Day #20

I slept in because I was up at 3:00 thinking about ants. We needed to wait until 9:00 anyway for the vet to open. When I called they were very nice and said they could see our horses tomorrow afternoon.

We didn't want to waste another day just sitting around, so we saddled up and tried to avoid other riders since we were forbidden to ride with anyone.

It wasn't very long before we came off a higher trail onto a lower one and there was another rider right there. He said, " You know I'm not allowed to ride with you, right?" And we nodded. Then he said with a smile, "So just follow me and I will show you a nice couple hours of riding."

Come to find out, he had sat next to Dan at the Superbowl Party. We rode with him for a couple hours.

This was a different terrain than we had ridden at Catalina. And the rider, who will remain nameless to protect the innocent, knew these trails well.



He talked about how they had seen two bobcat in the camp last night and how the week before a mountain lion had been spotted on the trail. And right about then, we came upon a bunch of vultures flying and diving low. Then a fresh antlered deer carcass was in front of us. Nameless seemed surprised. He had ridden this same trail earlier in the week. It seems that the cougar had made a kill.

We rode on. The trail was 7 1/2 miles total and pretty easy riding compared to what we had been doing at Catalina. We completely enjoyed our ride. When we got back to camp, Nameless said, "So you never saw me." Good guy.

Just as we got to our horse trailer to unsaddle, Jerome, a farrier from Wyoming was waiting for us. His company is Rafter P Horseshoeing.
Dan had talked to him at the Superbowl party and arranged to have him shoe Blaze's back feet. Dan had tried before and just couldn't get Blaze to let him pound the nails. This young guy was super. He was gentle and calm and had them on in no time. He did say the left hind foot seemed a little sore so I am glad he will have his feet protected now.

I have a few photos of the campgrounds. It is so civilized that we feel like we are in a small town. The rest of the day went well. We got the laundry done and had a nice supper. Tomorrow we will be hauling the horses for the new Coggin's test and new Health certificates. When they are complete, (in a few days) we will be able to ride with whoever we want without sneaking around. :-)

God bless you.
Pam