Mini-Road Trip

I suppose that is not the most accurate title as it sounds like I took a road trip with Mini's.  I don't have mini's, but Simon and I did take a short trip to the other side of the valley for a ride.

I had my two driving lessons with the new rig, but I have to say it is slightly more nerve wracking with ponies in the back. But then anytime I haul ponies it is more nerve wracking for me.  I seriously want a sign for the back of my trailer that says, "My horses are in here and they mean more to me than you do- so I drive with their safety in mind.  I would appreciate it if you would too."  TC says I just need one that says "Student Driver"  That would sure back some people off! LOL

Actually once I got rolling it was pretty nice. That exhaust brake really slows the whole thing down so nice and smoothly and I actually only have to use the foot brake if I am coming to a full stop. You can hardly even feel the trailer back there  I managed not to run anyone over, drive anyone off the road, or hit a single curb the entire trip.....yay me!

We drove over to the West side of the valley and met up with BEC and just went for a trail ride.  It was good fun, and without a doubt the most gorgeous scenery.  I thought about putting the Old Mac's on Trax but he has been doing fabulously barefoot so I left them off. There were a couple of time where it was really rocky and he slowed his stride down to pick his way through, but other than that he did fabulous!

Of course being on a trail ride in his mind means that he doesn't have to do things like....stop....back up....move off my leg...turn the shoulders, so we did a little of that along the way.  We rode down some washes with nice deep sand for a ways, which is fantastic for building muscle tone.

As always Killian took the best care of Simon. There were a couple of times where Simon was dinking around and Killian thought he was going to get left behind so he took off with Simon to get caught up. Simon wasn't ready for it and thought he was being run away with...well he kind of was, but just at a trot, and only till he caught up with us.  

Killian loves water, Simon took him through some great big puddles, and we decided that we need to find a place to take him swimming some time.  I'm willing to bet money that he will love it.  Trax is not a huge fan, but I made him walk through a couple and all the ponies had a big long drink out of one of them.

There are a lot of saguaros in that area and we had a great time deciding what some of the older ones looked like.

This one isn't all that cool but was a nice photo op

We went down one wash that kept getting deeper and narrow as we went. Pretty soon the walls were taller than us and then there was a big tree blocking out path. Simon was in front I was in the back and BEC was in the middle on Frosty.  So we turned around to head back and for some reason unknown to anyone but the voices in Trax's head, he suddenly decided to be bothered by have a horse behind him...and just for the record, Frosty was not that close at all.  But Trax butt scooted forward, pushing my face into a little dead tree hanging over and a stick went right into my eye socket.  It literally went about 1/2 an inch down in around my eyeball and then broke off.  Luckily there was enough stick out for me to just pull it out, while trying to get my horse under control.

With one eye, I managed to find a place to ride up the side of the wash into open ground and then stopped my idiot horse to assess the damage.  I looked down and saw a drop of blood on my arm- started to freak out (internally of course- I had to keep my cool in front of Simon and BEC) and then realized that it was not from my eye, but just a spot where I had been poked by a thorn on my arm.  My eye was fine, just a little irritated and I spent the rest of the day a little teary on that side while my body produced its own eye flush.

I asked Trax WTH his problem was...."I heard a noise and it scared me."

"Trax, you are a seasoned trail horse. Noises aren't supposed to scare you."

"I'm in a strange desert, Lady, I thought it was a mountain lion."

"Trax have you ever seen a mountain lion?"

"Well no, but my mother told me to always be on the look out for them because they will eat me.  I was just trying to keep you safe...and me too. I figured it I ran fast that maybe the lion would catch Killian and eat him and the kid instead."

"Trax, Killian is part of your herd and the kid is part of my herd."

"Lady, Killian is mean to me and the boy makes you yell a lot, so I thought it would be okay,"

Anyway, so we rode on and laughed about the whole ordeal. We saw some cows, and found some more cool cacti.

This one is especially cool.

After the ride we put Trax and Killian in the round pen with a snack and went and had some lunch ourselves. At the bar and grill there were a bunch of ropers, some of whom were really drunk and had horses tied to trailers out side.

 At one point we all saw one horse go galloping past the door and someone yelled, "loose horse!"  You would think that anyone with a horse would have jumped up to see if was theirs. Some did, but not all.

 Someone came in and said, "Hey Bob (or bill or joe or whatever) your horse is loose."  Bob was particularly drunk, in fact Bob was unable to even walk.

 His response was, "Ahhhh Bullshit!  My horse ain't loose."  

'Yes Bob, your horse is loose."

Bob never moved, let someone else catch his horse and use their own halter to secure the pony back to the trailer.

I have no doubt that the poor horse knew that Bob was in there drunk off his ass, and had no intentions of letting Bob drive him home. He was trying desperately to just get away.  I can't blame him one bit.

Bob is one of those dicks that gives ropers a bad name.

Anyway, then it was time to beat feet home, and we made it home just after dark.  I don't see so well at night so I was glad to not have to drive too much in the dark. The hardest part...getting in my own driveway. There are no streetlights and my trailer does not have running lights on the fenders so I cannot see where my tires are.  I guess I made it in okay though because I didn't hear any clunks.

We had a great great time, and like I told BEC, I am willing to admit that I may have moved to the wrong side of town!