The Aftermath

In all, counting the added hours I picked up driving from the central time zone to the pacific, the trip took me about 56 hours. I figured most of those were actual road time. Many of my stops at stations for fuel where under fifteen minutes except some of those with Jesse (Those guys could drag out a stop! LOL) . I didn't make a single stop solely to get food. AND most importantly I'd slept at the most about six hours, although that's probably generous.

I will never do that again. I misjudged the miles involved between stops and ended up driving when it was dangerous. It was equally as dangerous to pull off in the pass. It was a catch 22 so I took my chances driving trusting myself more than some of those crazy drivers whizzing through those roads.

I'd like to say I slept the entire first week I was back. The truth is, I did not! I did sleep a lot those first three days but there were things to do here that were more important than sleep.

I went to a Jody Strand clinic put on by the Daffodil Arabian Horse Association the very weekend I got home. I didn't just go to watch, I took two horses to ride. Talk about not knowing one's limits.........here I go again. I'm sure that decision affected my recovery time.

In all it was over a month before I began working horses again. I was just too exhausted to even consider it before then. When I did, it was only a couple of horses. I still have not worked up to my usual schedule of three loads a day.

The horses were equally as exhausted. Even when we pulled into the farm, their response was not what I expected. Normally when we return after a horse show, sometimes even after a schooling excursion, the farm is electrified with the calls of horses. In this instance the horses at home had plenty to say, the horses in the trailer only perked up their ears. Even Legs walking up to his stall did not raise his head at the call of one of his mares, let alone vocalize a response.I've never seen the horse so tired.

I might add my help at home did not really take care of my herd the way that I'd wanted. Despite complete sets of instructions on what to do and NOT to do, some things were just not done. That old saying "While the cats away the mice will play" definitely rang true here.

The horses were none the worse for wear but it still bothers me their care was less than desired. Mostly it was about stalls that weren't cleaned daily. Part of them were done but not all..........not on any day. I don't know how that all worked. All I know is how much bedding was gone through when I was gone. That tells me it didn't get terrible.......they just didn't do all 26 stalls each day.

The other thing that didn't happen was horses did not get turned out. The entire three weeks I was gone my poor horses stood in their stalls. I got a call one day that Dare had grabbed Lindsay by her shoulder. It threw Lindsay off balance (Lindsay has impaired balance) and she feel to the ground. Now I know why. Dare was trying to tell Lindsay she was getting claustrophobic with that colt still at her side. (I'm not making excuses for the mare, it is what it is. BUT had she been turned out even a couple of times, it never would have happened)

Granted part of the time the weather was horrible but Lindsay and Dave did not take advantage of the good days. They just let the horses stand in their stalls and took advantage of me not being here to remind them of what the horses needed.......even though I was asking on phone calls. Before I can ever go again, this situation will have to be fixed.

The other thing I would hope to remedy is being at the horse show alone. It was not fun having no one to share this adventure with. Communications with people from home was limited.......not by me but by them. Sometimes I was downright lonely. I would certainly prefer to have a companion who cared about horses on this trip. Someone to sit at ringside with and talk about what's happening in the ring would have been really nice.

Not long after I came back I watched a show about former Biggest Loser contestants. On it one of the former winners talked about his goal of doing the Iron Man Triathalon in Hawaii. He made this comment about just once in your life pushing yourself beyond the limits of anything you've ever believed you could attain. For me..........that was this trip.

Not the actual being at nationals part, that part was easy compared to the actual getting there and getting home. Being a sixty-two year old woman in fairly reasonable health, that kind of trip is still daunting.........especially for someone who doesn't even go to the grocery store......unless forced.

For the record, I get forced about once a year........and that is usually horse show related or even that wouldn't happen. I not only don't like to shop, I just don't like to go. I prefer to be at home.

Add to that driving straight through.........and you've got a whole other issue. Both my body and my mind were pushed to the limits. I tried to show that as I wrote these posts. I hope it came across. It's sure not a trip I would recommend for the faint of heart. I have a whole new respect for myself that I even accomplished it!

I know I've mentioned this more than once but being geographically challenged figures into this. I hate being lost. I hate the uncertainty of what can happen when I'm not where I'm supposed to be. I don't trust that things will work out under those conditions. In other words, I hate feeling vulnerable to whatever life might throw my way.

I have heard horror stories about trips to nationals and Scottsdale ever since I got involved with showing horses. I have friends who have lost horses on these trips........and others who have lost trucks and/or trailers..........and still others who have had major repairs on these outings. It seems like everyone I know has at least one horror story about such a trip.

Maybe it's a right of passage............whatever it is, I now have mine out of the way. I'm hoping from here on out it will be smooth sailing AND you can bet I'll be doing everything I can to NEVER AGAIN make this trip alone. I have tested the fates as much as I dare.

Does that mean I am planning on returning to nationals again? Well, if I can scrape the money together, I'm really shooting for 2010. I believe my horse WILL indeed be ready by then............I'll just have to keep you posted. In the meantime I will be working towards that goal..........and this time along with Legs, I'd like to be taking one of his babies.


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The Adventure Continues.........The Final Day......

The Adventure Begins

As I pulled out of this rest stop within a state park, I figured I would only drive as far as I thought was safe. If that meant I needed to pull into the next rest stop, that's exactly what I was going to do. I was not taking anymore risks with my life or the lives of my horses by falling asleep at the wheel.

In those two hours while I was stopped, the weather had taken a turn for the worse. A storm had moved in, where it wasn't raining miserably with high, it was a very dense fog. I had trouble finding the white line to even guide me back onto the freeway whichever way it was.

When I reached the freeway, things were not much better. Visibility was in the toilet and I don't think it was because I was sleep deprived. Under any conditions this type of driving is bad news. I adjusted my rate of speed to suit these road conditions as well as my personal conditions.

Occasionally, a vehicle would whiz by me but they were few and far between. The driving conditions soon began to take their toll on me. Before long I was fighting nodding off to sleep with everything I had. It was time for another rest stop.

Mostly the rest stops in Oregon and Washington come about forty miles apart. I imagine that's about what it was when I saw that next green sign saying there was a rest stop in a mile. I counted on that mile going by quickly and I signalled my exit as soon as I caught a glimpse of the next time.

I was hoping this rest stop was the traditional kind of stop I expect to find in Oregon. Although as I weaved my way around some more winding roads, I began to loose hope of that. The area for the trucks as not paved and I saw no evidence of rest rooms. I was thankful I hadn't been drinking caffeine on this trip. I'd have been in a world of hurt by now not being able to use a bath room since the Hitchcock rest stop in the pass.

There was little parking available because most rigs were still hunkered for the night. I crept along slowly looking for any place that might accommodate my rig. From what I could tell there really wasn't any designated layout for this place. Rigs were just parked wherever they could.

About the time I thought I would have to give up on finding a place to park, I heard a truck start up. It turned out that rig was just a ways down from me. I had to wait until that rig was warmed up and had pulled out before I could park in its place but it was better than having to get back on the road to find another place to stop.

Once again I grabbed my pillow and my blankets so I could settle down to get some sleep. Just like at the last rest stop I slept until a horse woke me up. This time I don't think I made the two hour mark. It was more like an hour and a half..........and even that might be generous. The horses were definitely feeling the results of not stopping for an overnight out of the trailer at Jesse's farm. I felt bad for them cooped up in the trailer but it sure wasn't safe to get them out to stretch.

The skies had lightened up some by the time I got ready to go this time. I feed the horses and retied my load before I even tried to go back to the freeway. I could see more of the rest area than I had when I'd arrived. It looked more like a big vacant lot than any rest stop I've ever used.........but at least I got some sleep. That's what matters I guess.....still this isn't a place I would have willing chosen. Someone more familiar with this route would have had much better options. My ignorance about travelling was taking its toll.

As I pulled back onto the freeway, I checked my fuel gauge again. It was getting near the time I would need fuel. I remembered on the trip down diesel had been difficult to locate in this part of the state. My guess is that was because it wasn't marked on the state road signs that indicated stations, not because there wasn't diesel available. I planned to stop at the first station I saw and take my chances.

Again I found myself in a situation. Coming down the off ramp I could see the station but I couldn't tell which road led to it. I ended up taking the road to the right and it turned out to be the wrong choice. I found myself driving a couple of miles down a frontage road next to the freeway before I could find a place suitable to turn around.

Even when I got back up near the station again from this new vantage point, it was still confusing trying to figure out how to actually get to the station. I ended up driving around a bit before I got to the right place to enter the station's parking lot. Once there getting lined up with the pump that had diesel wasn't easy either. It's a good think I'd had some sleep. I'm pretty sure my patience would have gone and I'd have blown a big big fuse.

In Oregon there is no such thing as "self serve" at a gas station. It's the law there. All fuel must be pumped by a paid attendant. Supposedly this law is about safety. The powers that be think normal people aren't capable of pumping gas safely.

My first trip to nationals with Dandy those fourteen years ago, an Oregon gas attendant pumped gasoline into my diesel tank. As you might imagine letting someone else pump my fuel now always makes me nervous. I waited for this attendant to grab the green diesel nozzle before I raced off to the much needed rest room.

While I was waiting for the attendant to even come to my vehicle, I'd opened all three of the horses windows. I figured at this stage of the trip they should know how to hand their heads out together. It was quite a sight coming out of that station looking at all three of my horses studying the activities of the woman pumping my fuel.

The woman didn't know what to think. She didn't know anything about horses and was a bit intimidated by them. Although it was obvious she had some curiosity about them as well. When I returned she began barraging me with questions about horses.

A little ways into our conversation she told me that she didn't think Rhet liked Gypcy. I laughed as I explained to her that Rhet liked Gypcy just fine. He just didn't want her sticking her face into his space......since he didn't have all that much space to begin with.

This stop is when I took the picture I posted the day of my return. It's the same picture I posted on the top of this blog. The sun was not up yet but it was my last stop in the dark.

I stopped at the next two rest stops sleeping for as long as the horses would allow. Well, let me be honest here. The horse causing the problem turned out to be none other than Legs.

The stallion had had it with being in the horse trailer for over forty-eight hours without getting out. He was quiet when the rig was moving..........and only allowed me one hour breaks when it was not. Then the horse would begin jumping around so dramatically that the horse trailer would actually shake the truck. It felt like an earthquake with the whole vehicle heaving back and forth. The horse never said a word...........he didn't have to, I got the point.

I did try to look in to see exactly what he was doing. The horse would stop when I got within his field of vision. I never did get to see the "picture" of his contortions but my guess is he was a real bucking bronc and pro rodeo circuit bronc would love to emulate!

From this point forward my trip was pretty much about the same. I only had to make one more stop for fuel. That was the usual station I stop at whenever I travel to Salem. The rest of the way, it was about driving and one potty stop. I pulled into my driveway just before noon on Tuesday.

I was home........but nobody else was. I ended up without any help to unload the horses. I called Dave on his cell in a conversation I cannot repeat. By the time he arrived, he was able to help me retrieve my pillow from the truck and I headed off to sleep.

The Aftermath

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The Adventure Continues.........Am I Ever Gonna Sleep?

The Adventure Begins

I looked at these trucks wedged together in front of me and I saw visions of the middle truck trying to creep through and scraping off both sides of his truck. I decided there was nothing I could do to fix it. I couldn't see any signs of life. Nothing that said anyone was actively trying to do something to fix the situation. I sure couldn't move those trucks myself and there was no place for me to back out. I sure wasn't going to get out and investigate. I was uncomfortable enough as it was being a woman alone in this situation. I was as stuck as stuck could be so I was going to sleep.

It didn't make much sense for me to worry about how I was going to escape when escape didn't seem possible. I needed sleep more than I needed to figure out this problem. There were others involved and they could figure out what to do.

Before I got myself settled in I did notice a sign that read "temporary rest stop - 4 hour limit." I wondered if there were park officials that were going to do to police this. If there were it would be obvious that I was stuck so they could deal with the problem. Either way, I had to get some sleep. I was taking no chances my time in this rest stop was going to be frittered away with me getting no rest.

I pulled off my shoes and pulled out my blankets and pillow settling myself in for a much needed nap. I glanced at the time to see if it was too late to call home and was surprised to see it was not midnight yet made the call. I let Dave know where I thought I was and what my plans were for the next day's travel. Then I closed my eyes and tried to forget about those eerie creatures, the darkness of the night or the semis blocking my exit. I might have actually gotten to sleep if someone hadn't knocked on my window.

I don't think I had actually gotten to sleep when the noise startled me but it startled me none the less. I guess I had expected not to be disturbed since I was such a small fish in this big problem. Someone coming up and knocking on my window when it was clear I was there to sleep just was not anywhere in my thought process.

I opened my eyes to see a middle aged man staring in at me. There was a short middle aged woman standing behind him. Both looked intent, although I wasn't sure on what. I could tell by the look on his face he wondered what I thought I was doing. Wasn't this supposed to be a rest stop.....with people sleeping??

I cautiously rolled my window down and this guy told me he needed me to back up so he could back up. He evidently was the driver of the semi truck on the far right of those three trucks. He thought he could back up enough for the middle rig to be able to move on through. Then he could get back on the road.

Just the thought of getting back on the road was enough to make me groan. I surprised myself by actually doing it out loud. The trucker looked a bit startled by the noise and I told him I'd been on the road since 6 am Sunday morning. The thought of starting my truck up again without sleeping was more than I could bare. The look I got back was one of knowing.

I again looked at those rigs in front of me and thought this guy was crazy thinking he could back out of there. BUT my step father was a trucker and I learned early not to question where he could put a truck. If this guy thought he could back out enough to free up these trucks, far be it from me to get in his way.

I told him about the rig behind me and he said that guy was prepared to move enough for me to back up as much as needed. The next thing I told this guy was I was too tired to do this alone. If he expected me to back up I would need his help. I would need eyes behind me telling me I was clear and guiding me where he thought I needed to be. Otherwise we might just be there for hours as I tried to figure it out for myself. I was just way to tired to even attempt it on my own.

The driver agreed and I started up my engine. The horses kicked their displeasure as I began to move my rig backwards every bit as slowly as I'd crept into this mess in the first place. I was pretty sure they needed the rest as much as I did. Hopefully this attempt at a fix would only take a few minutes and we'd be able to attempt to rest again.

One thing about experienced truck drivers, they understand what it takes to back. They get which way you need to turn to get where you want to be. The guy's directions were flawless and I must admit for being sleep deprived I followed them pretty darn well. It didn't take long and he signaled I was good where I was.

Then I watched as he went up to his rig. Before long it was inching its way backwards towards me. It really wasn't even too many inches when the middle truck began pulling away. There must have been more room on the front end of that puzzle than on my end.

Either way, there was no a clear pathway between the trucks. The trucker and his wife pulled into it and they soon disappeared down the lane. I moved my rig up into the position his had taken. The trucker behind me moved in behind me. Then I settled back in to get some sleep.

It didn't take me long to nod off. I was abruptly awaken by the shaking of my whole rig. At first I had no idea what could be causing this disturbance, then I realized it was one of the horses. Someone back there was thinking rest time was over it was time to get back on the road.

At first I tried to ignore this intrusion. Then I worried it was going to wake up the entire park. I better get on the road before someone decided to lynch me. If they were as tired as me, that could definitely be the case.

I glanced at the time as I tied my shoes. It was only 2 am. I had gotten less than two hours of sleep. That two hours sure didn't feel as restful as it had back in Arizona with Jesse. Yet, here I was heading down the road again.

To be continued..................

The Final Day

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The Adventure Continues.........A Little Witching Hour

The Adventure Begins

At first when I got back onto the freeway after leaving the Hitchcockian station I was so relieved to be away from that place I actually had a little energy. Maybe it was adrenaline caused by the fear that triggered it. Whatever it was it served me well. I managed to drive a ways before the dreaded sleep monsters tried to get me..........or whatever they were.

Nothing could stave my sleep deprived state off for long. Soon the familiar symptoms began moving back in one m. Fog took over my brain and my eyelids became laden with lead. I struggled to keep my head clear and me and my horses safe.

The road was closing in on me. No longer did I see freeway around me. Instead the darkness seemed to be walls wrapped around my rig. The night's blackness had swallowed me up whole. Following what I could see of white lines just ahead, my rig wound its way down the steep mountain pass. Brief reflections of headlights off the trees were my only proof there was anything out there at all. But the scene portrayed in my mind from those brief glimpses was more like some witching hour tale than a night drive on Interstate 5.

Except for those little white lines the road was gone. I had no sense of other lanes or shoulders even though I know they must have been there. Occasionally I would hit that ditch designed to keep drivers like me awake. The rude intrusion of the noise jarring me into consciousness.

As if fighting sleep was not bad enough, along a particularly steep winding stretch I was assaulted. A barrage of strange forms swooped by me and then disappeared in the darkness only to be followed by more...... and then more of the dark creatures.

Some purple, some blue and some black, they descended upon me in waves. Coming from behind, they seemed to dive towards my rig as they flew at my windows, while others descended from overhead and down over my windshield. All of them screaming off into the darkness in front of me dancing an evil dance, leading the way into the engulfing darkness.

I heard no sound but Kenny Rogers still playing there in the background. Yet their message seemed clear. They were coming for me. I took brief note of this warning and then shook it off. I was content in the belief I was safe despite this attempt to terrify me. I could and WOULD make it to the rest stop.

These assaults happened a couple of times before the off ramp for the rest stop was reached. I sighed in relief at the prospect of finally getting some sleep as I signaled my intention to exit.

Only after pulling my rig onto the exit itself did I wonder if I was making yet another mistake. The entrance to this rest stop did not look like any I'd ever seen before. A sign stated the rest stop was in a state park and I wondered how did that work.

As I pulled on down into yet another twisting dark road tightly enclosed in tall trees, those dark forms descended on me again. Was I driving into a place of rest or was something darker waiting for me? With no other way to go, I continued on down this one way road not knowing what lay ahead for me.

My only consolation at this point was what I could see in the darkness did indeed look like what I would expect of a state park in the mountains. Had I been clearer in my head, that probably would not have been any comfort. Many a bad thing has happened in a state park. For now, I just kept creeping forward looking for any signs of the rest stop I so desperately needed.

Finally I spotted signs designating which way to go for rigs such as mine. I veered off to the right as directed expecting to come to a parking lot. Instead I just kept creeping forward, winding around into the darkness until I came to what looked like a wider arched lane than the one I was currently travelling.

I pulled in as directed before I saw what really lay in front of me. There was no angled parking lot lining the rigs up parallel to each other in one long row as one usually sees in rest stops. Instead the rigs were pulled in head to tail hugging both sides of this lane.

One thoughtless trucker had tried to pull down the middle of this lane despite how tight it looked. Now right in front of me were three semis wedged together side by side underneath the tall trees STUCK with less than six inches between them. With the curve of this lane there was no way that truck was moving another inch. AND now I was stuck TOO!. Another truck had just pulled in behind me. He'd been following me in a darkness so thick I didn't even know he was there.

To be continued.....................

Am I Ever Gonna Sleep

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The Adventure Continues.........A Little Hitchcock....

The Adventure Begins

I was really struggling to keep my bearings in the Siskiyou Mountains on the California side. I had travelled that road mostly in the daylight hours. Now after dark I lost all sense of how far the next landmark I knew would be. That made this trip drag on even more.

I planned to stop once in the state of Oregon. I had myself convinced I could get that far. Then even if I didn't get much sleep. The trip to Washington and home would be manageable. I hung onto this plan when it was probably long past being a sound one.

My sense of time was also skewed in the darkness. Because of the tall forests of the mountains and the cloud cover little if any light was getting through. That darkness had my mind convinced it was much later than it really was but just the thought it was later seemed to make me feel all the more tired. I was really struggling.

There was no consistent radio reception in these mountains (nor had there been on much of my trip) so I had resorted to playing CD's. To tired to locate "good" driving music, the same Kenny Rodgers CD blasted at me to keep me awake. As often as I listened to that thing repeat itself you'd think I could remember the words now.......but I don't. All I know is Kenny was a good friend on this trip.

When I finally reached Oregon, I saw the signs for the rest stop I had used after my first blow-out. The rest stop itself was on the opposite side of the freeway. On that trip I was unclear about how the traffic heading north re-entered the freeway. Because of this confusion, I decided I would go on to the next rest stop which was on MY side of the road. It was just another forty miles down the road..........or so I thought.

That was a big mistake. I have no idea how far the rest stop I found ended up being down the road but it was way past forty miles. Maybe I missed one in the dark, I don't know.

The other mistake I made was deciding when to get fuel. I thought I had some reasonable options along the way. That turned out to be a mistake as well. When I finally did find a station with diesel, it was not on the main road. I had to back track down an even darker side road to find it.

This station was another little mom and pop. It was an old building probably built around the 1940s. It looked deserted from the outside except for one small light off in the distance. The pumps were old and didn't take credit cards. An old sign read "Pay Inside."

I had to walk through a fenced off porch area to get inside this building. I found myself looking over my shoulder to see if anyone was lurking there. I don't know if it was the darkness of the night or my lack of sleep but I felt like I was walking into an old Hitchcock movie.

Through the door, I found a small store dark, dingy and reeking of smoke. The floors were old hardwood blackened with age. Each footfall echoed eerily. The inventory seemed to be mostly cigarettes, candy and beer. I have to admit I wondered if it could possibly be fresh. Oh and toilet paper, I remember TP.

It reminded me of a little old store in Wilkeson where my grandpa lived when he was alive. The only difference was that place was always freshly painted and bulging with life. In this one there was definitely no signs of life except for noise off in the distance.

There was another door on the opposite from the entrance that led to a small cafe. Through another doorway I could see a bar but still no people. From the sounds of it threre were a few rowdy locals in there watching something on the tv. I only heard gruff men's voices. It was feeling more and more like that Hitchcock movie.

I looked on the counter in the store for a bell or something that said how to summon a clerk but found nothing. I poked my head into the cafe and there were a man and woman there. That might have made me feel just a tad better but they were dressed like they were out of one of those old movies. Still no signs of a clerk and I was really wanting NOT to have to go into the bar looking for one.

I fidgeted at the counter trying to decide what to do. If I'd had enough fuel I'd have made a run for it. That's how uncomfortable I was in this place. About the time those thoughts crossed my mind someone said, "I'll be right with you." The voice didn't sound particularly scary so I took a deep breath and waited and waited...........and waited some more.

The clerk did finally show up. He was drying his hands off on a towel. I'm thinking he must have been wearing all of the hats in this place. He seemed friendly enough but I must admit as I handed over my credit card, I wondered if it would come back to haunt me.

It took me longer to pay for my fuel than it did to pump it. When I was finally finished, I couldn't get on the road fast enough.......and did I mention my horses were perfectly still through the entire stop. Even though there was place to park my rig I didn't even consider taking a brief nap there. I desperately needed sleep but it just wasn't going to happen at this place.

To be continued............

A Little Witching Hour

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The Adventure Continues.........Heading for the Mountains

The Adventure Begins

Looking back at this, I have to be honest. I was so sleep deprived I'm not sure that my reasoning skills were all that good. My driving seemed to be ok and in retrospect, I still believe that. But this next leg of the trip really took it (whatever IT is) out of me.

I had told Jesse I would stop if I felt I was too tired to be driving. The problem was I was worried about my horses in the heat of the California afternoon. The roof of my horse trailer is black and I've learned from experience that makes it much warmer than other horse trailers. I could not stop somewhere the horse trailer wouldn't be completely in the shade without putting my horses at risk.

It's also been my experience that rest stops do not have that kind of shade. I wasn't sure about the rest stops in California but to this point in my trip through the state everyone I saw was pretty much wide open spaces. if there were trees, the were little saplings.......nothing that would give my horses relief from the sun.

Somewhere outside of Sacramento, I pulled off to get fuel. The station turned out to be a little mom and pop kind of thing. It had a single row of pumps and driveway in was too steep. I dragged my hitch across the asphalt breaking the connection to one of my safety chains.

Once in their little lot I found I couldn't make the turn to get to the diesel pump on the correct side of my rig. I had to drive down into the adjacent vacant lot to turn around and get lined up correctly with the pump. Once there I couldn't even get the card reader to read my credit card right. I got some kind of beep but couldn't read the screen that was giving me instructions what to do.

Guessing what was the correct thing to do didn't work and somehow I ended up starting all over again. I never did get that reader to work for me. I had to go inside to get help. There I was told they'd have to do the transaction because of an error code. My double attempt had triggered some kind of warning that maybe I wasn't really the card owner. The only way the transaction could be completed was through their main terminal.

The young man helping me got everything working properly so I went out to pump my fuel. I don't know if it was me........or the pump or what.....but I could not get it to pump fuel for me. I ended up back inside with the worker. It took this young man coming outside and starting the pump for me to get my fuel pumped........and at that , he had to help me twice because I screwed it up.By this time I was pretty sure I really needed a nap.

I also need to water the horses at this stop. I hadn't been able to find water. It turned out that wasn't totally me, the water was up near the store right in front of the rest rooms. I had to haul it to the trailer but that was ok. At least I had water for the horses.

You're probably wondering about Gypcy. By this time the filly had made peace with the horse trailer window AND the water bucket. When I offered her a drink, she practically knocked me over trying to get her head into that bucket. She drank two full buckets before she was through.

I had noticed as I turned around in that vacant lot a semi truck was parked off to the freeway side. All along that edge of the property were these huge poplar trees. The semi was in total shade.

Now that I was done with refueling and watering my horses, I noticed the semi truck was gone. That left plenty of room for me and my truck and horse trailer to pull into the shade.

I dropped the horses windows down and feed them lunch. Then I spent some time readjusting my load. I'd feed a couple of bales of hay by this time and the tarp covering the rest was beginning to flap. Since I knew I was driving into rain in Oregon and Washington, the tarp was still necessary.

That job ended up being more extensive than I'd hoped. I moved a couple of things trying to get weight onto my tarp only to find I"d created a situation where my load could shift. Fixing it seemed to be beyond me. By the time I finished I was sweaty and even more exhausted. If I hadn't needed the nap before I'd tackled this little task, I sure needed it now.

I can't even tell you how relieved I felt to sit back down in my truck and pull off my shoes. I grabbed my pillow and got comfortable hoping to get a pretty good nap. Just as I nodded off to sleep my phone went off. It was a text message from Richard. "Where was I?" I answered.........and he was gone.

That was it for me. I am a light sleeper......and when I say light........I mean light to the point it is ridiculous. Once I am awakened, I cannot go back to sleep. It has never mattered how desperately I need sleep and it didn't matter now. I could not get back to sleep. I tried.....but my mind had now kicked into high gear. It was time to get back on the road.

I was really frustrated I hadn't gotten a nap. I was even more frustrated that it was my phone and Richard that had awakened me. I had spent over two weeks by myself with little communication from the outside world, my family or my friends. I would have welcomed some kind of contact. Now at this time when I really didn't need anything but sleep, contact is what I got. Guess this line of thinking tells you how very very tired I was..............

I pulled back onto the freeway into rush hour traffic. The presence of all those dive bombing aggressive drivers was enough for me to understand why some people fly off the handle into road rage. With little sleep pulling a horse trailer was a difficult task and the lack of courteous drivers wasn't making it any easier. I resorted to deep breathing exercises to keep myself calm. It just was not pretty.

When I finally got through all the crazy traffic, it was beginning to get dark. I'd had it in my mind that I wanted to spend the night at a rest stop in Oregon. In the dark I lost my sense of where I was and how far it really was to Oregon. Not being accurate on how many miles there still were to the border meant the estimated time before I could stop was off as well.

By the time I realized my mistake, I was in the mountains. The night was pitch black and the roads slick and twisting. There wasn't a huge amount of traffic but what there was wasn't consistent. There were vehicles flying way too fast for the conditions and others crawling along like snails. I was trying to travel someplace in the middle between these two because that is what was best for my truck with this load.

My truck has a 5 speed manual transmission. It has a big powerful engine but going too slow on a steep grade can strangle that power. Trying to find just the right speed for this kind of load on these steep grades is a guessing game........... one done much better by a rested person than one like me.

There were times crawling around dark tight curves I worried about those speeding drivers rear ending me. There actually were a time or two when I was still in the mountains of California I heard the squeal of tires behind me. One time I even heard what sounded like a pretty powerful crash but I could see no evidence of one in my rear view mirror. I found myself praying I would make it to Oregon.

To be continued.............

A Little Hitchcock

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The Adventure Continues.........Getting to California

The Adventure Begins

There were lots of culdesacs and many dead ends in this Albuquerque neighborhood. I was pulling my horse trailer in places we just did not fit. After three or four times turning around and changing directions, I came upon a school. Down past it I managed to find a road that looked promising.

It appeared wider and had a different type curbing than this neighborhood, I was hoping it was my way out. I turned down the road and snaked around a bend. Then I could see it went to a T with a 4 lane road. Just at the corner of that T there was a gas station AND they had diesel. I was beginning to think I was saved.

I pulled into station. Then I realized there was no one in the store. While I was trying to figure out what to do next a car pulled in to the pumps and began fueling. I figured out it was a card only station so at least I could get fuel. The problem was did I really want to get out of my truck in this neighborhood.

My fear of losing Jesse won out over my fear of getting out of my truck. I decided to get fuel while I could. By the time I finished refueling that car had gone but another had pulled in its place. This one was driven by a woman who didn't look scary so I asked her for directions to I 40.

I was thankful this woman knew more about giving directions than me. I can never remember the names of street signs or even the numbers of state highways where I live. When I told her I 40, she smiled and said that was easy. Would you believe, once I turned left onto this road, it would take me straight to the interstate.

I did have problems getting onto the 4 lane road from this side road from a stop sign. The road was very busy and the timing of the lights at the intersections I could see wasn't leaving me the kind of room I needed to pull out safely for both me and the horses. When it was clear one direction, it wasn't the other. I sat there long enough the horses began getting antsy.

I finally did get on that road and had to drive several blocks before I could see any sign of I 40. Then I realized that finding the right lane for I 40 West wasn't going to be that easy. The early road signs only told of the interstate. When I got closer I could see there were several lanes that exited to the interstate but I still could see which lanes went east and which west. Since I had no idea which direction I was coming from at this point, I had not even a guess which lanes were the ones for me.

I ended up in the wrong lane, of course, and nearly missed my on ramp. Fortunately the driver behind me was courteous and slowed up for me when I signaled I need to get over or I would have been toast. I was one of those drivers crossing the scored portion of the turn to make my on ramp but at least I was no longer lost and I was heading the right direction.

Now I really had not idea if Jesse was in front of me or behind me. I drove for a while and decided to call Jesse again. He didn't remember what the last signs he'd seen said so I still didn't know where I stood.

That's pretty much the way it went most of the day. I never did see Jesse in the daylight hours. It was only when it got close to dark I took matters into my own hands. This time I called Jesse and told him where I'd wait for him. I wasn't driving in the dark without them.

As it turned out, Jesse was planning on refueling in the same town where I was thinking about stopping. I told him which station I'd be at and I waited for him there. After I finished refueling, I pulled aside and waited for Jesse. It was a good twenty minutes before his rig pulled into the station. Between that and the amount of time I'd spent lots, I figured that Jesse was a good two hours behind me most of the day.

I can't even tell you how glad I was to see Jesse' rig. I had passed and been passed by dozens of rigs I recognized from the horse show. I'd even driven by a broken down rig that was one of those. Something I would not normally do........except I was so worried I'd miss Jesse. I'd driven the better part of the day stressing over the prospect of making this entire trip home by myself. I was very relieved that I was no longer travelling alone in this land I knew nothing about.

I knew I didn't want to hit those mountains by myself. After the trip here, I was particularly worried about the mountains. I knew I didn't want to be navigating them on my own. I wasn't taking any chances I might need help........AND more importantly need to know WHERE to go to get it. I didn't want to end up like I had way back on that first Sunday were finding a tire store felt like looking for a needle in a haystack. At least now I knew if anything happened there was hope I'd find the right kind of help.

For some this may not seem like much, but for me it was and IS a really big deal. I am NOT an adventurer.......I might be when it comes to starting young horses.........but not when it comes to travelling. I'd never leave home if it wasn't for horse events. '

Travelling around to parts unknown is not my cup of tea. I do not want to take things as they come ...........flow with the adventure when I'm on the road. I want to know where I can safely stop and where I can find good diesel AND I want to get THERE! Safe, sound and with as little drama as possible. Having someone to follow who knows where they're going, does this for me.

Even though it was now dark, I was much less stressed than I'd been the rest of the day. Following Jesse I didn't have to worry about the navigational stuff..........although I did have a few flashbacks of what might have been over my lost time in Albuquerque. For several hours it was just quiet time as we travelled down the road.

Just like on the trip coming, Jesse told me we could stop for an hour or two when I got tired. Sometime around two I made the call to let him know that I needed sleep. Fifteen minutes later and we were in a crowded truck stop where we found room for both rigs together wedged between the semis.

Two hours to the minute we were back on the road. I felt rested and was ready to handle the couple of hours before dawn. What I hadn't counted on was the time changes as we drove west. It would be several hours before the dawn.

We were well off Interstate 40 and making our way through the portion of this trip I still don't get when I realized my mistake. I knew we would travel through Arizona and into California but I couldn't tell you what roads to take. There was no way, I could find my way home from here without Jesse. I was counting on him getting me to Interstate 5. Then and only then would I be secure that I could find my way home.

I was going to have to push through the bleary eyed stare that was trying to swallow me up to keep following Jesse. I tried to focus on the landscape to see if I could relate it to the trip here. I kept looking ahead for some sign of sunlight. I rolled down my windows and turned on my air conditioner to freeze myself awake. If I could make it through til dawn, I'd be ok for the day light hours.

It was during this time I decided I just could not handle all the miles still in front of me. I needed to cut some of those out if I was going to make it. If I didn't go back to Jesse's place, I could do that. I could cut off those extra miles from I-5 to Santa Rosa and then back to I-5 again. If I did that the horses wouldn't get out of the trailer and I probably wouldn't get as much rest........but the allure of cutting off what I guessed was two or three hundred miles won out. I decided when Jesse left I-5 heading for San Francisco, I would stay on it and head towards Oregon and home.

I breathed a sigh of relief when we got through the mountains where I'd had my second blow-out on the way to Tulsa. The next milestone in my mind would be reaching Interstate 5. Once on my own the next big milestone would be the Siskiyous Mountains. Breaking the trip up in chunks like that was helping me stay focused and not give myself over to how tired I really was.

It seemed like the sun was never going to rise. Even after we got into what looked like grooves of citrus trees, there still was no daylight. I was really struggling with keeping my eyes open but I kept clinging to that thread........the sun had to be coming soon.

I don't even remember what time it was when the sun did rise. I still had not set my watch to Pacific time so maybe that's why the lapse. The first time we stopped for fuel in the daylight, I remedied that situation and I began thinking how many hours until home.

When we did finally pull onto Interstate 5 I was relieved to finally be someplace I was familiar with. While I haven't travelled up and down that interstate much, the few times I had were enough to be some comfort.

The next time we stopped for fuel, I told Jesse my plan to stay on I-5 to drive home. He didn't say much but later I learned he thought it would be too much. He worried about me getting home safely. Maybe if he's said so I'd have rethought my plan. As it was when I saw the first signs for San Francisco mentally I prepared myself for being on my own once again.

Of course, it was miles from those first signs before Jesse's rig actually pulled off headed towards San Francisco. I was surprised by the lump that rose in my throat as I saw them leave. I still had lots of road I was unfamiliar with and the security of that rig was hard to leave.

I called Jesse and thanked him for all his help. He asked me then what I planned to do about rest and I assured him I'd would stop if I felt like I was unable to drive. I figured I'd be fine until dark.......but if that wasn't the case, I would most definitely find a rest stop.

To be continued....................

Heading for the Mountains.

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The Adventure Continues.........Heading Home

The Adventure Begins

To say 4 am came early would be an understatement. When I heard the sound of my alarm, I groaned in disbelief. The urge to roll over to catch another forty winks was powerful. The thought of Jesse leaving without me crossed my mind and the discussion was over. I literally jumped to my feet to begin dressing.

The trailer was particularly cold that morning. Getting out of my warm pajamas and into my icy clothes was torture. Once I started racing the clock to get all my stuff from the horse trailer stowed away so it could resume its usual job of transporting horses my temperature warmed back up.

Before long I was in my shirt sleeves fighting with the air mattress to relinquish its last dregs of air so the thing could fit back into it's box. I gave up on rolling up the sleeping bags, just folding them to throw into the back seat of my truck. Then I headed to the barn.

I laid out the leg wraps for the horses in front of their individual stalls. Then I glanced at my watch and about had a stroke. My watch read 6:45. Jesse said we were to leave at 6. He was late but I still had gobs to do. How could that have happened? It couldn't have taken me nearly two hours to put my stuff away.

I was breaking into a sweat crawling on the stall floor applying leg wraps when it hit me. Daylight savings time had made its fall change. My phone had corrected itself so I'd arisen at the correct time but my watch was still on daylight savings time. I still had an hour and fifteen minutes before Jesse said he wanted to leave.

I kept on pushing with the leg wraps. I figured I'd have a little time once Jesse arrived because they still had their horses to prepare but I still had hay bags to fill, water buckets to empty and put away, horses to strip and their clothing to put away.

The horse trailer was on the back side of the building. So it was a jaunt to get there with all this stuff. Once I got everything loaded, I still have to load my wheelbarrow onto my truck and tie the thing down. That included those darn tarps......so that wasn't an easy job either.

When Jesse did arrive it seemed like his horses were ready and loaded in no time. I was ready to load my horses by that time but Jesse had 4 horses for 3 people to load while I had just me. He was loaded and waiting for me and I still had to more horses to retrieve.

It was 6:15 when we were finally ready to pull out. Not bad, I guess but this time I had been the late one.........not my thing. I hate keeping others waiting. I was stressed and we hadn't even hit the road yet.

Jesse asked me if I needed fuel which I did because I'd not been able to locate a station selling diesel anywhere near the fairgrounds. He told me he needed to stop too so I thought we were good.

It wasn't until we hit the turnpike and we passed station after station with diesel fuel I began to worry. I checked my second tank and it was not full so I called Jesse to let him know I had didn't have a second tank to rely on. I really didn't know how much farther I could go.

Still I kept following Jesse and he kept driving down the road. The needle on my tank kept on getting lower and lower. I hadn't been pushing past that quarter mark on either tank. Now I found myself testing just how far I could go.

I flipped back to the second tank to let it run down just to see how many miles I could squeak out. It went a while before the truck sputtered. Then I flipped back to my original tank and watched the needle drop.

I was beginning to get frantic when I spied a station up overhead. There was an off ramp right there so I headed for it watching Jesse pulling away from me down the interstate. I called him on the phone, "I'm getting off here. There's diesel and I'm running on fumes!" Jesse said he'd stop at a station down the road. I assumed we met up there.

I hurried through fueling my truck. Then called Jesse as I got back onto the interstate. He hadn't reached his off ramp but he didn't want me to stop. He told me to drive on through and he would catch up. I was to watch for Interstate 40 and get just keep going. I worried about that catching up. I really had no idea what rate I would travel on my own. I asked Jesse if I should slow down and he said no.

I just kept on bombing down the road. I got onto Interstate 40 at first looking for Jesse in front of me. Then I began looking for Jesse behind me. I kept on like that until I reached the point I needed fuel again. I called Jesse to let him know thinking we could meet up. I found they had already stopped a second time without me. Again I was to just keep on driving once I had refueled. Now I was getting nervous.

The only thing I was sure of was that we would stay on I 40 for about a thousand miles. It wouldn't be until we got off that interstate that I didn't know where to go. That gave me some time to make sure I caught up with Jesse again. I sure didn't want to be travelling the rest of the way home by myself.

Somewhere around lunch time I called Jesse again. This time I asked him exactly where he was. It was as I suspected Jesse was behind me. Although I didn't know exactly where because he didn't know exactly where he was for sure. He only knew the last town he has passed. I had passed that town a ways back.......he said he would catch up.

I got to Albuquerque there was still no Jesse and I needed fuel. The construction zone that had given me problems was not there going west. I thought I was going to make it through without an issue.

I pulled off when I saw a sign saying diesel only to find myself on another freeway. As geographically challenged as I am, I was not prepared to deal with anything except I 40 so now what?? This was why I hadn't wanted to travel alone. That was the last thing I wanted.

I decided to take the first off ramp so I could get myself turned around and back onto 1 40. Instead I found myself in the middle of a mall. Trying to find my way out of there I ended up in a community full of speed bumps and little kids on bikes. Here I was.............lost in Albuquerque, NM.

Looking more closely at the neighborhood. This was NOT a good part of town. There were broken down cars, unkempt yards, even a few boarded up windows and gang graffiti. People were really starting to look at me funny and some of those people did not look friendly. I was beginning to feel a bit frantic about finding a way out...........any way out.

To be continued..................

Getting to California

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The Adventure Continues.........Halloween at Nationals

The Adventure Begins

Halloween was the final day of the horse show. With that came some pretty crazy costumes in unexpected places. If costumes running up and down the stands wasn't enough, a couple of the exhibitors in the junior stallion halter class had spruced themselves up just a bit in honor of Halloween.........a bit of colored hair spray and some wildly colored shirts added to the usual suits seen showing in this class.

For those who think the Arabian horse industry and its owners are a bit too up tight and stuffy, this might just give them new perspective. Inviting everyone wearing costumes from the stands to come show themselves in center ring might not be THAT unbelievable. BUT I'm pretty sure seeing BNT's with purple hair or neon dress shirts doesn't quite fit the picture of what most expect to see in the class that is considered to be the most prestigious of the show.

The MOST unexpected of all was this final post entry (pictured above) in the junior stallion halter class. Announced as a "late" entry, these two put on quite a show. The crowd loved every minute of their demonstration.





The handler trotted his "horse" in just like all the other exhibitors had done and the crowd went wild . The horse, well he hammed it up pretty darn "good" as he strutted his stuff for his new found fans. All the way down the rail he exhibited some playful if not wild behavior much to the delight of the masses.

At the designated location, the handler asked his horse to walk quietly. The horse demonstrated his willingness to comply with a nod of his head and the decrease in his gait without losing any of his presence. Once again the crowd went wild and the horse nodded his head at them in recognition of their approval. This horse was good.........real good.




Before the handler walked his horse up to meet the judges, he stopped him at the rail and adjusted his horsey forelock. The crowd went wild at the mere prospect of this jab at ring rituals and the horse and handler both were pretty darn proud of themselves.

The handler stood his horse up in the center of the arena.........not quite the halter stance we are used to what with this horse impostor walking on two hind feet but it was an effort........ The horse fidgeted a bit as the judges walked around him but he stood there trying to stretch in all his horsey glory. You could tell this horse REALLY wanted to win! The crowed roared their approval at the continuation of this ruse.



When the judges were finished recording their scores, the horse and handler made their exit in a wave of glory. Circling around at the ingate before finally exiting the ring, the pair soaked up all the applause they could garner before making their way out.

Even when they were gone from sight, the crowd still roared it's approval. Many had tears running down their cheeks generated by the deep honest belly laughter comedians only dream of.............. If it hadn't been for rules.............. this horse impersonator would have surely won the class.

I must admit that I was one of those with tears streaming down my face. The entire display was such a poke at the establishment I couldn't contain myself. My sides ached and my stomach ached even more. I was hoarse from laughing..........and it would have been all right with me if this horse won the class. He certainly had my approval.

To be honest after this display, I didn't even stick around to see the stallions pinned. I had my entertainment for the night, W my scores all written down in my show program from this new scoring system I knew who won so I decided to get a jump on the masses exiting the arena by leaving early.

I stopped by the photographer's booth to check the computers for proofs from Rhet's halter class. I had the photos picked out I wanted of Legs and me. Now it was time to get a look at what was available of Rhet. I needed that order in now because the price went up if I ordered from home and Jesse planned on leaving at 6 in the morning. There would be no time to order then. It was now or never.

I hate making decisions like this in a hurry. I'm still not sure I picked the "right" one. These are the proofs I had to pick from. Which is your favorite.

Rhet Proof 1

Rhet Proof 2

Rhet Proof 3

Rhet Proof 4

Rhet Proof 5

Rhet Proof 6

This next one is the stallion that won this class, Aria Impresoria, shown my Michael Byatt. The horse by my horsey friend, Lexy. It was nice to see him win.

One the way back through the barns to get to my stalls, there were all kinds of parties going on in the aisles some with drinking........and some not. The "main" barn up by the arena had literally mobs of people and the noise was deafening.

Trying to make my way through these crowded aisles, I came literally ran into Susan Durr.

For a little history, Susan is the daughter of the original Bevan's Arabians founders. They were the breeders of Country Heir who was the sire of my mare, Scandalous, making him the grandsire of Legs.

Susan looked me up several years ago because of she spotted my Country Heir breeding note in an ad in the Region 5 Directory. There are not many horses around with that breeding. Country Heir sired only a few foals before it was discovered that he was a SCIDS carrier.

As soon as the Bevan's realized the horse was a carrier they donated him to the research facility at Washington State University. Their brave manner of handling this situation is one of the reasons we have a test for SCIDS today. Back in those days, stallion owners hid that information. Some quietly gelded the stallions and others continued to breed keeping the information secret. Few were brave enough to come forward to donate horses to help researchers. Susan Durr is the one who confirmed my suspcions that Country Heir carried the genetic disorder. Up until I met her, it had only been a hunch on my part.

I spent a little time visiting with Susan at the show. I appreciate her ethics and enjoy spending time with her. She wasn't showing her horse at this show because like most other people times are tough in her husband's business as well. She and her daughter had flown in to watch the last few days of classes.

We talked some about how my show had gone. Susan is a woman who understands what it takes to show a horse on your own and be competitive. She said some kind things about my journey and considering the show I'd had, those comments were most appreciated. I was glad I'd had a chance to visit with her.

During the visit I learned that her stallion, Apaladin++ (AA Apollo Bey x Amanda of Aerie by El Magato), is up for sale. That horse means to Susan what Legs does to me. I was saddened to hear that she is in this position. We're both hoping that with the market down, he won't sell right now. As the economy increases her need to sell him should decreases. That's our hope anyway. This is the horse I had planned to breed to Scandalous Hope until I got Rhet.

With my visit over with Susan, I tucked the horses into bed and then headed off to my apartment in the back of my horse trailer. I had a few things to wrap up before going to sleep so I would have less to do in the morning. Being ready to leave a 6 meant I needed to be up by 4. There was a lot to do in those two hours. I was hoping I could get some sleep instead of thinking about what lay ahead.

To be continued.........................

Heading Home

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The Adventure Continues..........After Rhet's Class cont.........

The Adventure Begins

My search on the internet for feed stores hadn't shown anything within a reasonable range for me. The last thing I needed was to get lost out in the country somewhere. The thought of even having to deal with that turnpike on my own was enought to shut me down so I was heading back to the feed office at the horse show to see if something couldn't be worked out.

I'd stopped by the feed office earlier to see if they had any hay better than what had been delivered to me and all I'd seen at that time looked exactly the same. .Now as I walked up I saw a small flat trailer sitting off in the secured lot with what looked to be about a ton or so of alfalfa. I walked up to get a better look. While it wasn't the best hay I'd ever seen, it was sure better than what I had now.

I walked into the office and waited for the woman to get off the phone. Once she did I told her I didn't want to be a problem......... At which point she cut me off and snapped sharply, "THEN DON'T!" Even though I was taken a back by her customer service skills, I proceeded to say I couldn't feed my horses the hay they'd delivered earlier in the day.

Then one of the guys sitting on the other side of the room jumped in to tell me all they had was what was out there on that trailer. The hay was pretty coarse. He said he'd seen me looking at it just before I'd come into the office. Nodding my head I let him know I'd be more than happy to trade the hay I had for some of that on the trailer. The woman behind the desk agreed and I breathed a sigh of relief.

I rode back to the stalls with the bales of hay and found out on the way that this was the last hay they were going to have for the show. To be on the safe side I asked them to bring me three additional bales so I'd have enough to get me through my trip home.

When all the hay had been delivered, I apologized for the extra work I'd caused. It was then this guy told me not to worry, lots of people were complaining about that hay. He'd spent a good portion of his day picking up hay that people refused to take.

Between this experience with the hay quality AND being sold rice bran that I was told was stablized but was not, I'm thinking next time I better make sure I bring all the feed I need. If I bring one less horse, I can use that spot in the trailer to haul the needed feed. Then I won't have to rely on the show's contracted feed source.........and I'll have a lot less work. Heck, I might even get to see some of the horse show.

Once the feed situation was resolved, I began working on getting organized to move out. I knew I couldn't get my rig onto the grounds until the following day, but if I got all my stuff together now it should make moving out much easier.......and give me some time to watch some of the finals I really wanted to see.

Mostly I wanted to see the stallions.......the junior stallions that is. There were several stallions in that class I'd heard about but have never gotten the opportunity to see.

One of those stallions, Aria Impresoria, is out of one of my mare friends, GC Echlectica. Lexy, also known as Betty Boop to those who worked with her, was one of the last horses in training with my friend, Jean Frieday, before she retired from training horses. At that time I was working as a groom for Jean so I could learn the in's and out's of showing halter.

Jean didn't show Lexy to her reserve national championship in her three year old futurity class because she'd long since given up showing horses at that level due to the politics in the halter arena. But Jean conditioned and trained many a horse that won at that level with big name trainers catch leading those horses into the ring. Lexy was one of those. She was shown by Michael Byatt and now her son was being shown by Michael Byatt as well.

Putting the politics aside for the moment, Lexy has always been one of my all time favorite mares. I ask about her every time I see her owner. She was a joy to work with.......not the least bit crazy like some folks think halter horses need to be. Yet she could get jazzed up and be a great show horse. Not only that, but the mare has a beautiful smooth body and is a pretty mover. The kind of halter horse you could ride if you wanted........definitely my kind of horse.

I haven't seen this mare since her three year old year, I can only imagine how beautiful she has become. Since she's another one of those horses that matures late, what was seen during her show career, is nothing compared to the beauty she must be today..........so I was really looking foward to seeing this son of hers that I'd heard so much about.

I'd seen this colt as a yearling on the live feed for Scottsdale but there's nothing like seeing a horse in the flesh to really see it. Granted you don't really get to look up close and personal with the stallions like they used to do, but it's still a better look than video or a live feed.

Also in the class was the horse, Marhaabah, that had beat Rhet's father in the US National Futurity. Rhet's sire was reserve champion at US and champion in Canada. I'd seen the US class on the live feed as well so I was looking forward to seeing this horse up close as well.

Another horse, Starwan, I'd heard about but never seen was also in this class. He was owned by people here in Washington. I'd gone to their open house to see this colt right after they bought him only to find out he was gone to the trainer.

All three of these young stallions are by Marwan Al Shaqab. He is Rhet's grandsire. I wasn't only looking at horses of his breeding, however. There just happened to be a number of them at this show. Yes, I was definitely looking forward to the junior halter stallions. If I didn't see another class at this horse show, I was counting on making it to this one.

During these last couple of days, I also checked into traveling home with others from Washington. Although the weather on the direct route was less than ideal, I was thinking the additional 350 miles I'd added by traveling with Jesse was probably more than I could handle on the return trip. By this time, I was really dragging and the thought of driving straight through almost 1900 miles to California was not sounding good........let alone the additional 800 from there to my home.

To be continued.................

Halloween at Nationals
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The Adventure Continues..........After Rhet's Class........

The Adventure Begins

Once I got back to the stalls, I talked briefly to Jesse about the yearling colt's class as well. Jesse felt that Rhet had given him everything he had to give and you can't ask anything more than that. It was obvious he was disappointed with the outcome but he had nothing more to say on the subject. Jesse just isn't one of those trainers who places blame when he's not done well.

Jesse did, however, have plenty to say about the scoring system. He does not like the system at all. His reasoning is because owners like me look at how their horses have been scored and decide to stop showing in halter. That's the last thing Jesse wants to see. He wants his clients to show their horses and have fun.

When it comes to Rhet in particular, Jesse believes I should continue to show the colt in halter and I should do some showing with him in amateur as well.. As a matter of fact he was talking to me about showing the horse at the Scottsdale show in February. There are Signature amateur owner to handle halter classes that Rhet is eligible for in 2010. My response to Jesse was I'd have to get a horse sold before the entries closed. I was in hock up to my eyeballs just making this trip.

Next I headed off to the show office to get copies of the halter scores for Rhet's class. While the scores had been posted during the class, it was just to chaotic trying to write them all down and still watch horses show so instead I'd just marked each horse's total score in my show program. Having this official record would let me really look at the individual elements each horse had been scored.

Only after I got the scores did I get up the courage to call Rhet's breeder, Chris. This is the first time a horse whose papers show her as the breeder has shown at the national horse show. (This reason I make this distinction she breed the stallion,Autumn Seance........but sold the pregnant mare and allowed the new owners the breeder designation.) That made Rhet's appearance at nationals all the more important to Chris. I wasn't looking forward to telling her the colt had gotten the gate.

My phone call with Chris was pretty brief. She was certainly disappointed but not surprised that Rhet had not done well. She had been concerned from the start that Jesse might not be "political enough" for Rhet to place. In her mind, at least, it was all about politics.

Chris did ask me how I thought Rhet looked next to the other colts. To be honest, I thought most of them looked far more mature than Rhet. While he hung in with them for size, he just looked more like a yearling. Also I thought many of those colts carried more weight than my colt. However, I thought Rhet's weight was good for a yearling and I wouldn't have been happy with him carry much more. The others were just beefer.......if you know what I mean.

There are lots of explanations for why this could be. I'm not going to go down that road. I don't know how some trainers accomplish getting a more mature look on a young horse and I'm not going to guess. What was important to me in this class was how these horses looked conformationally.....and how my colt stood up to the breed standard.

I will say the one thing that really bothered me about the class ( and most halter classes) was horses being allowed to stand up contrary to the rules. The correct stance for an Arabian halter horse as per the USEF rule book is "In-Hand horses are not to be stretched. A horse is considered not stretched if all four feet are flat on the ground and at least one front and one rear cannon bone is perpendicular to the ground."

I can't even tell you how many horses showed with both hind legs parked out behing them. Obviously this kind of stance affects the horse's topline....and you would think it would affect the score on the horse's legs. How can a judge tell if a horse's hocks are in the right place if the horse has both legs stretched out behind him??

My pet peeve, I know, but I want to ride these suckers when they grow up. Isn't that the point? Yet if we're placing horses whose hocks are out behind them in our breeding classes, will these horses be able to attain collection as adults?

But back to my basic complaint. How do you fairly compare a horse that has stood up correctly to one that has stood with both legs out behind? Yet that is what happens over and over in halter classes........and it wasn't any different in this class of Rhet's........and it wasn't just a horse or two. A number of horses that scored well and placed showed in a stretched fashion.

Once Chris and I had our little discussion about Rhet's class, it was time for me to find a feed store somewhere off the grounds. Again that morning I'd been delivered hay that wasn't suitable for horses.

I had three bales of hay left that I'd brought from home but I was hoping to save those for the trip home. With the added stress of the trip, I wanted my horses on their usual grass hay than the alfalfa I'd been forced to feed at this show. Besides three bales of hay wouldn't get me through the end of the show AND the trip home. I needed to find hay my horses could eat.

I'd tried asking around and no one seemed to know of a feed store anywhere near the show grounds. Next stop was the Hat Lady where they let me borrow their computer to do an online search. Thanks to MapQuest I was armed with a good map as I headed of the fairgrounds and down the road searching for the feed store I'd located on line.

The directions seemed relatively easy. I figured even someone geographically challenged like me could accomplish this task without getting lost. Imagine my surprise when I reached my destination only to find a block full of nothing but foundations where buildings used to be. There were big bins full of debris holding the remains of what used to be the feed store I was searching for.............. This could only happen to me!

To be continued..............

After Rhet's Class continued.

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The Adventure Continues..........The Results........

The Adventure Begins

From the beginning of Rhet's class, Richard was texting me. He and Angie wanted to watch the class on the live feed but weren't trusting they actually had the right class. Once that was settled Richard tried to figure out what they were seeing in regards to horses and the resulting scores and there was lots of commentary comparing the colts to Rhet.

When Rhet entered the ring, the texting went up a notch. At the same time a couple walked up the stairs and decided to sit right down in front of me. They were talking about Rhet as they took their seats. They actually stood there for a moment blocking my view.

I was wanting to watch my colt but curious about who these people were and what they were saying about my colt. I didn't say a word to them just tried to hear why it was they liked Rhet while trying to answer Richard too. I was glad I'd ordered video of this class so I could see what I was missing between Richard's texts and the people in front of me.

Once Rhet exited the ring, most of the outside stimulation stopped. The people went on to a conversation about horse shows they'd seen in Europe and I began watching for Rhet's scores on the big screen overhead in the arena. Richard continued texting his predictions about how Rhet had done.

I'd been trying to tell Richard not to get all that exited. I was worried about this panel of judges and how they would see my colt. When the scores flashed onto the big screen, my fears were confirmed. They hadn't liked Rhet.

I texted his scores to Richard and then waited for his response. It took him a moment but when it came through it read, "You're kidding, right?? Once I confirmed it had not been a joke Richard went silent.

Those people in front of me couldn't believe Rhet's scores either. Pointing to the screen, the woman said, "What's with that?" as they both shook their heads. I glanced around the rail of the arena to see other reactions that were very much the same. There were definitely people, a lot of people, who didn't understand how my colt had scored in this class.

While I had been prepared for Rhet not to win a Top Ten from these judges, I wasn't prepared for how low he had been scored. Four of these judges had given Rhet scores near the bottom for the entire class and they were within a point or two of each other. The fifth judge had scored him right up near the top.

With the high and low scores being eliminated Rhet's score didn't even put him into the top ten of the fifteen horses that had already shown. It was over for us at this horse show, I knew Jesse was taking my colt back to his stall.

I was torn between running out to talk with Jesse and wanting to see the rest of this class. Even though Rhet wouldn't be taking home a prize I still wanted to see what his competition had been. I also wanted to know which horses would win those prizes so I forced myself to stay and watch despite the disappointment I felt.

With Rhet's scores blaring at me I had a new measure for the colts coming into the ring. It was interesting to compare scores against those given to Rhet when the colts were still fresh in my mind although it didn't change my understanding of the judging. The more I watched.........the more confused I became.

When it was all said and done there were five horses in the top ten that I would have placed there. That means, of course, that five of the horses I would have placed, walked out the gate, and five horses I wouldn't have used made a top ten. Sometimes that's how it goes at horse shows.

Richard was battling with his own disappointment. He and Angie had been convinced all along that Rhet could not only get a top ten but that he could win. That's how much they like him. For the longest time I didn't get a text message from Richard at all. When I finally asked him if he was still there, the response I got was, "Throwing things!!!!!!!!" I didn't hear much from Richard after that throughout the rest of the show or the trip home.

For those of you who had expected magic in Rhet's class, the magic was there when the horse was in the ring. It may not have been reflected in the scores but it was reflected in the eyes of many people watching him. With this big disappointment I was going to have to decide if that was enough for me.

This had been an expensive trip and I had made it because I believed that Rhet really had a chance at getting a ribbon. I wouldn't have spent that kind of money just to go play........I spent it to build some credibility for my farm. My mind was churning trying to figure things out.

I decided that I would try to find Jeff Schall. He's the big name trainer (BNT) who had evaluated Rhet as a two month old foal. It was partially my belief in his evaluation that had gone into the decision to bring my colt to nationals in the first place.

In a comment on one of my posts I was told I was misrepresenting what Jeff had said implying that Jeff had not been particularly impressed with Rhet at all. While I believed my assessment of his evaluation was correct, now was as good a time as any to see for sure. For me to continue with Rhet in halter I needed to know my thinking was not flawed.

It took me a while to track down where the stabling for Shada was located. Once I got there, the barn was closed because they were getting horses ready for the next session's halter classes. People were sitting around talking but I didn't see Jeff's wife or Jeff so I found a business card and left. Having a phone number was a good place to start.

As I walked across the grounds back towards the stalls, I decided I'd go ahead and call Jeff's number to leave a message figuring he'd be too busy to answer. Imagine my surprise when the someone answered the phone, "This is Jeff."

I told Jeff my name and that I owned the colt he had seen the previous summer at Dan and Chris's place. I identifies the breeding of the mare thinking that would help him place which colt I meant. Then I told him it was my understanding that he had liked this colt. Jeff quickly corrected me with this response, "I didn't just like him.......I REALLY liked him!"

I told Jeff that Rhet had been really trashed by the judges in the colt's class and I was feeling pretty discouraged. Jeff wanted to know what I meant by trashed so I told him Rhet's score and that I really didn't know what to do as far as his halter career with him placing so low in this class. Jeff asked me what I attributed that to........ politics, the colt didn't show well, whatever were my thoughts so we had a brief conversation about the colt's class.

I'm not one to jump to conclusions. I don't attribute everything that doesn't go my way to politics nor do I think that everyone needs to agree with me. All I really had in this situation was my opinion and who knows what that's worth in the big scheme of things. That's pretty much what I told the man.

Then Jeff told me that his colt, a unanimous winner in his region, hadn't done well with these judges either. The implication was Jeff didn't agree with how they saw these colts either. We talked some about Rhet's future in halter and Jeff coming to see the colt again..............

To be continued...............

After Rhet's Class

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The Adventure Continues..........Rhet Shows........

The Adventure Begins

It was easy to see that many of these colts in this class were related. There was so much Marwan breeding and Valentino breeding, the colts were mostly dark bays with little white. These sires were definitely putting their stamp on their foals.

Somewhere along the line I lost count of how many horses had shown. I kept expecting Rhet would be the next horse..........and then the next......yet there was no sign of my colt. It felt like this class had been going on forever but Rhet was supposed to show about in the middle with his assigned slot number fifteen out of thirty-one.

By the time Rhet and Jesse did make their appearance through the ingate, I was beginning to think they'd missed the class. Even watching the video today, it seems like Rhet is much farther down the line than he actually was. I suppose it's having the horses occupy the ring individually that made things take longer.

Rhet came through that gate like the peacock he can be. The music playing was "I'm too sexy!" which Rhet might have appreciated but made me cringe. ....not really the image I have for this colt. (Maybe next time I'll have figured out a song that suits this colt)

The colt's tail was thrown over his back and he seemed to be floating at the end of the lead. Jesse circled Rhet at the entrance before he trotted the horse down the rail. The colt responded like he knew exactly what to do. He only broke into a canter once but quickly came down when asked. He didn't race out in front of Jesse either. That gave the horse the opportunity to strut his stuff all the way down the rail without interference caused by corrections.

Once at the end of the rail, Jesse circled the colt again in a big wide circle right in front of the judges before asking Rhet to walk. The colt came down easily as Jesse requested. Then walked across the arena on a loose rein staying right at the position off Jesse's shoulder that the trainer wanted.

The colt's attitude was great. He seemed to enjoy the low railing where he could see all the people sitting right there at their little tables watching him. There were no signs of fear of this crowd......his big attitude was evident. The colt thought he belonged in this ring showing off to all these people.

Before Jesse stood the horse up in the middle, he stopped Rhet by the rail to fix his forelock and his mane. The colt stood there in all his glory like a king waiting on his attendants to get him ready for an audience. Rhet was definitely in his element.

Jesse walked the colt out into the middle as the announce called out his number, his name, breeder, owner and handler. Then Jesse asked Rhet to strike his pose. Rhet responded like he'd been doing this forever. The colt stretched that neck of his up and out the whole forty miles long it can seem to be. Then he stood there watching Jesse's ever move.

In the past, Rhet has had problems with the number of people walking around him in center ring........but not this time. With five judges, a ring steward or two and a photographer, it seemed like there was a mob out there but it didn't bother Rhet. Other than moving his feet a step or two here and there the colt pretty much stood like a rock.

Not only did Rhet stand well but his face was expressive too. He kept his eye locked on Jesse and with that went his ears.........locked tight together right down to their cute curly little tips. The colt's nostrils flared and his eyes widened as Jesse changed his hand position. I think the colt showed about as much animation as you can get in center ring from a horse that's standing still........heck, the horse even held his tail up the whole time.

The judges moved around in all different directions at the same time. Rhet didn't let their movement take his mind of his job. The colt stayed locked tight on Jesse........even when one of the judges moved in close towards his face. Rhet didn't budge.

When the judges finished their inspection, they signaled Jesse. The man left the colt relax a second before turning him to trot out of the ring. Again the colt was fixed on Jesse. Every command he was there for. They trotted down towards the gate and made one final pass around the end before trotting out of the ring.

I couldn't have asked for this colt to show any better. Nor could I have asked for Jesse to do a better job. Now it was time to wait for the judge's scores.

To be continued.........

The Results

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