just a day

What an incredible day yesterday.  It was just a typical dude ranch day, you know.

We started out on the long ride, which I somewhat forcefully encouraged my guest, Elaine, to go on.  You see, she's never been around horses and while she said she was nervous, she settled in pretty quickly.  But she would talk herself into being nervous, even though, she wasn't really.  And I knew she'd be mad at herself if she missed it.

Once we were at the lunch spot, she decided to go straight back with her in-laws, while the rest of her crew decided they wanted to go on to Elkhorn Falls, which I lead since Georgia wasn't sure she remembered the way.

We got there.  We soaked our feet like we did last week.  I had too much of a temperature change (these falls are from snow run-off).  Got nauseated after a fast lope.  Had to calm myself.  Recovered.  Had a few more fast lopes.

And then.

I hear my guests saying, "WHOA!  Wait up!"

I turn around.

I see Frankie, Elaine's husband, sitting on a horse that is lying on the ground.

I yell to my guest to get off before he gets hurt.  Thankfully, Frankie isn't scared since his dad used to shoe horses long, long ago.

Charlie, the horse, on the other hand.  Poor ole feller.  He's got bad hips and I guess all the loping (speed before running) was too much for him.  Similar to me only minutes earlier, he was sweating like crazy and his heart was racing.  We allowed him to lay there for a while, cool off, calm down, and get up on his own accord.  And again, similar to me, he seemed to get himself back together.  We, thankfully, made it the rest of the way home without incident.

And the day went on like a usual Wednesday.  Unload a ton of asphalt to fill in the potholes of the driveway.  Eat some dinner.  Listen to Lars and Amy sing.  Go to bed fat and happy.

What more could you ask for in a typical dude ranch day?