Did I mention that it was hot? Thank god for all the great
crews today, they really saved us meeting us with water so often to drink
and cool with.
I did get a lot more photos today. The scenery is starting to
change. We're not seeing as much corn (awww shuks). More wheat, some
actual trees, evergreens and a little different type of grass. The trail
was sandier in spots today, and we had more grassy areas and rolling hills,
with real up and downs!
I think only one rig got stuck in the sand getting in and out of Rushcreek
Ranch, where we stayed last night. I heard it took three trucks to pull
them out. Everybody had to let the pressure out of their tires to get in
and out of there. There were over 40 riders yesterday. Scott Powell was
1st and BC. I don't know how many there were yet. If it stays this hot,
there will probably be less tomorrow.
I was worrying about Weaver earlier today because he keeps peeing. He is
peeing often, and a large quantity. Then I talked to Pat and others and
all their horses are too. But, (duh) they are drinking a lot and we're
electrolyting them good. It just seems like a lot when your horse pees
four times by the lunch check. I quit worrying when I weighed him at the
finish and he had gained 10 pounds
The other half of the Mitchell's got here, and rode today. April, Alicia
and Jamie rode while Jim (dad) crewed along with Dolly for Kayla and
Troy. Kayla is the only junior that has ridden every single day so
far. All the kids seem to be having a great time.
I should go check out camp, there is a historical marker of some sort up by
the vet area. I swear there aren't enough hours in the day. We start at 5
a.m., just as the sun comes up, then spend nearly all day riding, get thru
and take care of the horse I rode, the extra horse I didn't ride and next
thing you know it's time for the 8 p.m. ride meeting. Between then we have
to fix and eat dinner, mix up and give electrolytes, walk the horses, clean
them up, longe the one that is going the next day to make sure he's sound
so I can fill out his entry card by the time of the ride meeting and oh
yeah take a sun shower! Sometimes I even remember to refill my water
bottles and put them in the freezer. There is always something I forget to
do every day, but usually it's not very important.
I can't believe that tomorrow is the end of our third week already! It
seems to have gone by fairly fast. Next thing you know, we'll be riding in
Wyoming!
Happy XP Trails,
Karen
It's even hotter today! It's 99 in the shade. This will be our last full
ride day in Nebraska. Next week we'll go into Wyoming. The trail was
beautiful today. I'm uploading photos now from earlier this week
(www.endurohorse.com) but won't get todays up for another day or two.
We had a really great week, everything going good with both horses. Weav
did 2 days, and Rocky did 3. Next week I'll try and switch them
around. Weav has been keeping (gaining) his weight well, while Rocky is
doing well but not quite as good, he's probably down about 25 pounds so
far. I hope that having three days off will allow him to put it back.
We're staying at the Flying Bee ranch, that we rode right by today on the
ride. The rest of the ride went to the fairgrounds in Scottsbluff, which
was a little farther to go. This way, Weav got to be turned out in a large
arena all day and now both horses have a place to stay overnight besides
being tied to the trailer. They've been living like that for a month now,
and I really like to have them get some room to move around. Plus we can
sleep in peace. Being in a large ridecamp like we have been every night
along with wild turkeys and trains, and horses getting tangled up in
ropes......kinda hard to get a good nights sleep, maybe 4-5 hours each
night, if we're lucky. It's been so hot that makes it hard to sleep too.
I rode this morning with Tinker and Kayla. Tinker pulled at lunch, so
Kayla and I continued. We also rode with Jim and Jamie Mitchell. The
afternoon trail was really nice, we went up and down some real hills,
beautiful canyons and really gorgeous scenery. The footing was
excellent. Crews did an exceptional job of keeping the horses watered and
cooled.
I better get off of this thing!
Happy XP Trails,
Karen
This link will take you to
www.endurohorse.com.
To get to the XP photos use their search tool (top right). Search using the phrase "XP 2001". Enjoy!
only 29 left to go!
...currently in Julesburg, CO
only 28 ride days to go!
in Nebraska still (again)
......only 27 days to go!
.....near Dalton, Nebraska
.....in Bayard, Nebraska
15 days down, only 25 left!!