One more while I have power

We are packing up to head over to the ride start.  This has been a good 2 day rest for the horses - they are finally peeing clear and the older mares have put some weight back on.  Pema is looking ribby but I expect she might be until she learns the routine.

Yesterday was occupied with fixing the manger door Scarlet ripped off and getting the easy boots on: both epic tales.  Our neighbor Randy (which is really his name, not Ray as I've been calling him) and Steve drilled out the hinges and took the door off.  I just happened to have replacement hinges and all the tools we needed.  Steve did scour town for counter-sink rivets but no luck.  After only about 3 hours the door was back and I had once again learned not to tie Scarlet anywhere near any door.

For those of you who know what gluing on Easyboots means, here is that tale:

Until this morning, I was a virgin:  I'd never glued on a glue-on glove.  Unless you count using gorrilla glue with regular gloves, which does work quite well.  But here I am in St. Joseph MO getting ready for XP2011 ride, which will take us all the way back to Virginia City NV on as much of the original Pony Express trail as possible.  (NOTE: please do not mention this ride to anyone outside this group as we are trying to fly under the radar.  The US gov types are not as amenable to this sort of thing as they were in the 1800's.)

I have used every kind of Easyboot ever made, but most often over shoes as added protection or during the winter months when I give my horses feet a break.  But I didn't want to rely on any farrier I might find in Nebraska, so I decided last November to go the whole barefoot way.  And of course glue on gloves were the logical choice:  who wants to mess with boots day after day after day.

So I talked with Kevin, with several barefoot trimmers, with my farrier, and I watched all the videos  on the Easycare website, several times.  This morning I watched them again, knowing I needed to dry the hoofs (did I mention the tornado last night?  Storm Watchers was parked in the entrance to our campground!).  I laid out the alcohol, the hairdryer, the rasp, the wire brush, the hoof stand, all the boots, Goober Glue and Vettec Adhere with their own guns.  I rasped and cleaned and fitted and grooved and alcoholed and dried each of the 

8 hoofs I needed to protect. By now I had a crowd watching, and several volunteer helpers.

So we prepped the first four boots with Goober Glue (making a froglike figure in each).  Then, as the crowd held it's collective breath, I donned my gloves, cleaned one hoof again, slapped on a temp glove, fitted the Adhere in the gun, cut the tip, squeezed some out, put on the real tip, squeezed some more out then squirted and spread until the glove was covered and pulled off the temp, put on the real one, and grabbed my gun to do the top line.  Tip had congealed. Okay, grabbed another tip and did the top line, smearing nicely with my gloved finger.  I stood up and we all took a breath.  "See how easy that was?"

The horse was still calm and the ground was still orderly with stuff, so I did the next.  Again, with only a little more glue on my gloves and oh a bit on my leg this time it went well.  By the end of the 4th shoe the ground was a bit messy, and two fingers were glued together, but all in all pretty cool. Most of my audience walked off, impressed if I do say so myself.  Then, with one horse to go and only one helper left, all hell broke loose. 

The Vettec tube was faulty - one flange was gone so the tip didn't seat.  I of course, a bit cocky from my first success, didn't really notice.  Until there was glue all over me, the boot, the ground.  Frantic now I tried to get two boots done with the badly leaking Adhere.  After all I had several full changes to make and only so much Adhere with me so I didn't want to waste any.  But by the time my fingers were glued together and to the gun, and the horse was covered up to fetlock in gunk I was ready to concede that tube's demise.  I ripped off my gloves and prepped another - cutting my leg in the process but the Adere dripped into the cut and that was the same as sealing it with Superglue right?

My last volunteer smiled wanly and drifted off so my husband tried to help but was baffled by the mess and distressed by my appearance (what with all the blood and black glue). And the gun was once again stuck to my hand, and my glove was a mitten.  But by goodness we got the last of them on and sealed and done.  And I actually think they might stay on.

40 minutes in the shower didn't do much for my appearance.  The t shirt and gloves were tossed, but my skin is not as fungible.  And during that long scrub I summed up my lessons:

1.  Do try this at home first.

2.  Keep long pants on no matter the temp and humidity.

3.  Don't try to teach a pig to sing - won't work and will annoy the pig.  Just toss the bad tube and start over.

4.  Trade in the chestnuts for black horses - mistakes won't show as much.

/debbie, humbled.

 p.s.  I do think the chunk of hair I had to cut out will regrow by the time we get home....

Today we have a meeting at 1 to get everyone ready for tomorrow, and dinner at the historic Pattee House (http://www.stjoemo.info/history/pateehouse.cfm). Tomorrow Scarlet and I ride off to the west.

Camped at the AOK

We got to the campground last evening around 6:30.  This is the alternative camping spot with internet, showers, and full hookups.  We will spend a couple days here and move to the start of the ride on Monday (we ride out of there Tuesday morning).

Our third day we drove across Wyoming and into Kimball NE.  We found a great little fairgrounds that hadn't seen horses since September so there was no chance of infection.  The horses had a huge arena  to run and roll and eat the grass along the fence line.  Lincoln had rabbits to chase and Hula had grass outside the trailer to lay in.  Best of all we found it by calling a KOA and asking where we could camp with horses, and one person sent us to another and on until we got a guy who said "Sure use our fairgrounds.  We will come over to turn on the water."  Great people here in the mid-west.

Forth day we actually drove across Nebraska - one big ass state.  But it is flat and so the 520 miles were doable.  And the views were wonderful, along the North Platt and then the Missouri river bottom lands.  The audio book Doc kept us happy, and the horses loved the warmer weather:  they finally had their windows open and blankets off.

The big event was the weather when we got here:  tornado warnings and huge lightening storms.  The Storm Chasers were right here on the road at the entrance to our campground!

The campground is actually not a horse facility but just a regular RV park with lots of acreage and a lake.  They decided they could work with us here and we are slowly imprinting their pristine sites.  But they couldn't be more accomodating and our 3 horses are in a big field in their electric fence, happy even through the (very warm) rain and lightening and wind.  Hula and Lincoln get to run around and of course take full advantage of the lake.

Today is chores, laundry, gluing on the horse shoes and practicing our GPS skills.  And hanging out with new friends - there are lots of folks we know and lots of new faces but the group dynamic feels great.  Meet Ray and Holly from Virginia:  Holly has done only 100 endurance miles to this point but always wanted to ride across the country.  Ray is a retired phone company cable layer with lots of not so great stuff to say about unions.

I've set up our hotspot so Steve should be able to get internet access while I'm riding:  keep those cards and letters coming.
Cheers.

Written en route

First, the good news.  We are in western Wyoming and the truck and rig are working well.  We spent last night in Park City with great friends Deb and Janice and their son Stephen; we met them on the 2004 XP and have been great friends ever since.  Gas is getting cheaper.  Now the other news:  it is cold and wet with snow on the ground at high elevations, and even at lower elevations.  The horses have spent 2 nights out in the rain, and are not so happy.  The weather should warm up by tomorrow, but will continue to be wet.

We left home Wednesday and were stunned to find ourselves finally on the road.  The feeling was a bit flat and anti-climactic.  Going over the Sierra was surprisingly uneventful, but weather from Truckee on had us on high alert all afternoon.  Periodic squalls and sleet and cars spun off the road near Lovelock kept us on our toes, or rather in four wheel drive at 30 miles an hour.  Still we made it to Winnemucca fairgrounds by 6:30, where we were warmly greeted by the camp host Karen, eager for someone to talk to:  the fairgrounds have been deserted since the equine herpes outbreak.  We did put the horses in an area that hasn’t been used in weeks, so we weren't worried about contagion, but they were outside in all night in the rain.

The trip to Park City was broken up by a stop to get brand inspections for the 3 horses – really traveling passports in the western US.  The horses were a bit shy about having their pictures taken, and before we finished everyone in the office had trooped out to compare notes on the description.  The Ruby Mountains were shrouded in snow and clouds, and the sleet and rain followed us all the way to Park City. 

We had a wonderful evening with our friends.  The horses got a big pasture and were quite happy until the overnight rain.  The dogs played with the 5 host dogs including 3 standard poodles – Enu, Rocky and Rosie.  And Indian feast and good wine and conversation kept us up late but we slept well in their downstairs apt.

We haven’t gotten higher than the 30’s today but have less rain.  We hope to stay just east of Cheyenne tonight.  We are being highly entertained by an audio book called Doc by Mary Doria Russell.  The first day we listened to a hilarious British story by Douglas Adams – Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency (thank you Donna).

The rivers are high, the skys are gray, and the glorious desolation of the American West is mesmerizing (from Steve)