Oh how refreshing it is to just be in the mountains of Idaho! The forecast was for 80's during the day and 50's at night with a slight 20-30% chance of rain. What a relief from the 90's we have been experiencing in the desert!
Our first priority was to get the horses settled onto the highline. Our practice run in the arena with the highline paid off in spades. The rope still had lots of stretch in it so we had to tighten it several times. Beyond that we set it up without much trouble at all.
I will have to say that my Riding Buddy Sandra, our Flamingo Crew Chief Lyn, my daughter Katrina and I make a heck of a team. The four of us worked so well together. All weekend there was heard nary a discouraging word! What could have been a time of great stress based on the enormity of the task became pleasant satisfying work.
Here's the front of our camp - Tilly the Tent Trailer, our living area the and the trailer. My ginormous family sized tent is in the front, but that's not where it started out being. (More about the tent later... ) The highline is on the back side. If you look closely you can see the line tied to this side of the horse trailer. The red car belongs to Sandra's family.
The living area...
We think we're ready......! Don't we look like it?
After camp was mostly set up we took the horses for their check in with the vet. While we were in line we were handed a thick pink grease paint marker and we wrote our rider numbers on our horse's rumps. This is when things started feeling "real" to me. I have been to a couple of endurance rides as a crew member. Putting that number on Delight's rump was thrilling. Both horses passed this check with flying colors. Both were docked just a bit for having minimal gut sounds. We feel it was from the stress of the drive and the new surroundings.
Here is a picture of Delight all decked out. I think this is one of my favorite pictures of all time of my horse!
Here are a couple of great looking rumps!
That afternoon the 6th member of our team showed up. Katrina spent the night with us and was a great help for our first ride on Saturday.
It was later than we would have liked when we hit the hay that night. Katrina and I were in the big tent, Lyn and Sandra were in the tent trailer. Some time in the middle of the night the slight chance of scattered rain showers decided to become 100% wind, lightning and rain storm. The tent was located behind the living area next to the horses. Delight and Tia didn't seem worried at all by the storm... until the wind became so strong that it threatened to flatten the tent! Worried about a possible stampede, Katy and I decided to abandon tent. With the help of our crew mates we moved everything out and took the tent down. Katy and I settled in with Sandra and Lyn moved to her truck.
Of course, as soon as we were finished, the storm was over. So much for a good night's sleep right before the biggest ride of our lives!
Char
No comments:
Post a Comment