Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

We finally make it to the first hold at 20 miles out.  Thank you to Fred 
Beason for waiting for us, sorry we took so long.  The riders are all gone 
but there?s food and water for Amigo, so we hang out for about 20 minutes.  
He drinks a ton of water and eats everything in sight.

We leave and head back down the PCT trail.  I know this section well.  There 
is a small creek that crosses the trail on a very nasty, drop off, rocky 
section.  At the Californios Lite I had to get off and lead Dortel across it 
and he decided to leap it and landed on top of me knocking the wind out of 
me and bruising my ribs.  Amigo and I make it to this section.  I notice 
that there is still an indentation of my butt in the rocky/dirt cliff from 
when Dortel hit me.  Amigo stops and drinks from the stream and crosses it 
fine.  I?m ecstatic.   Because, if I?d had brought Dortel we would still be 
there or we would have rolled back to camp the quick way and RO?d out of the 
ride.

We travel along this section of 12 miles and Amigo and I are happy together, 
I?m feeding him carrots and horse cookies and little handfuls of grain 
periodically.  I trust him more with each stride.  We get to this down hill 
section.  It?s narrow but he just moves along and watches where he puts each 
foot.  I hear the trail give out some under his feet and roll down the hill. 
 We come to this nasty boggy section and I see some deep hoof prints where 
the prior horses sank pretty deep.  It?s narrow and I have two hikers on the 
side of us.  Amigo looks at them, and thinks about where he?s going to go.  
He puts one hoof in the mud and figures out what?s going on and just walks 
calmly across.  Whew??.

The rest of the trail is narrow and it gets a little steep so I hop off and 
lead him down the mountain.  He is eating weeds the entire way.  I glance 
back at him and some of the weeds are as big as him.

We finished 32 miles in about 6 ½ hours.  Bobbie Lieberman and Carl (sorry I 
forgot his last name) were waiting for us to take us back to camp.  Carl?s 
horse Gypsy was pulled for a muscle cramp.

Amigo and I got back to camp.  I gave him a quick bath and groomed him.  His 
legs didn?t stock up, he wasn?t stiff, and he still hadn?t stop eating.  
Note to self:  Bring more carrots next trip and if he ever goes on a 
multi-day ride bring an extra bale or two of hay.  I think he put on more 
weight during and after this ride than when he started.

So, to some of you out there if you get a chance to ride drag, take the 
opportunity.  You just might learn something new about your horse.   And 
again thanks to Bobbie, Carl, Vern, Marge and Fred Beason .  And to all of 
you out there with the all important question in your mind, NO, my little 
gelding will not be foaling any time soon.

Liz Masters and Shalimar Amigo  (25 lbs of carrots, ½ bag of horse cookies, 
3 apples, free fed hay, beet pulp, Complete Advantage and some Senior is 
just NOT quite enough food for a little boy)



=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.
Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp
Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp

Ride Long and Ride Safe!!

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=