The Wagonteamster Channel has it’s first video production - Journey To the Valley Of the Wild Horses

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5-15-12, N. of Loma, CO - Tonight, I’m located 16 miles north of my previous camp in Loma, CO. I had some great pictures for the day, but I seemed to have lost my little camera, so you’ll have to contend with a couple of pictures of tonight’s beautiful camp.

After taking delight in watching my hosts’ children give bottles to their smallest ‘bucket calves’, I harnessed the team up and got ready to bring them to school in the ‘Amish Taxi’.  At only five, eight and eight years old, farm life and good parenting makes these children seem a lot older and more capable then most kids their age.

The lads, settled comfortably into their roadside camp.  With good grass, water and scenery, it was a hard place to pass up.

The first few miles of the trip were through lands irrigated by the Colorado River.  Traffic was slow and a lot of people stopped to take pictures and say ‘hi’.

Almost the last farm, before climbing into the adobe hills above the valley a very nice Mennonite Family invited me into the driveway. The mother, Julia, had three little daughters that took particular delight in sitting on Bill. Julia grew up Amish, in the Rosebud, Michigan community. We discovered how small a world it was when we found out that we had mutual friends.  After looking at the picture on my business card, of the lads in the Unicorn hitch, she said, “It’s not often you see a Unicorn Hitch other than in shows.” - You have to appreciate a woman who knows her draft horse hitches!

Most of the day was spent meandering through the clay hills on the approach to the mountains to the north. After lunch, Doc was finally tired enough to allow me to rein him in a bit, so I could get B.O.B. pulling the wagon as well.

Because the right-of-way is a little narrow, I made two portable electric fence corrals, one behind the wagon for the two Belgians and another in the front for Doc.  This vastly reduces the chance that a fence will go down in the middle of the night from a horse trying to escape an ‘interaction’ with another horse.  This is the first time I’ve made use of both fence controllers on the wagon.

Surprisingly, I have a good cell signal tonight. This is in spite of the fact that I’m in a windy canyon with no visible cell towers.  I can only surmise that there must be small cell antenna on the utility poles.

After having a companion on the wagon for the past 3 days, I miss the company. I’ll have to turn on the radio pretty soon. 

I would really like to thank everyone for their support. The e-mail and guestbook entries are a delight.  So far; Larry Riddle hasn’t convinced me to wear a Stockman’s hat, nor has Butterbean dissuaded me from the idea that he lives in ‘Baja Oklahoma’, and I still watch where I sit when looking to relax in the Shotgun Seat, less I accidentally plop down on Sue!

Tomorrow morning, I’m going to hitch up all three for the assault on Douglas Pass. If we don’t make it over the top before it’s time to camp, it’s no big deal. With the ‘free’ ditch water tonight, I’ll have plenty of water for another camp before the summit. Good Night All!