Day 26, 2001 XP

[imgoneriding@worldnet.att.net]

Hi!  Just finished today and have a connection, so I'm uploading photos 
right now:

www.endurohorse.com

We had a nice day, riding from Granger, Wyoming to Fort Bridger.  The 
finish was great, we got to trot in and finish up right in the Fort!  There 
was even an audience.  Just had dinner at the local cafe, which was 
nice.  Karen Beason came in barefoot claiming that her shoes were muddy <G> 
(probably true).....but they served her anyway. haha.

There were only 23 riders today.  I think a lot didn't want to haul an hour 
to the start this morning, or else they didn't want to ride in the rain, or 
were afraid that it would be muddy.  It did rain, thunder and lightning 
nearly all night, and after lunch we had quite a storm.  The ground was 
pretty slick, tho most of the ride the footing was really good.  We got to 
see an original stage/pony express station this morning in Granger, and a 
200' plume thingy that shoots out a flame--oh, and an antelope ran right 
across the road in front of us.

I think I've got the info now on which horse has done the most 
days...that'd be Sunny the Mustang, Skoldjur the Icelandic and Zane Grey 
the Arab stallion.  Lancelot, Jamie's horse is a close behind with 17 
days.  The others have probably around 19 or 20 days....not sure exactly 
(none of this is official).  Terry Wooley pulled again today so now we're 
back to there being only a couple of riders that are only missing one AERC 
day and they are MJ Jackson and Kayla Ramsdell.  Kayla is still the only 
one who has ridden every mile, just missed one AERC day.  Other riders who 
have gone almost every day but a couple are Bonnie Way, Phyllis 
B...myself.....some that have done most every day but missed a handful are 
Dave Rabe, Terry Nance, Shawn Bowling, Jane Blair, Pat 
Verhuel...hmmm....there are probably a couple more but they aren't coming 
to mind.

The same rider who has lost her horse three or four times lost it again 
today and it ran and hit Pat Verhuels horse and caused her to get a broken 
front lip.  Ouch!   Trilby didn't ride today, probably a good thing due to 
all the lightning.

The sheriff came and warned us that this coming storm is going to have a 
lot of hail in it.  Lots of people have thrown their horses in trailers 
already.  We're waiting to see, right now it's just raining.

The bugle is going off at the Fort.  Yesterday the juniors all did pony 
express re-enactments for the public every couple of hours...they'd gallop 
in, do a mochilla change and the other rider would gallop off.

I better get back so I don't miss the ride meeting.  Day 27 
tomorrow!  Weaver went over 4k miles today :+).

Happy XP trails,

Karen
in Fort Bridger, Wy