I've been through the desert on a horse, well 2 actually . . .

Greetings from Idaho. A lot has happened since my last entry. I made it into Idaho, after several days of long rides, the girls got their first sets of new shoes, and almost need the second set already, Mystic had her first real bad behavior of the trip and Delightful, aka Pei Pei, nearly yanked me out of my saddle, twice.

The last entry I made had to do with some of the things I have learned on this trip and I must say that I have learned a few more. One of which was during the most gruelling day of out journey, traveling 36+ miles through desert with 85 to 90 degree heat. To get to that day, you need to know that I had traveled 26 miles, 24 miles, 28 miles, 14 miles and 25 miles. I was tired, the horses were tired and I was not expecting to have so many long days in a row, but between inaccurate estimates of distance and no place to stay or camp between stops, I had little choice. So the day before we crossed our first real desert, I was staying with the Smiths, Kevin, Aryann and their 5 wonderful children. They made homemade ice cream and brownies (worlds best dinner) and after a shower, laundry and a good nights sleep, I headed out for what I thought would be a 31 mile day. I stopped in Murphey where the kind man running the cafe made me a delicious and briefly best BC Burger, brought water for my horses and then called the Hipwells, the nice couple I was to be staying with that evening for directions. After I hung up and got back underway, I realized that the distance was actually 36 miles on the road and most likely more since I was following trails off the highway.

I am not normally a tearful person and have only broken down and really cried one other time on this trip, but I must say, the exhaustion and worry about my horses got the best of me. I had a pretty good cry, while walking through the desert, which turned to some brief swearing at Delightful, when she decided to slam on the breaks mid ditch crossing, almost yanking me out of the saddle and pulling the rope through my hands. . . twice. After a lengthy discussion about she going where I go, we were on our way again only to have me stop us after noticing a long stick across the path, that ended up rattling at us, causing me to decided that it would be a good idea to jump off the path and back onto the road for about 30 yards to avoid the large rattle snake in our way. Of course the stream of swearing that I leveled at the guy who drove by me and yelled at me to get off the road and onto the path was not brief, or very lady like, but really, come on, stupid guy.

Now I realize that I am riding the majority of the day, I only walk between 4 and 8 miles of the distance, but for all of you that ride you know that to keep riding day after day for hours at a time is exhausting. The entire time I am watching for cars and trucks and when off the road, guiding the girls through the terrain to avoid holes and rocks and now snakes. I have to say that I am tired, and the horses are tired and Mystic is sore backed, so we are taking a few days off. We will be staying with the Bachmans, Cindy and Frank, til Friday and then will be trailered to our next town. I know this might be cheating, but the health and well being of the horses is my first priority, so thfffpppptt lol.

I wish I had access to a computer more often, as there had been so many wonderful things that had happened up til I reached Idaho that have to get pushed aside til I write the book. If I didn't, these entries would go on forever, well for longer than they do already.