Hoss was feeling good, but I was tired. I could've cheerfully gone back to bed, but I have this thing about finishing what I set out to do. I would have had to be much worse off to withdraw.
Much of Day 3 was Day 1 in reverse, but there was some lovely new stuff, too. As we rode out of camp with the rising sun at our backs, we came into an open field with a long view of the rock formations in the distance.
We headed down a long rock face. Most of the other riders dismounted and led down, but Hoss has to pack my butt over just about everything. I knew I would have to get off for the descent down Wipe Out Hill, so I was saving myself as much as possible.
At the bottom we rode back out of the canyon and on our way. We trotted along at a good clip and made the vet check in reasonable time.
I set Hoss up with his bran mash and such, then went to see if there was anything I could have at the lunch table. I was pretty hungry by this point, and what I had packed was simply not enough.
As soon as I turned my back on my horse, he started walking away! He's never done that before. I caught him and took him back to his station, and headed away again. Once again he left. This time I realized what he was up to. He was thirsty. I led him over to the water and let him get his fill. At least I know I can still trust my horse -- but I'd better be sure he doesn't need anything.
At the end of our hold, we got back on the trail. By this time I was really tired and I just wanted to get back to camp. By this point we were riding with Laurie Birch and two other riders. In many ways I would've been happier to be on our own. One of the other riders tended to keep up a nonstop chatter which I found distracting. Oh, well, better than pedaling Hoss through the last 25 miles.
I found myself glancing at my watch about every 5 minutes, hoping to find we were close to time to be back at camp. It did not make the miles go by any faster. It wasn't until we got to Wipe Out Hill I realized why I was so anxious.
I dismounted and watched other horses descending the hill behind their riders. Laurie's horse slipped in her Easy Boots. There were many skid marks from horses in boots slipping on the hill. It did not raise my confidence.
I got my cane out, and had the intention of sending Hoss down by himself, but Laurie came back up and led him down without incident. I followed slowly on my cane, the hip giving me fits the whole way. I thought I was going to fall all on my own, but I made it to the bottom.
After successfully negotiating Wipe Out Hill, I gladly got back on for the final ten miles back to camp.
As we were riding along, I noticed the unmistakable sound of a loose shoe. A hind shoe on one of the other horses was coming off. I thought it would make it back to camp, but barely. Unfortunately I was wrong. The shoe became too loose to safely continue on. I stopped to help the other rider by removing the shoe. It wasn't the easiest task to accomplish barehanded, but I got the thing off.
By the time we were done, Laurie and the other rider had continued on their way and were far ahead of us. Laurie and her husband wanted to leave camp that night, and besides it wasn't like she'd be a whole lot of benefit waiting while I struggled with the shoe, so I certainly couldn't fault her choice.
I kept with the other rider for a time, but when we got to off the soft trails and onto the harder roads it became clear the other horse was unlikely to complete if it didn't slow to a walk. I separated from the other rider. I just wanted to get back to camp, and she certainly understood.
We arrived back at camp in good time and got our completion time. As I was standing with Hoss waiting for our time to be written on our card, he elected to pee. His pee was quite dark, almost frighteningly so. I simply had not given him electrolytes like I should have. I knew I'd have to mention it to the vet. I took him back to the trailer and untacked, gave him a sloppy electrolyte bran mash, and dumped a bunch of hay in front of him. He tucked in and barely raised his head. That was a good sign. If he was in trouble and didn't want to eat, he had a much higher chance of needing treatment. The fact that he could barely stop eating long enough to breathe was a good sign.
I gave Hoss as long as I could to eat, but I had to drag him off the hay to vet. I told the vet about the dark pee, and that Hoss was eating like the hay might be taken away at any moment. She was unconcerned, feeling that the fact he was eating and looked quite perky negated any significance of peeing dark.
We camped one last night and headed for home in the morning. We stopped in Las Vegas overnight. My son is living their with my ex-husband (his step-father) and his wife (my son calls her his "step-step mom"), and they found a place for Hoss to spend the night and I stayed with them. They were working at a haunted house in Downtown, so I got to see them in their get-ups. I didn't go through the haunted house, but saw their individual roles before they opened. Afterwards I walked through downtown, which is a whole new experience, and I recommend against bringing children (women in bikinis dancing on bars, need I say more?). I found a nice little Cuban-Mexican place for dinner, which I couldn't help feeling my father would have found quite charming. Then I wandered around for a while before heading home.
In the morning we were awakened by a knock on the door. A Las Vegas police officer was there. My truck had two windows smashed out of it. Initially I thought only my duffel bag had been stolen, but my computer was gone, too. Needless to say I was quite annoyed. The loss of the computer was bad enough. When they took the duffel, they dropped several items -- scissors, some ointment, a spoon, Body Glide -- on the ground beside my truck. What they didn't leave was a pair of fleece riding tights, a couple of brand new bras, and a couple of t-shirts. I think that frosted me more than the loss of the computer. The computer I could understand them taking, but my clothes??
I ended up spending an extra day in Las Vegas to have the windows in my truck replaced. I certainly wasn't driving all the way home like that. My son was happy to have me for some extra time, but as he said later, that wasn't what he meant when he said he wished I could stay longer.
Ohhhhhh, now that was definitely NOT a good ending!!
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