Photojournalist Betsy Parker, her friend Beth Rera, and Beth’s seven-year-old son John embarked some days ago on a cross-country horse-hauling odyssey—Virginia to California—to include a West Coast summer vacation tour. Since Betsy can be counted on for compelling copy and excellent photography, FHL decided to go along for the ride. Betsy’s earlier reports may be found under the Horse and Hound drop-down menu/Travel.
Beth was the one who first noticed.
Since Utah on the way out, we’ve been in high desert sierra or rocky mountain morraine. It is beautiful out west, but verdant and lush it isn’t.
Yesterday we stopped over at a horse hotel just west of Albuquerque, New Mexico. We’ve grown accustomed to the western horse-keeping style: outdoor covered stall attached to a twelve-by-twelve-square-foot paddock. And that’s all. No communal pastures, not a blade of grass, no group turnout. It’s not wrong or bad, just different.
I hooked up with New Mexico resident Mike Elmore—judge/horseman/former steeplechase jockey (he won the Maryland Hunt Cup, among others)—to drop off some furniture and stuff I’d brought from Mrs. Smithwick’s Sunnybank Farm in Middleburg (his former longtime home). Mike looks great, but he, too, says the western horse-keeping template is odd, especially when coming from the grassy turnouts of the East Coast.
Mike is a big fish in a small pond out here. He’s the best horseman, I’m sure, in the four-state area and has a thriving training/teaching business. Still, I could tell as we chatted, that he misses the mid-Atlantic region. He’s coming back in a month to judge the North American Field Hunter Championship so everybody can see him then.
We departed around 6 p.m. MDT for a horse hotel east of Oklahoma City. Around central Texas, at dawn, Beth noticed …. green grass! We nearly cheered when we saw big open fields dotted with cattle, some with horses. We’re getting closer to home!
Last night Beth drove first, and I napped about a half hour. I’m proving to be bad at forced sleeping; I just can’t do it. I know doctors and shift-workers train themselves to sleep on command, but I just can’t. Still, I got a solid nap before and after dinner, then took over around 10 p.m. We arrived at Four Winds Ranch around 7 am CDT. Katherine had stayed back at the ranch in New Mexico a few extra hours to get some sleep herself, so she was a half-day behind us. Unfortunate, because her Hanoverian gelding was showing signs of mild colic, so I called her and got permission to treat him with Ace and Banamine.
Beth and John came over to a hotel for a shower, breakfast, and nap, but I stayed at the farm to make sure the horse was okay. He was, of course, after the meds, and he and the other two horses drank deeply and mostly ate their breakfasts and some soaked hay. It was about ninety-five degrees by midday, so I pulled our host’s biggest fan up to one of Katherine’s giant three-string alfalfa bales (which made a royal cot for more napping).
I talked on the phone a little (thanks to my spies back home with real-time weather reports) and tried (unsuccessfully) to sleep. I popped up and down to check the horses a few steps away in the barn every few minutes. Katherine showed up after lunch and brought me to the hotel for a shower (much requested by my pit crew; they say I’ve gone a little feral as the trip has concluded) and another try for sleep. Dubious, but it’s still nice to prop upright in a big bed, AC blasting from across the room. John is working on one of his last travel journal reports, and he made a sign for our last two legs.
We’ll try to depart around 6 pm (7 EDT) (though doubt we’ll make that target). It’s a full 700-plus miles to the Tennessee stop, so we’ll be pushing hard tonight. It’s only 560 miles for our final leg to the farm in Maryland, so we’re on our final hard leg tonight.
As always, calls are appreciated, especially in those most difficult early morning hours—3 a.m. to 5 a.m. (EDT). Thanks to those of you who took me at my word for those calls thus far. It is so nice to hear a friendly voice and to have something else to think about/talk about other than the demons in my own mind that’ve pursued me east coast to west coast, and back.
Not sure I’ll get Internet connection at the Tennessee stop, but I’m hopeful (Katherine is teaching the lady a lesson tomorrow afternoon, so I’ll catch a shot of that) and then I expect my final report will be from home! on Wednesday afternoon. Keep thinking positive thoughts. You’re all keeping the wheels on the road.
States crossed: New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma.
Tomorrow: Crossville, Tennessee, a dressage training barn/Friesian breeding facility.
Wednesday 0’dark hundred: Union Bridge, Maryland!
To be continued….
August 16, 2010