BLOGGIN' ALONG

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...

​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...

June 21 The temperature at Smiley Creek, where we were headed, was 34 degrees. It was only 8:00AM but I knew it would take some time to gas up the truck and get ourselves up there. By the time we saddled the horses, near Chemeketan campground, it was almost 10:00 and 50 degrees. No wind. Perfect. Quiet. Peaceful. My main objection of the day was to...

Don't you love it when your horse trots over to greet you when you walk in the gate? Armed with a new set of shoes, we were ready to get back out there. I tied Commotion and Roy to the trailer where we saddled them up. This was the first time I'd saddled him tied to the trailer, which is a different deal for a horse than cross ties. Sometimes they ...

David backed the trailer into the open area at the trail head, insuring that we could get out when we left, and leaving plenty of room for anybody else that might show up at Eagle Creek. It was a beautiful Wednesday morning. Eagle creek is a great first ride for a young horse. It's a pretty boring road ride, but beautiful, and not very well known, ...

Jaime handed me the reins and I reached up and stroked his long brown neck. His eyes were alert and bright. He looked at me straight. Little perfect ears pointing forward. "He's a little hotter than what you're used to" Sheila said. I raised my eyebrows to her. "His breeding is for the show ring, he's a trotting horse. His bloodline can be pretty h...

Seven degrees this morning. Looking out the window at the white landscape as the sun came up, I said to myself, "hey, I'm not the only one out there that can't ride all winter!" I don't have a toasty indoor arena, and I'm really not much into arena riding anyway. Sure, I sometimes like to work on precise skills and break things down to practice and...