Saturday, March 27, 2021 – Poker Run at Dupuis

Hi Babe!
Well, not surprisingly, I had a hard time getting to sleep, then I was awakened by a barking dog, (probably Rosie), then I woke up the whippoorwills about two hours before I had to get up, and barely got any sleep after that. Why does it always happen that on the days when I set my alarm to get up early, I never seem to get a good night sleep? Crazy! I did get up on schedule, had breakfast, finished loading up the trailer, got the horses in right on schedule at 8:30, and was ready to go at 8:45, right on my window of 8:45-9:00. Jeff did pretty well, he managed to get Frost fed and put in the paddock and was climbing into the truck right at 9:00. Happily, the truck started up with no problem, and we made it to Dupuis without incident, yay! Scott was riding Apollo, and because Jeff’s boarder wouldn’t let us bring Frost because of a back problem she thinks he’s having, we brought Flash for him, though Jeff wasn’t too happy about that. Flash is a bit hard to handle, and takes some careful consideration, and Jeff just isn’t too well attuned to Flash’s needs, so he did end up getting kind of beat up by the end of the day (he described it as ‘fighting with a grizzly the whole way’. For the uninitiated, a Poker run is when you stop at stations along a designated trail, and pull playing cards out of a “hat” so to speak, and whatever card you choose is written down on a game card, and whoever had the best poker hand back at camp at the end of the ride wins the pot. They also held a raffle and provided lunch at the end of the trail. Unfortunately, as is so often the case with these club events, it wasn’t terribly well organized. There was no water provided on the trail for horses or humans, and since it has’t rained in a couple of weeks, no natural water on the trail either. The trails was poorly marked and nearly everyone got lost, so it was much longer than anyone expected. I was a dealer at the fourth station with another woman, and we sat out there for nearly 2 ½ hours before the first horse showed up, and she said she had been one of the last to leave camp, so where everyone else went, we have no idea. Several riders missed the third station completely! Just a matter of poor organization and poor communication, not to mention inadequate trail markings, which, as you know, is one of my pet peeves to begin with. Oh, well, I had a lively conversation with my station partner, and we mostly sat in her air-conditioned Lexus so at least we weren’t out in the blazing hot sun all day. When Jeff et al came through, he was not having much fun on Flash, and apparently his stirrup strap gave out when he first got on, so he was afraid to get down because he didn’t think he’d be able to get back up again, and you know how cranky he can get when he doesn’t stop every half hour or so. Of course, he was trying to hold Flash back, and Flash didn’t like that and apparently tried to get Jeff off of him several times, but at least he didn’t get thrown. There was a palomino nearby that Flash didn’t like either, I suspect because it reminded him too much of his boarder Frost, who’s just downright mean to other horses. Anyway, we finally had the last rider (that we knew of) pass through and headed back to camp. We stayed long enough to have lunch and chat a little, but Jeff had a couple of service calls he was still planning on trying to get to, so we packed up and left shortly after that. We had another uneventful drive home, thank goodness, and I put everything away while Jeff got ready for his calls, pre-feeding some of the critters and leaving me food to do the rest, since James went out for the day. Scott came by to pick up his truck a bit later, and that was about it for the day. Oh, and after a few investigative questions, I think we’ve arrived at the conclusion that what’s probably wrong with the truck is that the fuel and air filters haven’t been changed in a long time, (mea culpa) so I’ve ordered both online (at a fraction of what they want at the local auto parts store), with a Prime arrival on Monday, so that will be Tuesday’s job. Phew! What a long day after a poor night sleep!
So I’m heading to shower and bed, hoping I can sleep in late tomorrow! Good night, my love!

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