Homeward Bound

I saw Chris and my brother off early Monday morning and finished preparing to leave for the white knuckle drive across the mountains. I was going to use my same stops on the trip home so the drives got longer as the days passed instead of shorter as they did on the trip out. This worked out well since the horses were recovering and didn’t have to deal with the longest trips first thing.

I got into Elko, got the horses settled, and ran out to grab some dinner. Pizza sounded good. The service was terribly slow and I wanted to get back to turn the horses out individually in the arena. Grrr! Finally I got done and back to the fairgrounds. I took Boomer out first. He spent his time looking for Farley, calling to his love. He took off trotting and moved beautifully—nice and sound. I went and got Farley and swapped them out. Farley didn’t waste his time worrying about Boomer. Instead he rolled and then started to play, tossing his head. I was just amazed as to how good these 2 horses looked. Later that evening, I heard another rig pull in. I looked over and saw a man walking, or rather gimping. Ah, that looked like a post-Tevis walk. Sure enough, it was. They were from SD; 4 riders had started and 2 had completed. Another case of 50%. They also stayed over at Rawlins the next night, arriving much later than I did.

Both of the private places I’d stayed at on the way out had absentee owners on the trip back but both told me to stop and stay anyhow. The advantages of being a repeat customer!

The last day of the trip was the longest and I hit Atlanta at rush hour. Atlanta is bad when it’s not rush hour. The locals cannot drive nor will they yield space. I’ve learned to turn on blinker and start coming over. They’ve learned to get out of the way! Lots of stop and go. When I finally got to Hahira, Chris and Susan Wilson were there waiting. Chris had spoken with Pam Linahan and got us use of one of the pastures. I was leery about turning Boomer out with Farley because Boomer is a bully. But apparently, this trip changed Boomer’s heart and he was in love with Farley. He followed Farley around like a love sick puppy. It was funny as they moved around together, shoulder to shoulder. I was dismayed that Boomer came out of the trailer off. Not just a bit off but way off. He’d been fine up until Friday. After being out all night, he was almost back to normal. I guess the stop and go traffic along with the long trailer ride stiffened him up.

It was not a happy time when we loaded the 2 horses into separate trailers. They called to each other with Boomer doing the most calling. It was sad to split them up. We stopped for breakfast and they called to each other some more. Whenever I stopped on the drive home, Boomer was calling for Farley. When I got him home and he realized where he was, not a peep! It was as if Farley was just a distant memory.