The Drive Home

I wasn't planning to get out terribly early on Sunday. I had dishes to wash and a camp to break down. Mary and Dorothy Sue planned to leave pretty early in the morning. Since I was hauling a horse Mary was selling back to California with me, they tied her to my trailer before they left. I heard them pull out long before dawn.

I fed Hoss and laid back down, figuring there was no purpose in getting up for good until the sun had come up. The little mare, Kahleelah, was upset her friends had left. Mary had only left a little food, not wanting to risk Hoss getting to something he's allergic to. Kahleelah paced back and forth a bit and nickered. I listened to her for some time. At one point I heard the trailer gate pop open. I got up and got it closed and gave Kahleelah some Bermuda hay out of my supply to keep her busy.

After laying back down, I tried to get a bit more sleep. It was a long drive home and I wanted to be as well rested as I could be. But I had slept pretty well, so for the most part I lay there awake, listening to the horses rustle about. After a while it became clear Kahleelah wasn't settling, so I got up. I started the process of getting packed up by cleaning up the truck, then got the trailer packed up. I was going to wash my dishes, but discovered I didn't have scrubbies to wash them with. Alternatively I put the dirty dishes in a trash bag and put them in the truck.

By the time I got the tent down, it was still wet, so I couldn't roll it up and put it away. I put my memory foam and sleeping bag back in the back seat of the truck so I could sleep. The tent got shoved into the truck on top of everything else. The tarp I put on top of my tools so the dirt on it wouldn't get on the tent.

I was packed and ready to go. I got the truck hitched back up and started the process of loading. I made up a hay bag for Kahleelah and tried to load her. By this point she had hooked herself on the trailer, popped the door open, and generally spooked herself with my trailer a number of times. So she seemed to have decided my trailer was a horse eating monster. I got her to get in, but she promptly flew backwards back out of the trailer. I wanted her in the middle stall and Hoss in the very back so I could get him out if I needed to. Also, there's nothing to prevent the horse in the last stall from trying to get out when the gate is opened. I know how Hoss will behave. Kahleelah I didn't know, and I didn't want to risk her getting hurt if I opened the gate.

In the end I had to find someone to help me load her. A very kind young man named Chad helped me. He got her in and out a few times before we were able to get her to stay in comfortably. Chad tied her off and closed her in, and I loaded Hoss.

Hoss's hind legs had swollen up pretty badly over night. His left hind in particular was swollen, from the hock down. When I untied him and asked him to load up he didn't want to use his left hind to get in. He hopped on his right hind and got in. I must admit, he's quite the athlete to be loading three-legged! He would stand on the leg, but he didn't want to bend it.

We pulled out at about 8:30 am. Kahleelah sure danced around in the trailer. When we stopped for gas, she was pawing in the trailer. I figured this was simply due to nerves, so I left her be. Hoss was unconcerned by her behavior. He's been trailered with horses behaving much worse than that!

The drive was pretty uneventful, with exception of Kahleelah acting up in the trailer. I stopped and offered both horses water, and discovered poor Kahleelah was tied far too short! I loosened her up but didn't untie her. When I tried to leave her untied, she tried to duck under the divider. I didn't want to take a chance she'd hurt herself so I tied her, but much longer, just short enough to keep her from getting her head under the divider. Hoss I took out of the trailer and walked around for a few minutes. He was stiff to start, but loosened up as we went. He took a good drink. I wasn't able to get my bucket filled deep enough for Kahleelah to get a good drink. She couldn't figure out how to get her halter beyond the lip of the bucket. We weren't terribly far from where I'd be dropping her off, so I wasn't overly concerned. Once we hit the road, Kahleelah was much more settled in the trailer. Guess being tied short does not sit well with her!

We met with Kahleelah's new owner just outside Victorville. I unloaded Hoss and we got her out. Her new owner brought water and shallower buckets, so Kahelelah was able to get a good drink before loading up in the other trailer to go to her new home. Once they had left, Hoss was unhappy about being separated from his new trailer buddy. I needed to take a nap before heading the rest of the way home, so I loaded Hoss back up with food and water, and we moved to another location where I could sleep in the truck. I didn't want to leave him tied to the trailer because I couldn't find a place to park where I felt he would be safe from truckers trying to park to rest themselves.

I crawled into the back seat of the truck and slept like the dead for six hours. Normally my phone receiving emails or text messages will wake me up. This time, when I woke up and picked up my phone, I found messages I'd never heard my phone alert me to. For sleeping in the back seat of my truck on a badly bruised hip, I felt very refreshed and alert.

I gave Hoss a pan of beet pulp and a flake of rye grass. I decided to try hauling him with a half-full water bucket in the trailer with him to see how it went. I know people who have done it, so I figured it was worth a go.

We hit the road again about 5am. I decided to get breakfast on the way and drove into El Cajon to have breakfast at the Antique Row. I had eggs with bacon and sausage. Probably a mistake, and I sure did hurt later on, but it was about the best breakfast I'd had in a week. We were back on the road before 8am, and home by 8:30.

Hoss's left hind leg was still swollen, but his right had returned to near normal. I put him back in the pasture and gave him a bunch of hay. Uh-oh the goat was sure happy to see him. The dogs were so excited they could hardly contain themselves.

Before we had arrived at Moab, the water tank in the trailer had failed again. My husband had repaired it, but either the repair didn't hold or it found somewhere else to leak from. The floor of the tack room was soggy and some mold had started to grow. I pulled everything out of the tack room so it could dry. I got the tent out and hung up to dry, the dirty dishes in the house to be washed, and everything put away properly.

I decided I wanted to wrap Hoss with standing wraps, but I didn't have the mud stuff I needed to do the job. This meant running in to town to get some at the feed store. So I hopped in the Jeep to run that errand and check the mail. My daughter had used the Jeep while I was gone, and she had left it with hardly a drop of gas in it! So now I had to go all the way down to fill the tank. At the post office, I found several checks to be deposited, which made going all the way down that much easier.

When I got back, I gave Hoss a bath and got his legs wrapped. While bathing him, I found the heart rate monitor sensor on his right side had rubbed the hair off his side! It wasn't enough to make it bloody but sheesh! I really do not need him to keep getting these sores. His girth gall isn't any worse, fortunately, as a result of this ride. I was keeping it slathered with hydrocortisone cream.

Because of the swelling in his hind leg, I've decided to withdraw from our next ride this weekend. I'm hoping we'll still be able to do the Lead, Follow or Get Out of My Way ride in Arizona in another two weeks, but I'm not depending on it. If the swelling goes down by this weekend and he doesn't show any further signs of trouble, we'll probably go.

I have decided the Easyboots are no good for his hind feet. The hair loss from the rubs from the gaiters is terrible, and I'm pretty sure the swelling in both pasterns is due to the gaiters. I'm thinking about going with Renegades for his hinds. If they work out, I'll probably eventually move to using them all the way around, but I'll use up the Easyboots I have first.

Because of this little misadventure, we will not make our mileage goal for the year. That's okay. I'd rather have a sound, happy horse, than the record I was looking for.