It Takes A Team

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1/23/11, La Garita, CO - The team and I are both enjoying the down time here in La Garita. The weather has been fantastic, the food is good and the company is great. Or, to coin a country song - God is Great, Beer is Good and People are Crazy (I do love that song).

Most of the previous week I’ve spent writing “Biscuit Wagon”, but I’ve managed to squeak in a few chores and some fun.

This morning, I saddled up Billy and took him for a ride. He was right-full-of-himself. Bill hasn’t been worked at all in months and it was all I could do to keep him from pitching me into a pile of rabbit brush. He was so herd bound, I ended up ponying B.O.B. along, just to settle Bill down a bit. About a mile from the trading post, I decided to undo B.O.B.’s lead because I knew he would follow Bill on our ride into the foothills. Boy, was I ever wrong. As soon as I undid his lead, B.O.B. started making a beeline back to the paddock (what a wimp). It took me about 10 minutes to round him up.

Ahhh, the easy life in the paddock. Let’s see, as wagon horses in winter rest, what can we do to pine away the hours? Well, there’s eating; but that requires pooping; which results in little piles everywhere we go. Of course, the smart wagon horse finds a poop-free spot to stretch out on his side and enjoy the afternoon sunshine! The far horse is Jerry’s mare. B.O.B. is still over at the hay pile - he’s a big horse!

Sorry I didn’t get any pictures of the ride. Every time I reached for the camera, I had my hands full of one horse or the other. Either B.O.B. was headed for the barn, or Bill was bunching up and getting ready to give me a good old buck. The farther I got from their paddock, the more Billy started acting like a coiled up spring. So, we cut our ride short before I got a chance to get very far into the hills. This week, I’ll harness up the Belgians and let them get sweaty pulling the wagon around. Nothing like a little work to help them refocus!

Right now my tentative plans for the foreseeable future are:

2/16 - 2/18 - A quick trip to Mississippi.

3/7 - 5/1 - Work an outage at a Nuclear Plant in Nebraska.

My snail mail address here in Colorado is:

La Garita Store

41605 County Road G

Del Norte, CO 81132

Attn: Bob Skelding