Archives for November 2013

After confirming that Clio’s leg was better but a long way from rideable, we took a drive down to the actual Robbers Cave that this State Park is named after, and my little dog Billy and I climbed up to the cave and around all the rocks. Hubby only went about 100 feet of steep uphill before he sat down with old Marina dog and waited for our return. An interesting rock pile with a famous history of being used by robbers and marauders, with one area used as a “stone corral” for their horses, which even had a hitching post for those who dared to ride out here. Billy enjoyed jumping and sniffing and greeting the many dozens of other people who were climbing the rock with us. After a while we went and found Hubby again, then decided to run down to the stable to see if they had found the missing gray mare yet, but they hadn’t. They had a good lead, though, as someone up the road had just been by to tell them they had heard what sounded like a horse in their field, though they didn’t keep horses, so there’s still hope. Apparently there’s a fence around the whole park, but it isn’t always secure around the entire perimeter. Nevertheless, I can’t imagine she’d go that far from home, it’s just not in their nature to go any further than the nearest grass and water hole. While we were there, I asked about hay, and spoke to a guy who said he had just passed a sign with square bales for sale, so we got directions and took a ride down. The hay looked okay, but the barn would be impossible to reach without disconnecting the pickup from the RV, and frankly, that’s too much of a hassle. Plus the bales were very heavy, and wrapped with wire as well, which I don’t generally like because it makes them hard to handle, and the guy was old and using a cane, obviously disabled, so no help there. We thanked him and headed back to camp, where it wasn’t long before we were feeding the animals and settling down for football.

Knowing we wanted to take a long ride today, we set the alarm for 8:00, had our quick Nutrisystem breakfast bar and coffee, saddled up and headed up the lawn toward the trail head by 9:30. Hubby immediately notice his mare Clio was limping, so we stopped and examined her more fully, discovering some bad swelling on her back right fetlock, so we quickly changed our plans and headed back to camp. Just an experiment (since our horses have never been apart), I took Apollo to the end of camp to see if there was any possibility I could take a short ride alone (not that I’d be alone, the trails were packed.) That turned out to be impossible, as soon as Apollo realized Mama wasn’t with us, he struggled with me all the way as we headed back toward the campsite, pawing the ground (even though he was pointed in the right direction) and jumping sideways and just generally throwing a tantrum. I managed to keep my seat (fortunately, since we were on tarmac, and dozens of eyes were watching me), and eventually we managed to sidle down the road, even though he kept pulling as if I was taking us in the wrong direction. By the time we got to the bath house I couldn’t hold him anymore, and he took off at a gallop up the road back to the campsite. Unfortunately, he didn’t stop right there, he passed Mama, went out into the yard a ways and then tried to buck me off again. I managed to hold on okay, and got him back to his halter, where he promptly settled down to his usual calm self. We unsaddled and put them on the anchors for a while, had a snack, then Hubby got busy with the slide out repair. Seems one side isn’t opening fully on the bottom, so it’s a tiny bit cockeyed. After several attempts, it didn’t seem to matter what he did, it wasn’t a lot better, but he did make the cables even, so he’s hoping that during our next drive they’ll jiggle into place and be a bit more even. Hey, we can hope, right? Settled down for an evening of television.

Spent most of the day working on my interview project, while Hubby read, then spent a little time on the slide out. He had noticed it wasn’t performing a complete seal at the bottom even when it is all the way out, and also noticed a loose bolt on the cable, so he spent a little time reading the manual I had download (barely a cell phone signal here, but enough with my booster for internet, fortunately-though I had to up my gigs twice this month to keep up with all the use I’ve been adding!), then trying to make some adjustments. In the end, he couldn’t quite get it, so he packed it in for the night, promising to get to it on Sunday before our Monday departure.

 After getting off to a slow start, and having to spend an hour trimming the horses’ feet so we could fit their boots on, we finally got on the trail around 12:30, heading out toward the west perimeter trail. Our plan was to go to the waterfall and loop back down, though we didn’t quite make it because Hubby thought it was getting late and was worried we wouldn’t get back before dark, which after changing the clocks last Sunday, is shortly after 5:00, though with clear skies it would likely be a bit later now. True to the warning, some of the trails were extremely rocky, like a stream bed for long stretches, though there were a few places where they because more dirt and leaves and pine needles, but not for long. Some of the trails were fairly steep, with narrow switchbacks and lots of warnings to stay on the trail and not to cut new trails, including one amusing/threatening fake grave with a headstone promising a similar fate to anyone not using the switchbacks. There was a significant re-route on Governors Trail, and then we either missed a turn or the trail was closed, because we ended up cutting across the middle of a loop to the other side, which put us sort of back on track. Overall, though, the trails and intersections were pretty well marked, though the black and white map could be made a lot easier to read. We never got to the waterfall, and the trip back, even with a stop to have a snack, got us back in camp by 4:00, well before any threat of darkness. Oh, well, we’ll just have to get to the waterfall on our next ride! The horses were well behaved, but not thrilled at the footing either, just too darny rock, even with boots on! Got back, having stopped and chatted with a few neighbors on the way, and got everyone settled in for the night.

Rained overnight again, a lot, and through part of the morning before it started to clear out and start getting cooler. We put the horses out on their anchors for a little while, and spent most of the day inside with the fireplace on. Put their winter blankets on at suppertime, as the forecast was down to 33 degrees for the overnight hours! Fortunately, the clear skies, dry air and wind should all help dry the trails out for tomorrow. We learned from other campers that the trails here are quite rocky, so boots will be a must! Looking forward to our first ride here tomorrow. We had heard that there was a gray missing mare lost in the woods, and was asked to keep our eye out for her, apparently someone was ponying her during a training exercise, she got spooked and took off. My heart wrenches at the thought of someone losing a horse that way (especially when it was someone else’s fault), but judging by how busy this camp is, and thus the woods likely are, I can’t imagine she won’t be found eventually.

The strong south wind brought in some rain overnight, and the rest of the day it stayed pretty wet, with some torrential rains at times. We had put the rain sheets on the horses last night to help keep them dry, but it was warm enough to not need their winter blankets. We spent the day working on several projects and resting from yesterday, though Hubby took a ride to town to send out some of my mail and pick up some things at the hardware store. He stopped by the main office to ask about manure disposal, as we had seen signs that said we needed to bag the manure and leave it by the road, (an in fact, there were dozens of such full black bags around, providing more wonderful obstacles for trying to back up in a site with limited room), and was told the bags were somewhere in the campground. When he came back, he looked all around and couldn’t find any, and then was told by other campers that they weren’t provided, you were supposed to use your own! Would’ve been nice if the girls in the office knew that, Hubby could have picked up some black bags in town! As it was, we didn’t have any, except for 55-gallon drum liners, but one of the maintenance guys gave us a couple. Meanwhile, other campers seem to mostly just cart it off and spread it around in the woods, an option I think we’ll be utilizing as well. Not sure why they don’t just have a few manure bunkers or something, but, hey, it wouldn’t be the first time we’ve seen a poorly designed horse camp. In fact, this one can join a LONG list of others!!

Up extra early so because we have a long drive today, trying to get south before too much cold weeather moves down. Fought a heavy headwind the whole way, using up almot 30% more fuel than usual! Grabbed an egg sandwich at a truck stop next to the freeway, as there were no other restaurants for a long time on our backwoods route. Stopped at Tractor Supply and Walmart before arriving at camp. Despite the office telling me the camp was empty, there were at least a dozen sites taken by other campers, so we had quite a challenge finding a spot long enough. Frankly, this is one of the dumber layouts we’ve seen, with most of the sites at a 90 degree angle to the road, rather than a useful slant, which means very sharp turns, lots of opportunities to knock over posts on both sides of the road, and they idiotically put large rocks along the edge of the road, reducing room to maneuver. Most of the sites are pretty short, and it took us a couple of tries to find one that was actually long enough, and that left room for the horse trailer. They have half a dozen “triple” sites, which is three parking spaces right side by side, which, if used according to design, would leave no room to put out an awning, in fact, almost no room to open your trailer door, much less provide actual “yard” space. We finally managed to get in, put the horses in their corral and got everyone else settled in just before dark. These corrals are the kind that simply “pin” together, so they rattle like crazy, especially when you hang a feed bag on them and the pull at it on every bite, so it was kind of noisy out there all evening. We were both bushed from the long day of fighting the wind, but Hubby still managed to get the satellite dish up and running before we settled in for the evening.

After looking at the weather, and realizing it was going to get pretty cold here and our intended next stop (also in Kansas), we decided it was time to head due south as far as we could get in a day. At first we were planning on Cedar Lake in Ouachita National Forest, but it seems there were only a few sites long enough, and most of them were reserved already, leaving us with just 3 potential sites, all of which seemed to be dubious for a satellite signal. After further investigation, we decided on Robbers Cave State Park, which is a little bit less far (thus a little bit more north, but just a touch), but their sites were first come, first served, and open to the south and southwest, so definitely better odds for a good satellite signal. Not thrilled that it’s a state park, but there was no entrance fee and they were only $5 a night more than the National Forest (unless they give us a senior discount-sometimes they don’t when it’s a busy horse camp like this one), and both have water and electric, something I’ve started to get spoiled to have, especially when the nights are chilly and we want to run the fireplace (yes, we have an electric fireplace, it does a great job keeping the whole place warm). Depending on the weather, we may still go to the National Forest after Robbers Cave, or run further south if the temps start dropping again. Meanwhile, we spent the day watching football and relaxing today. Oh, and I lost 0.6 pounds this morning. So for the 5-day Nutrisystem plan I bought at Walmart, I lost 2.6 pounds. Ate the same way today, though with my own food, so maybe I’ll go down again tomorrow. Lots of energy, though, so I’m persuading Hubby to go on it with me, he’s been spending too much time sleeping lately. Who says sleeping is harder when you get older? He’s 79 and he can still sleeps 10-11 hours a night! Meanwhile, a sunny day got cloudy, and VERY windy today, something we’ll apparently have to deal with tomorrow, as it’s from the south, and is gusting up to 30 mph! Not my favorite driving weather, but there’s rain coming in tomorrow night, and all day Tuesday and most of Wednesday (just like last week), so we want to be well settled in by the evening. With the change of clocks last night, that means a REALLY early start!

Got up a bit earlier this morning, in anticipation of taking a somewhat longer ride today, under a beautiful sunny sky, though with a cool breeze. Gained. 0.2 pounds again, still thinking it might be the weather : -). Got saddled up and headed out of the camp, which is the same trail for the first mile or so, so naturally the horses were sluggish. They just hate to take the same trail twice! We finally turned off to a new trail, taking the inside orange loop to the south, which ended up as about a 6.6 mile ride. Lots of open spaces, and thankfully, most of the trails were a lot drier today, though there was still the occasional slippery spot. Took some nice canter in the fields along the way, though for some reason, Apollo kicked up on me at least half the time, so I was getting a lot of rodeo practice today! Shortened the ride, though, it took about the same time as yesterday, even though we did more than a mile more. Let the graze again, as we have been all the time we’ve been here, grateful no one has made any remarks about it. Actually, other than my encounter at the office the first day here, it’s been a pretty quiet stay, I’ve been able to catch up on laundry and work. No one’s even commented on the dogs being loose (though, as usual, they never wander off very far). We put the horses’ winter blankets on again, so far managing to prevent their winter coats from filling in, except on their necks, in an effort to prevent hair loss later when we move to warmer climes in the coming weeks. Also, we moved them to the corral next door, as theirs was so muddy and chewed up it just wasn’t drying out (and impossible to clean), whereas the other corral was flat a dry, and thus would be easier to clean in the morning. Anyway, after a very nice (though jumpy) ride, we settled in for the evening.

Woke up to bright sunny skies this morning, though a few clouds came in briefly during breakfast. Gained 0.2 pounds, but I suspect that has more to do with the change of weather than anything else. We’ll know more tomorrow… Got a late start, but Hubby was feeling up for a short ride, so we saddled up and headed out around 1:30, after spending some time getting all the mud off the horses. Even though they had rain sheets on, and last night their winter blankets, they still managed to get their faces, bellies, and of course, legs caked in mud. I had originally planned on an 8-mile trip, but it soon became obvious that the trails were still too slippery, and rather than risk it, we shortened it to a loop that took us just under 5 miles. Fortunately, the trails were very well marked and only got turned around once briefly. A lot of wide open spaces that would normally be great for trotting and cantering, but were just too slippery today, plus a few areas of woods and several creek crossings. Hopefully with the sunshine and cool breeze, the trails will be drier tomorrow, as we’d like to take a longer ride then. The horses were brilliant today, just a few extra kicks when Apollo changed up from a trot to a canter on one section of drier field, then kicked up to a gallop just for the fun of it (his idea : -). Had a relaxing evening, though a very brief spot of rain and blustery wind came it, though it didn’t last long, thankfully. Hopefully it didn’t re-saturate the trails too much, and tomorrow we’ll find them in better shape.