Day 36, 2001 XP

[imgoneriding@worldnet.att.net]

Hi!  We're in Austin for the next two days that we have off camped at the 
rodeo grounds.  It's really nice here!  The Lakso's saved us a great spot 
underneath a big tree and right next to a water spigot.  Pretty place, the 
sunset tonight is really gorgeous.   We just got back from going out to 
dinner at one of the three places that there are to eat in town.

We had another really nice ride today.  It was long and slow and we 
finished just barely ahead of Trilby at a little over 11 1/2 hours.  I had 
two juniors again today -- Kayla and Calina, and rode Weaver.  Now he gets 
three days off and only has two days left to do next week.  I sure hope 
nothing happens over the weekend, unless something stupid happens he outta 
be okay.  Kayla rode Buzzy today and Calina rode Boomer again.   Dave 
crewed for all of us at lunch today, and then he hauled me and Kayla to the 
finish while John and Dolly babysat Rocky and got us a spot in camp.  They 
left at 4:30 a.m. to get here and get a good spot.  They did a good job. :+)

The trail today was super nice, we started out climbing up into the 
mountains and riding thru trees and nice singletrack and two-track trail, 
winding up and over the pass and then down thru another valley...complete 
with badger holes and we're starting to get into rocky areas a little bit.

We were trotting along thru a grassy field area and Weaver caught a foot in 
a rut or something and started to go down.  I tried pulling him up, and he 
kept going down.......I pulled more and he went down more...down, down, 
down.....I saw some prime real estate getting real close between his ears 
and as it approached rapidly, I gave one more pull and in the last possible 
second before a crash landing or a Buddy type flip, he came 
up......whew!  That was a pretty close almost crash landing, and glad we 
avoided any injuries from it.  Man, if I had let go or not pulled so hard 
(from the back of his neck <g>)......yeow!   He may just need to be reshod 
again, his feet have grown so dang fast...he normally isn't a clod like that.

Then a little ways after that, we went thru a gate and all of a sudden 
Weaver perked up and looked like an Ayrab (an unusual occurrence for him), 
and whinnied real loud.  Hmmmm....we didn't see anything to I got on and we 
kept going and in the next few seconds we saw what he was so alert about -- 
a wild stallion was galloping gallantly towards us thru the brush and came 
straight towards us.  I had the girls get behind me and we all turned and 
faced him...he ran right up to us and got close enough to touch noses but 
didn't try anything aggressive -- we tried shoeing and chasing him away but 
he wouldn't leave us.  (I took pictures, of course <G>).......finally some 
other riders came along and he went after them and we made our safe escape.

Earlier in the morning MJ's horse got caught in wire and was 
injured.  Weaver got it caught on his leg once but I stopped him and he 
backed up and it dropped down then he went over it.  It was an old 
telephone wire.  I don't think anybody elses horses got hurt.   MJ got 
hauled to the vet check and they fixed the horse up there, hope it will 
heal fast.

We don't really know which of the adults has ridden the most days or 
miles.  Heck, most of us don't even know what day it was or what town it 
was that we were in last......if it weren't for somebody telling me I 
wouldn't know that it was Sunday and that we get Monday and Tuesday off and 
start again on Wednesday.  I know that Dave Rabe was first today, on Dirty 
Dancer.  There are probably several riders who have ridden the most days, 
minus 1 1/2 or 2......I'm just guessing here and will probably forget 
somebody and maybe get a name wrong but here goes (remember, I'm pretty 
deranged after living with horses out of a trailer for two full 
months!).......Kayla Ramsdell (she has ridden every mile and is a junior), 
Phyllis Bartholomew, Bonnie Way, Jane Wilson, MJ Jackson, Shawn Bowling, me 
:>).....possibly Dave Rabe and Roxanne Greene........Terry Nance has been 
riding a lot too.......now for people who have been riding just one horse 
-- this is easy -- you've got Carol and Sunny who have done the most days 
together, she has only missed 6 days so far...then you've got John Parke 
and Skoldjur, the Icelandic....they are doing really well and have also 
done a lot of days, and Kathy Thompson and Zane Grey who has also done 
quite a few days and probably ten or twelve half days and have a lot of 
front placings and BC's.  Pat Verhuel has also ridden quite a lot of days 
on her two horses.  Debby Lyon and Jeff Herten have also been riding a lot 
lately, so has Sandy Skinner.  Can't think of too many other names right 
now, I'm sure I'm missing some.  Lots of people have come and left, and 
come back again.....there are a lot of people here and probably more will 
come this weekend for the last week.

We rode up thru a canyon where a Pony Express station was, including the 
graves of a couple of station attendants that had been killed by 
Indians.  I took a lot of photos, but probably won't get them up this 
weekend unless we luck out and find a connection somewhere.  Hopefully the 
cell phone will work so I can send email at least.

John and Steph Teeter passed us sometime after lunch, then after we 
finished it was about ten minutes till five or so, and Trilby and John came 
in together.  I'll have to ask Steph what happened there, where was she and 
how did John get behind us?

I forgot my electrolytes this morning.  Well, those 5 a.m. starts seem to 
get earlier and earlier and I get slower and slower and older and 
older........I don't think it mattered though since he still peed his 
normal 4 times before lunch and 7 or 8 times for the day total.  Like 
clockwork.  There's not much water on the trail but when we do get water, 
he drinks really well and I also fed him quite a few carrots today on the 
trail plus he eats everything he can find even sagebrush.  Rocky is almost 
as bad, he's over here eating a tree as we speak.  Sure do hope it's 
edible.    :+D

Barney and Linda are leaving us after this weekend <sob>.  That really 
sucks, but at least they were here up until now.  It's not like the end of 
the world, but we'll miss them.  We'll see them back at Tevis a week after 
this ride finishes up.

I can't get over how much the horses are eating still.  I am glad I was so 
prepared with all their feed needs along the route, because they have 
needed more than I planned on -- it's hard to keep everything in 
supply!  Tonight when we got into camp (hauled from the finish about 20 
miles to here)....I turned both horses out in the big arena and when Weaver 
trotted towards me he still looks like a blimp waddling along <sigh>.  It's 
really pretty funny that he's such a Lard Butt, gotta love that 
horse!  After doing 17 AERC 50 mile rides in 7 weeks........sure do wish I 
could clone him.  It has worked out so that he has gotten every single 
hardest day so far -- the ones with the most mountains or most climb, 
etc.  Weird coincidence, wonder if it would have worked so well if the 
rotation had been different?

With only four ride days left, we're getting kind of sad that it is going 
to be all over so soon.  In a week from today, it'll be all over and we'll 
have to go back to real life.  Wake up from this dream.  It sure won't be 
an easy thing to do.  One thing is for sure, none of us will ever be the 
same again.  Even the kids here are all aware of the significance this will 
have made on all of us.

I better get some sleep, it has been a really long day.  Nice one 
tho.  Hot, dusty, fun.

Happy XP Trails,

Karen
in Austin, Nevada