Golden CO

10/10/13

Jack Challis helped me with so much stuff: electric fence training the horses and getting a portable one, transitioning to grass hay and then to alfalfa/grass cubes, understanding and using the electric/propane systems on the trailer, cleaning up Dreamy’s war/cast wounds, getting better tires on the truck (10 ply steel belt)…
I was there for 10 days where I was well fed, hot bathed and able to sleep in a real bed with real heat. Unfortunately Tucker was not so happy. It was cold and he’s not used to that, it even snowed one day. He had to sleep in the trailer with a space heater, dogs are not allowed in Jack’s beautiful log home. He barked and whined at the door a lot which broke my heart. One night I felt so bad about it, I went out and slept in the trailer with him.
I ponied Dreamy up a steep rocky “trail” and was impressed at how well their feet held up. However they seemed tender the rest of the stay so maybe they weren’t that comfortable after all. Jack rode Dreamy twice with me. Her right leg swelled up and she was even limping one day. This was the puncture wound leg but it was not related to the lameness I don’t think. She also got a million fly bites that swelled up all over her underside. Poor baby.

I left there on Friday 10/4 and overnighted in West Bountiful, hauled again the next day to Green River, UT, and then again Sunday to Golden, CO. West Bountiful was a western ranch and had a colt starting clinic going on, but I missed it. Green River was a small private ranch pretty much in the middle of nowhere. The woman there recognized my EAGALA had and had been certified years ago but not practiced it since there was no psychologist in Green River. The mares were afraid of her gelding that kept charging their corral wall until we moved everyone around. They also were put off by the chickens in the tree of one of their corrals…lol.

In Golden now at the Jefferson County fairgrounds. I was told that about half of the rvs here are people actually living here. One has at least 4 labs (in a small trailer), another has at least 4 children…its kind of depressing.
On Monday, Theresa (our nanny in the early 90’s who now lives 20 minutes from here in Eldorado Canyon on a dirt road…very serene place to be) came to the fairgrounds and we made lunch in the trailer and caught up. We then rode up in the hills above here. These are big hills which are the foothills to the Rockies, and covered with grass. Theresa rode Dreamy who took major advantage of her and ate the entire ride. Wildflower was a bit of a pill about it too. They were huffing and puffing between the steep hills and the 6,000’ altitude. I gave them the next day off then rode both of them in the rodeo arena. Funny how 1/2 hour of serious focused ring work fixes them right back up. Must be their excellent foundation training. Thank you Charni and Marci!!

Monday night Theresa treated me to a steak dinner near here, complete with wine. It was an unexpected treat for me. The next night she invited me to join her and her friends that were going to see some friends play in Boulder at a coffee/wine club. I had a really great time. The music was really really good. Her boyfriend got up and played and sang with the band for one song, he is very talented. Boulder is a very cute town full of places like this, all with local art on the walls.

Its supposed to rain tonight and I am leaving tomorrow for Colby KS. The place is a B&B/horse hotel. The owner won’t be there as she is going to Duke, MO for a week long horse camp. She was very interested in what I am doing and said that this has been a life long dream for her. Maybe I’ll catch up to her for the last few days of the camp. They are going to swim with horses there, something I want to do.