Tom Vicky and Gaitways trail adventures

Yesterday, we took a day off and just turned the ponies out. The day before was too much fun with Ingrid.

Kelly, Luis and I headed up to Red's Meadow to go for a hike. We walked all the way down to the bottom of Rainbow Falls.

Today, Thursday, we took the ponies for another ride. It was blowing like no tomorrow. And we started the ride with an ambulance and firetruck hawling A-- down the paralleling dirt road, creating a nasty dust cloud. Great way to start a ride on a green horses!! We paralled the river and headed in between two mountains. We came across two deer, one within 20 feet of us. None of the horses even reacted. After pulling the traditional Vicky move and getting us lost a bit, we took a trail that took us back over the mountains. Something I learned about Vievo, if he doesn't like what he's walking on he'll just go into the bushes and plow through whatever blocks him. It was hysterrical!!! Otherwise, he handled the hills really well. UNTIL, we got back to the deer area. It looked as if our singing had scared all the deer away, but little did we know there was a doe waiting behind the rock. She popped up within 6 feet of us, causing Kelly and Schnapps to jump a bit. Vievo didn't even jump. It was like he totally knows he's bigger than most.

This was the last ride of our trip. I am so sad it's come to an end. We've had a great time and have really bonded with Vievo. This time we took to come home really helped him bond to us and the other horses. He's also shown us what a fantastic horse he's going to be. I am so glad we did it this way.

Thank you so much for following our stories and pictures... We're coming home now.

AWWW, the last leg of our journey. There's a whole lot of goofin off now that we're with people we know. The good pictures on the main page.

Took Kelly riding on Monday. She rode Schnapps, I rode Vievo and Tom rode Wyat. Luis stayed behind and took care of the beer.

We had such a GREAT TIME with Matt, Terri, Craig and Julie!!! We're moving in with them. ( Just kidding) but we are going back to visit them ..

Tom also had a chance to do some work with Vievo, wow that pony learns quick!!!

What do you do when it's raining... hide under the gooseneck and drink..

Washoe.. Our new pal Matt. Say " Hi" Matt..

As we left for the night, another Squall came through that made for a perfect ending..

Okay, so we got there... hosed the horses. Met Sue and Dan, who were super nice and I promptly set up my chair under the sprinkler in the cow pasture!

After quenching my thirst, tossing some feed to the ponies.. My HC pal and her ohhhh so shy beau and cute pup came to hang out with us. It was a blast!!!

Okay, I put the pics on the other page, Journey to Vievo. I got some goofy ones, but I think most of the true ones just belong there.

The lay over at Harry's couldn't have been more perfect for Vievo's introduction to our boys.

We are overjoyed and Tom is really in love with him. He's really sweet and loving, but WOOO does he walk fast. I think Schnapps is going to have to trot to keep up with him.

Well, it's 3 am and we're hitting the road tomorrow at around 6 ish to head to Yakima. Gait is plumb tuckered out. She played with her two new friends,

She also got to herd sheep! Actually, we all did. What fun that was. Gait's did really well. When one would fall behind, she'd push them with her nose and than move off. We were pretty shocked.

I know this is crooked but it's really cute and you NOSE, only the NOSE knows what tomorrow may bring!

Ah, yes we made it Mt. Saint Helen's -Kalama Horse camp.

We finally hooked up with Jodi and her wonderful friends.

Amazing, the trails were ash and we rode through some crazy  stuff! I just posted some really nice stuff on the main Journey page..

So, here's the fun stuff!

Will, our personal camp host. What a hoot and great guy (even if he does get lost on his own trails!:dry

Ya, Will was great but we had NNNOOOOOOOOOO idea Wyat would fall in love with his pretty little mare.

And what do you do after a 5 hour ride...you take the pups down to the river for a "River Slide" But first, Jodi and Lisa got me to try a "Huckleberry"

It was really tart!!!!

And off we went down the river, to play with the pups and slide in the 40 degree water, which felt really good considering it was about 109 outside! First went Lisa.... Zoom...

Than Jodi followed suite,despite Lisa's shock of the cold dipping..

Since they both lived, I gave it a try...burrrr!

It was a great 3 days and we met some great trail riding adventurers! Thanks so much for a wonderful experience.

The main stuff is on the regular page.. We had such a blast on Sunday with Kerry and Ann!! You gals ROCk!!!!!! Thank you for letting us torture our horses with the Llamas, wiggle worms and Spuds.. Now, you readers are asking, "Who's Spuds?" Well, Spuds is the mighty and fearless horse that is going to replace Vievo...

Before we could load him to take with us he had to get saddle sore.This was a big job considering his immense size.. But he made that saddle look small..

Okay Tom, climb on to your new draft horse!!!! Haa haa haa..

We didn't get a chance to say Adios to Kerry and Ann, but we really appreciated their hospitality, excellent directions, trip to Jacksonville and the trip to the hardware store.

Monday morn... it was up and jump at 5:15 am so we could start soaking the horses hay and get on the road for our next destination, The Vineyard stables in Turner, Or...Okay, this place should charge a cover charge just to come look. I would be happy to live in one of these stalls. The grounds are beautiful, Kim and everyone their is super friendly and so helpful. And they even let Gaits make friends with the kitty and play in the pond.

Tomorrow, it's off to Kalama to camp with JK Lucky!!! We're really hoping it's not as terribley hot there! And I just know, one of these days the horses are going to just refuse us and say..." NO! You ride back here, we'll sit in the airconditioned truck"..Chow for now. It's 1:16 am and I have to get up in 4.5 hours..

Well, we made it!!! It took us almosst exactly 8 hours. But we left our ranch at 3 so we got in before the heat kicked in. Good thing too, the hose on the water tank came unscrewed and we lost all our water in the tack room. Well, on the plus side, we took out the carpet and put in a vinyl floor so the water had drained off really quickly. Another plus, Tom put a 2x4 in front of the cabinets to keep the misc stuff from damaging them. This protected our beautiful new cabinets from getting wet. Down side, no water for the horses during the trip. Since we soaked their hay, they didn't get really dehyrdated.

We arrived at the "Ranchette" almost exactly at 11. It's a really ncie place. It's not a full ranch but has a few acres. There are two nice stalls all ready for the boys but Daren ( I hope I got that right) said we could keep them in the round pen for as long as we wanted. So we gave them their Equine Adult and have been letting them hang out in the round pen to stretch their legs. Wyat is really stressed about the whole situation....

He just laid out,, stretched his legs and went off into Cute mare land....

Schnapps guarded him from the evil pot bellied pig.....He went cross eyed from looking at all the new surroundings..

This is not a big boarding facility. It can only accomodate a few extra horses. We'll be missing Marcy as she's at a show in Reno.. GOOD LUCK Marcy! But her son is super nice and really made us feel comfortable. We'll be sleeping in the trailer tonight and we're praying, praying, praying it cools off a bit... Chow for now!

Well, it's finally here. We leave in two days. It's been a long time for planning and we're not getting any sleep. But soon we'll be on the road.

We've started the horses on all the feed they'll be eating for the next 22 days and Tom is diligently cleaning and conditioning our tack.

All the animals, including Gaitway know there is something going on.

We've checked the weather in all our travel zones. It appears it's been really nice. We may get some rain up in Washington, but every place else has been in the mid 50's at night and low 80's during the day.