I thought I had better pipe in here as Uno and her marvelous stories seem to be taking over the horse section.
Every May long weekend, many friends of mine head up this way from Victoria to go camping. Where they go is about 10 miles down serious 4X4 trails into the wilderness.
Every year I hop on my quad and go visit them.
Its good fun every year. This is, and always has been, my kind of lifestyle.
So Friday morning, I bring the quad around the front of the house, load up with extra clothes, food, beer etc. All the things I will need for a daylong redneck visit in the boonies.
The dog is now getting antsie. He LOVES the quad.
This year I also bought a helmet after terrifying my wife for years. Actually, I bought it the day before, in preparation for this event.
Gear packed, helmet on, dog ready, off I go.....until the quad wont start.
CDI, coil, or stator. At this point I can't begin to test these lovely Polaris parts.
I invent several new colorful words as I begin to unpack the quad. Disappointed in my missed yearly adventure.
Saturday morning, I decide I'm going anyway. On four legs instead. So I load up Cochise for our 10 mile trek down the same rough terrain.
3 hours later I arrive, much to my city friends' delight. Its an annual event we all look forward to, bit they're surprised to see me arrive on horseback.
Stories get told, and we all laugh that we wont have to worry about my blood alcohol content being too high for the horse.
About 6pm I hear someone say; "there goes your horse"!
Sure enough, there he goes galloping around tents and Jeeps.
I bolt, and try my vain attempt at catching my horse that has decided he has had enough of camping, and is heading for home. No go. He had broken one line in his stubborn crankiness and was hell bent on getting his dinner.
I get back to camp, and request a Jeep and a driver. Cochise has about 8 intersections to navigate to get to his destination.
4 of us pile into a Jeep, two of us standing in the back as we bounce our way up the deep glacier cut river valley. Its slow going for us, 1st gear all the way up the hill to the next road.
At the top, I get out and check for tracks. He's gone the right way, so now we can pick up some speed as well.
3 more intersections and because Cochise is going like hell, I can clearly see his high speed turns in the dirt ahead of us.
Around a corner, we catch a glimpse of his ass. He's gone over 5 miles now. He's more than halfway home.
With the road hardly as wide as the Jeep and tree branches bouncing off our heads, we keep our deathgrips on the roll cage yelling faster!
We catch up to him as he slows to a trot. I jump out of the Jeep to try and catch him. No sir, he bolts again.
I jump back in the Jeep and off we go again.
I tell my city slickin driver that the road widens slightly ahead, and if he can get past the horse, to cut in front of him.
The road widens and he pins it. Alongside Cochise, the passenger asks me if he should grab him. There's a couple feet of rope still attached to his halter.
I waste no time in telling him not to ask, just DO!
Sure enough, he grabs a hold of him and we come to a stop.
Cochise is a sweatball from galloping his way for over 5 miles.
We all have a good laugh, and I carry on home, a bit earlier than planned, but with legs under my own, chuckling to myself the rest of the trip home.
Where's a film crew when you need one?
Every May long weekend, many friends of mine head up this way from Victoria to go camping. Where they go is about 10 miles down serious 4X4 trails into the wilderness.
Every year I hop on my quad and go visit them.
Its good fun every year. This is, and always has been, my kind of lifestyle.
So Friday morning, I bring the quad around the front of the house, load up with extra clothes, food, beer etc. All the things I will need for a daylong redneck visit in the boonies.
The dog is now getting antsie. He LOVES the quad.
This year I also bought a helmet after terrifying my wife for years. Actually, I bought it the day before, in preparation for this event.
Gear packed, helmet on, dog ready, off I go.....until the quad wont start.
CDI, coil, or stator. At this point I can't begin to test these lovely Polaris parts.
I invent several new colorful words as I begin to unpack the quad. Disappointed in my missed yearly adventure.
Saturday morning, I decide I'm going anyway. On four legs instead. So I load up Cochise for our 10 mile trek down the same rough terrain.
3 hours later I arrive, much to my city friends' delight. Its an annual event we all look forward to, bit they're surprised to see me arrive on horseback.
Stories get told, and we all laugh that we wont have to worry about my blood alcohol content being too high for the horse.
About 6pm I hear someone say; "there goes your horse"!
Sure enough, there he goes galloping around tents and Jeeps.
I bolt, and try my vain attempt at catching my horse that has decided he has had enough of camping, and is heading for home. No go. He had broken one line in his stubborn crankiness and was hell bent on getting his dinner.
I get back to camp, and request a Jeep and a driver. Cochise has about 8 intersections to navigate to get to his destination.
4 of us pile into a Jeep, two of us standing in the back as we bounce our way up the deep glacier cut river valley. Its slow going for us, 1st gear all the way up the hill to the next road.
At the top, I get out and check for tracks. He's gone the right way, so now we can pick up some speed as well.
3 more intersections and because Cochise is going like hell, I can clearly see his high speed turns in the dirt ahead of us.
Around a corner, we catch a glimpse of his ass. He's gone over 5 miles now. He's more than halfway home.
With the road hardly as wide as the Jeep and tree branches bouncing off our heads, we keep our deathgrips on the roll cage yelling faster!
We catch up to him as he slows to a trot. I jump out of the Jeep to try and catch him. No sir, he bolts again.
I jump back in the Jeep and off we go again.
I tell my city slickin driver that the road widens slightly ahead, and if he can get past the horse, to cut in front of him.
The road widens and he pins it. Alongside Cochise, the passenger asks me if he should grab him. There's a couple feet of rope still attached to his halter.
I waste no time in telling him not to ask, just DO!
Sure enough, he grabs a hold of him and we come to a stop.
Cochise is a sweatball from galloping his way for over 5 miles.
We all have a good laugh, and I carry on home, a bit earlier than planned, but with legs under my own, chuckling to myself the rest of the trip home.
Where's a film crew when you need one?
. What a silly horse eh? He probably thought that he just didn't want to be there, no horses, all alone, why would he want to stay, smiling. What a trek though to catch him and what a huge distance for him to travel at a gallop (I'm sure he fooled ya and loped part of the way, or maybe even trotted). Glad it all worked out well, he wasn't hurt and actually knew his way home, horses are amazingly smart. Had he ever been down those particular roads before to know his way home, I would be interested to hear this, if not, wonder how Cochise figured it out, weird, but so interesting. How was the weather that day, warm, cold, rainy, etc? Love stories, oh did I already mention that. Smoky sounds like you guys too have a blast, oh wilderness, I could never be a city girl!! Have that beautiful day, CynthiaM.