Western Adventure! Part 1 of many...

The problem with vacations is that they fly by and before you know it you are back home and exhausted. I can’t seem to get enough sleep to recover from the trip…and the time leading up to the trip. All that stress with the added head and humidity caused me to have a melt down on the 3^th of July.
We went to my parents summer home in Minnesota on the 3^rd after work. It was hot there. The heat and the humidity do not mix well with me. I try to keep my happy face on but sooner or later I have a meltdown. I could feel it coming. The stress of loading Piney was starting to get to me. He had been doing great loading, but last time we loaded him he flipped out in the trailer and kicked the shi…um he kicked the crap out of the ramp. We couldn’t even open the upper doors he messed them up so bad. So I had to go into the trailer (with my extreme trailer phobia) and keep him calm while hubby worked to open the back doors so we could get him out of there. Nice. Frickin horse is a dream boat until it’s time to load him. And even then he tricks you into thinking he’s fine until it gets closer to the time when he needs to go someplace. To make matters worse he still wasn’t 100% healed from his little jail break a few weeks ago. We decided to wait until we got home on the 4^th to make the final decision on whether he’d be going with us. But I broke down in tears on the 3^rd blubbering about how scared I was of bringing him in the trailer, and that I loved him too much to risk him getting hurt out on the trails and blah blah blah. I got it all out but I knew it would be better if we just left him at home. Hes a bit of a loner so he’d be fine at home by himself.
When we got home on the evening of the 4^th Pinecone was still limpy. So that answered that question about if we should bring him at all. I felt better. We finished loading up my pick up with almost every single piece of horse equipment in triplicate that anyone could ever need on a trail ride. It’s better safe than sorry out there. There aren’t a lot of tack shops and the stores that do have horse tack mark up everything. I don’t want to spend over $100 on a simple pair of leather reins.
The next morning we woke up bright and early and gave ourselves 30 minutes to load Duke and then we’d be headed out west. Yeah…not gonna happen. Duke wouldn’t get in the trailer. It ended up taking us one hour and 45 minutes to get him in there. I was ready to sell the horses, the trailer and the farm about 5 minutes before he got in there. We tried everything. We tried being nice guys, we tried being gentle, we tried to push him in there, we tried to pull him in there, we wrapped a rope around his butt an tried to drag him in there. We tried everything. Then right before getting the rifle and shot him. We made a little trail of treats and grain and he ate his way into the trailer. And then rode like a champ the rest of the way. We ended up turning the top vent around and then had the back doors off. He never once freaked out. We were to meet my husband’s cousin an uncle in a town about an hour away…lucky for us they had trouble loading their two horses so when we met up with them we were right on schedule. When we stopped for gas we checked in on old Dukey boy and he was fine as could be. Not sweaty or worked up in the least bit.

When we arrived to our guest ranch we checked in quickly and then brought the horses down to the barn where they would be staying. There were three stalls with runs that were located next door to our rooms. But the guy at the bar where we checked in said that we could move them into the actual barn if the weather got nasty since there weren’t any other guests that were staying at the hotel with their horses. People were camping with their horses, but they had separate stalls for them down by the camp sites. The horses unloaded fine and we let them stretch their legs before putting them in their “rooms”.  I filled dukes buckets and then added electolytes. I had been giving him electorlytes in his water for a few days before we left as a precaution. I’m sure it wasn’t necessary but with the hot weather and the traveling I knew he’d need some hydration. And some horses don’t like water in strange places so this would have helped him if he was a weirdo about his water. We also bought some hay that was expensive but certified weed free. they don't want our weeds coming in and destroying the badlands...i wouldn't either.
So other than Duke being a complete ASS about getting in the trailer it was pretty un eventful. We didn't do much other than sit on the patio and enjoy the cooler temps. THen the rain came and we were stuck inside...but to be honest I didn't mind. They had satelite tv in the rooms...I miss tv...we don't have it at our place since we just have netflix...I forgot how much i missed tv...

to be continued...I promise the rest of the weekend didn't consist of me just sitting around watching tv...although....i did think about doing just that!