Day 20, 2001 XP

[Karen <karen@storallnv.com>]

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 
<bg>.  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 <G>.

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 :-)