So dad was making fun of the fact that I have named all of my blogs such and such morning, and joked that my next one will be named Idaho morning! Idaho? I hear you say, but you’re in Florida. Well we were in Florida, and due to be there until the middle of May. Yes, that was the plan, but in the ever changing world of Sam and Jess, that is no longer the case.
Due to a sequence of random events we have abandoned this plan and changed it entirely.
The background… As non students at the time we had to leave the Parelli centre for a month between our Fast Track course (which went very well by the way and resulted in final scores for Sam and I of 80 and 82% respectively!) and our Externship; the Parelli’s very kindly offered us a place at a close by property to keep our horses and park our trailer. The current tenants of said property have a questionable reputation and we decided not to stay there.
We asked Jennifer and Martin Black if they may be able to provide horse and trailer housing, they told us to come on over in their nonchalant way. This resulted in us having the opportunity to be involved in a two week long colt starting clinic, which was extremely educational. Sam is now a pretty talented bronc rider after a bit of a rough start! This opportunity rolled into a week long horsemanship clinic and now into a chance to go to their place in Idaho and then on to the Alvord Ranch in Oregon which runs around 3000 head of momma cows!
Sam left Florida to help take their horses to Idaho, I was left behind as Scoot was leased out at the Parelli ranch and wouldn’t be available for pick up until four days later, and consequently I had to drive across the United States with three horses in tow alone. Not the funnest prospect. One gets used to travelling with a fully qualified mechanic, not to mention tall, strong, good looking cowboy.
Day one of the trip resulted in a broken window grill on Mouse’s stall of the horse trailer, a broken rear window in the truck due to my superior lack of driving skills. When turning I jack knifed the trailer, not necessarily a problem, but it turns into one when you then back up just a little bit and smash the window of the truck with the nose of the trailer. Whoops!!
Upon arriving at the horse facility where I was planning to stay I found it all locked up with no one around. I managed to find an open gate into an arena and some stock pens behind that. So I snuck the horses in and put them in a dark corner pen where they couldn’t easily be seen. Ok, so now I just have to tape the window of the truck up, hope no one steals our shit and go to bed, right? Wrong!!
Now Sam’s horse is acting colicky (sick) he hasn’t drunk any water all day and been in the trailer for 12 hours, the problem is he wouldn’t drink then either because the water in Jackson, Mississippi is so nasty even the horses won’t drink it!
Anyway, so after taping the truck window, I walked Sam’s horse around for 20 minute sessions, made a few calls around to find an emergency number for a local vet, took a little one hour nap then got up again to check on him at 1am. Got to bed around 2 still not really sure his horse was doing well enough not to be monitored. Got up at 5am, luckily Sam’s horse was still alive, and got ready to leave as I wanted to get out of the facility before any nosey, money collecting, rule enforcing, members of staff showed up.
Not a great start to the trip. The rest didn’t go too badly, met up with Sam and the rest of the crew in Lund, they left 5 days before me but took a bit of a leisurely approach to the trip, unlike me who put in 12 hour driving days every day.
Martin, who did not travel with the crew, wasn’t a fan of the leisurely approach and as a result we left Lund at 4.30am the next day in order to get to Bruneau to get started on projects the same day.
Bruneau, the final destination of this particular trip is very close to the Snake River in Idaho, very beautiful area; this is home for about 8 weeks before we head to Oregon to go play at being cowboys.
The time has passed quickly with lots of projects to keep us busy, mainly fence building; we are now self professed experts. I can even advise you on how not to attempt to snap your body in half while lifting an extremely heavy rail road tie (keeper). If you were to wish to entertain your partner however, you may want to ask me to show you the correct technique on how to achieve near spine breakage; apparently it is a very entertaining thing to watch!! Why do I love him again? Oh yeah, because he’s pretty.
So we are just tying up a few loose ends here and then we will head to Oregon to rope and ride all day!! J
We will be there for a month and then we will head back to Colorado to the Parelli ranch to complete our 12 week Extern course, which our performance in our Fast Track course qualified us to attend.
The end of our Externship will mark over a year of living in an extremely small trailer, living the horsemanship education dream. The horses and Sam and I have benefited greatly so far, the same cannot be said of our bank accounts and I cannot be sure they will ever forgive us!!
What’s in store after the Externship? Who knows, certainly not Sam and I.
Disclaimer: I realise the above text may be grammatically incorrect in places, I apologise to the educated among you, but you’ll get over it!! J
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