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8-18-08 - We woke to a wonderful morning at the Yeaton farm, not a cloud in the sky. The horses had finished off the graze on the piece I had fenced off, so I tossed them a bale of hay with their morning oats.
It was a lazy morning, as we spent the early hours languishing in the beautiful weather. About 10:30 am we started packing up.
Joyce Yeaton’s niece, Mallory Belanger was a great help packing up and harnessing the horses. She’s 11 years old and has a tremendous presence with horses. She’s very confident and comfortable when working with them.
I also used the time to tighten up Dollie’s and Joyce’s shoes. Mallory’s brother Jagger was happy to lend me a hand.
We finally pulled out headed towards Pittsfield, NH at about noon. We knew it would be a short run, but as the horses were having a hard time getting traction on the hills, we were very glad when a very nice lady (Deane Kellison) stopped and offered us a place in her yard for the evening.
Beth held the team while I scouted out where to pull the wagon.
Deane, offered us the use of her fenced paddock for the horses. They immediately went crazy running around, rolling and grazing. Our hostess further delighted us with our choice of ice cream to go with our gin and tonics.
I feel this past two days have been just a sampling of what I’m going to see on my trip around America; wonderful people who will open their homes and heart to me. Some of these people will be well off and have many fine things. Others will be scraping to get by. But in their heart, they’ll all be rich, and I’ll be the richer for having met them.
The next day or two were going to spend taking it easy and making adjustments to the team. First, I’m going to re-shoe all the horses with Borium or composite coated horseshoes that I have pre-made. This will improve traction on the hills and the shoes will last 2 or 3 times as long. Beth is going to spend the day tomorrow working on some basic obedience training with Dollie (she’s still not pulling her share).
A great day - not a lot of miles traveled, but a good opportunity to work out some bugs and give the horse a day off from pulling.
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