Day 7

John left for Crawford at about 8 this morning in a quest to find a repair shop. After 9 stops in Crawford and Chadron, he finally found a Chevy dealership that will work on it Saturday morning. We may make it home yet!

Left the kids sleeping and hitched a ride to the barn with Robyn. Saddled Windy and waited with the group that was taking the lower ride. (I wanted to save the bluff ride for when John returned.) Departed the barn with Suzanne (Anita’s friend) as our trail boss and about a dozen riders. Rode the lower pastures and out to the lake. It was a pretty ride with a couple of water crossings and on the scale of 1 to 10 in difficulty, definitely a 1! Kept looking to the buttes and hoping to get a ride out that direction soon. We returned to the barn after about 2.5 hours.

Visited with friends in the afternoon and when John returned, we headed back out with Brenda and Tom Messick to climb the buttes. I rode Blue on this ride. Anita gave us great directions as we climbed the high trails to nearly 4900 feet. The horses handled the climbs like a pro and the views were incredible. At one time, we saw a group of riders far below us. Through binoculars, we could identify most of the horses. Surprised to learn when we returned that they had seen John on the butte above them, as well.

Brenda saw a rattlesnake. And she had to tell me about it! Over and over again! Ergh! Just glad it was her that saw it and not me.

We took an incredibly steep trail off the butte’s that was by far the most challenging I have seen here. Blue dropped down on his hindquarters and maneuvered it well. By this time, the storm clouds had rolled in (do you see a theme going here?) and once off the hills, we had to high tail it back to camp! What a rush!

The rains came and the temps dropped. But by 8:00, the sky cleared and we were able to have our Horsetales Pot Luck Dinner. Someone counted 52 people! How cool that something we planned in the fall of 2007 has finally came to fruition successfully! It was good to share the evening with everyone.