Up the creek tour. part 1.

After such a horrific spring. Things were looking better. The big grey thoroughbred and I had been getting miles under out belts and things were going good! HOORAY! We were prepping for our big adventure of the year. The Black Hills of South Dakota.
We went to the Black Hills Stock Show in Rapid City during the early part of the year. On the way home we stopped at a few spots to scout out camping accommodations. I was super excited. The black hills are so beautiful! This was going to be an intense trip. I couldn't wait! We planned and planned and as it ended up, we stayed at campgrounds that had 'Creek' in the name. Sully Creek, Iron Creek, French Creek, and finally Hay Creek, thus being dubbed the Up the Creek Tour.
My husband's grandfather was inducted into the ND Cowboy Hall of fame for modern day ranching in June, so we decided to plan our trip around the ceremony. The ND Cowboy Hall of Fame just so happens to be located in my most favorite place in the world, Medora, North Dakota! I've written before about riding in the Badlands and how beautiful it is. We didn't get as much riding in as I'd hoped. We had a lot of stuff to do with his family and I knew that we would have plenty of riding in the days ahead.

We were able to get a nice ride into town one day for lunch. This was George's redemption at being a creep the last time he tied to a railing at the restaurant in town. The previous year he spent most of the time acting like he had ADHD and insisted on dancing and fidgeting in addition to eating the railing on the deck. This time, he stood tied and acted like a normal horse. Thank the heavens!

I wish we could have spent more time riding out there, but I knew that we would be back for more in a few months. Over Labor day we spend a few days camping and riding with friends. So we were prepping to load up and go to the next destination when as I was stripping the stalls, I noticed a lone horse shoe in the corner. My husband's horse, Duke thew a shoe. Normally, we don't shoe Duke since he has fantastic feet, but since we were going to the Black Hills, we put shoes on all 4 corners of both horses because there is some really rough stuff out there. Everyone said to put shoes on. The thing is, I suck at locking down the farrier. Did I know I was going on a trip that required shoes? Yes. Did I go ahead an lock down a date with our farrier weeks in advance? Nope. Because I am an idiot. Recently our farrier has been so busy but in my stupid little brain, I keep thinking that she will just swing out at the drop of a hat like she has always done in the past. But I dropped the ball and I am the only one to blame. So a friend of mine who just graduated from farrier school said she could come out and tack some shoes on. She had been apprenticing with a great farrier and I trusted that she would do a good job. Her trims are phenomenal and the shoes looked great! So I figured we were good to go.
But when you are on the 'up the creek tour' things are gonna go wrong and wrong they did.
Well F-WORD, we are a billion miles from home and I have a horse with 3 shoes on and we were supposed to head out that afternoon.
Lucky for us, my husband's cousin was working in town and hooked us up with my knight in shining armor farrier. He saved me last year when I needed an emergency set of shoes tacked on Geroge in the Badlands. He is a gosh darn saint of a man. We called him up on a Sunday evening and drove out to his place and he was able to tack the shoe on, reset it and then look at George's feet to make sure they looked good. I also got to meet this sweet little mare...

I would have stolen her if she would have fit in my trailer.

So we thanked my knight in shining armor farrier a billion times and said that we'd probably be calling him when we were back in the area because...my luck sucks. We were off like a herd of turtles.
Back to the camp ground for one more night and we loaded up and left in the morning. Stay tuned for more adventures on the Up the Creek Tour 2016.

I pulled George's hay net in preparation to leave...he grabbed the bale bag and helped himself...creep.