13th day, 2001 XP

[imgoneriding@worldnet.att.net]

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!  <G>  He'll get tomorrow off and 
then go again on Saturday.  Dave made it back to camp just a few minutes 
before I did, he was practically the last rig to get in, and got one of the 
best spots in camp in the shade.  :+)  He took so long because he stayed 
out to water us (and give out licorice), and then had to go fill up water 
and get diesel.

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. <G>

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
    in Nebraska still (again)
......only 27 days to go!