BLOGGIN' ALONG

In the past few years, when we have headed out for what I call a "Dave Thompson Adventure Ride", it usually goes like this: We start out saying that it'll just be a short ride, something really easy for the young horse I'm riding. Then somehow we find ourselves lost in the wilderness, sometimes with scratches and scrapes across my face and hands an...

Summer has arrived. I switched out my t-shirt for a long sleeved cotton shirt, to protect my arms from the sun. Carol picked us up a little after noon and we drove out to the Greenhorn gulch trail head. This was a new trailer for Prestigious. It's a nice big stock trailer, but there are no dividers in it and there was a new horse in there. I put Ro...

This horse is so smart. I have ridden almost every day, sometimes little shorty rides and sometimes bigger challenging rides.  This is about one ride, about a week ago. David and I loaded up the horses and drove down and picked up Martina and her "V" horse, El Tejon. We went out to a canyon that I'd never been to before. We rode out through a ...

It was sort of late in the afternoon, and the horses were still up at Carol's, where they stayed while we were away on business. We got there at about 5:30 at the end of a warm day. Prestigious was very aware of the hot wire as we opened the gate and led them out. We saddled up and I led him around to the other pastures, where Badger, Carol's horse...

It was late, close to evening when we decided to ride. At the snow bank, instead of going around it this time, David said "Stay here, let me see if this is okay." He and Roy stepped in and went right up the middle, stepping on the snow, not sinking in to badly. The melting snow has become so compacted that it's pretty solid. Prestigious hesitated, ...

I just love this photo. I take a lot of photos, but often, when I'm riding, I'll get these rainbows and colors. This didn't happen until last year, after loosing Sheila. There are plenty of technical reasons why this thing happens, but lots of people that say it is a spirit. I don't know for sure, but it sure makes me feel super happy to think she'...

The sun is out and it's actually warmed up to above sixty degrees. We'd been working in the garden all weekend. Sunday morning three guys came to build a little garden wall by our bedroom window. Boy it feels good to get a lot done. While we were working around the garden, I left the horses tied to the trailer, just learning about patience and...

​Winter is officially OVER. With Roy, Prestigious V, and little hitchhiker named Zip's Amerigold in the trailer, I drove out Varian Arabians driveway at about 10:00 AM on a Thursday morning. The drive up highway 101, 46, 41, 5 and then 80 to Grass Valley, east of Sacramento, is always crowded, no matter what day of the week it is or what the time o...

​I swear, I feel I must be dreaming. Up in Idaho there is still bits of snow hanging on here and there in my garden, but here we are in California and it is most definitely springtime. We drove in to Windmill Flats, circled the truck and unloaded the horses. Normally I back the horses out of the trailer, but today there were a plethora of good size...

​Prestigious V. Audacious PS x Pretty Pauline V. I'd ridden him once for about five minutes in the arena, and he seemed very nice. Bright. Flashy. Innocent. He had been out of the arena, but not much and not far. He and Roy settled into their little pens at the V6 Ranch horse camp with a pile of alfalfa. Boy it was good to be back. There is no plac...

It was a long time before I saw Commotion again. A year and a half. So much had happened. He'd gone off with a sweet woman that spent her summers in Wyoming and winters in Southern California. Together they rode many happy miles together. Somehow though, he was back at Varian Arabians and back up on the sale page. It was right before Christmas. "He...

"Are you sure you feel like going? We could just go to breakfast maybe." I could hear by the smallness of her voice that she wasn't feeling very strong. "No, I need to get out there." I smiled. "Okay, I'll be there at 9:30 to pick you up." I have to admit, I was eager to show her how well Commotion would do after his summer experiences but more tha...

After an oil change and a check up on the trailer brakes and lights, it was time to go. As I loaded my things into the trailer, a mental movie played in my head about the summer and what Commotion V taught me and what I was able to give to him. There were a number of rides that we took that I did not write a story about. One day we focused simply o...

August 22, Saturday This would be our last ride of the summer together. Our route would be up the East Fork of the Hyndeman creek to Pioneer Cabin and down Johnstone Creek, a nice loop of about twelve miles. I called Martina on our way to pick up Carol and the horses, and with very short notice, she met us at East Fork road and we drove out across ...

August 15. Our 23 rd anniversary Carol wanted to drive her big fancy new truck today, which delighted us because our old Ford has about a billion miles on it and the drive up Trail Creek Road to Summit Creek is a hard pull up a steep crazy road. Should have named that road Vertigo Road. The trail starts right out with a simple creek crossing and th...

Friday, July 24. There's a funny little place north of Ketchum where an rustic old store sits on the side of the road. Behind it is a number of little cabins and trailers. The place whispers of early Ketchum and the 1960's. "North Fork Store" is what the sign reads, but the store is long closed and I'm always curious about the people that live back...

Sheila wrote to me after that ride to Grand Jean. "Great story Lisa!!! Can't call you a scardy cat! I love your reports and pictures... I agree, that would have been too big a step for Commotion. Thanks Sheila" I loved the idea that I was getting her out of her big brown chair, even if only in her imagination. Thursday, July 14 9:00 AM. Still a bit...

August 7.  For days I fretted whether to take Commotion on our three day girls trip to the back country. It could be a good experience for him, but I feared it might be over his head. The trails up there are gnarly and ragged, and if he could not handle it, the repercussions could be pretty tragic. Finally I determined that if I was this doubt...

​July 3 and 4. The fourth of July weekend can be such a nuisance, so many people, so much noise, so on impulse, we hustled to the grocery store, loaded up the horses and headed up over Galena Summit to the Stanley Basin once again. There were plenty of people camping here and there, but here in Idaho there are so many single camp sites, and sure en...

​Wednesday, July 1 We arrived at a place that I can't even tell you where it was because it doesn't have a name. We parked near a single campsite on the east side of Highway 75 about half way between Billy's Bridge and Phantom Hill. Wide open spaces, forests thick with aspen trees, beautiful green meadows sprinkled with wild flowers called to us fr...