The beginning Ferrel, Kathy and SheriOn the 2nd to the last day of our visit to Idaho one of my dad's friends brought his horses up from Mtn. Home to go scout out a trail ride he has set up. Barry Peterson competes in these races where you go up a trail and have to find a landmark and coordinate on a compass. When you find these there is a paper/plastic plate hidden close by, you find the plate, write down the letters and numbers on the plate and go on to the next landmark. Fastest team to get all the numbers and letters back to home base wins.
His trail that he had marked was up Little Water Gulch and back down Big Water Gulch. (You can see it on the map I took a picture of for our hike.) The fire had hit this area so he wanted to check his markers to see how many he needed to replace. We stopped at 5 places and had to replace 4 markers and Barry had to make a few adjustments since a few of his landmarks had been destroyed.
My dad, Sheri and I went with Barry on this ride so he would have some company. He assured my dad it wasn't too rough of a ride for a couple of girls who hadn't been on the back of a horse in years and I mean years, 1990 was my last real ride up in the mountains before my mission. We weren't expecting a kiddie ride but he said it should be fine for us.
We got to the base camp and got the horses out. He had assigned us all a horse. I had Sir Charles which was the tallest horse. We are talking way to tall for a 5 foot 2 inch girl to get her foot in the stirrup and swing up on his back. I had to find a tall rock, stump or put Charles on a downhill slope every time I had to get back on, it was quite entertaining for the others I'm sure. Sheri got Smokey, a black and white paint who was the lead horse. My dad rode Classy, the horse Barry had won one of these races on 10 days before and Barry rode Mariah, a quarter horse who had never been on this trail before. Our 3 horses had all been on this trail and Barry was confidant they would be good horses for us.
So, off we go. Sheri on Smokey was leading then me, my dad and Barry brought up the rear. Barry's one warning was not to let them get too close to each other on the trail, keep them about a horse length apart so they wouldn't try to kick the offending horse and nail their rider in the leg. No problem, we could follow this one simple rule right?
Well, someone forgot to tell Charles he couldn't keep his nose right on Smokey's tail. Seriously, his head was almost touching Sheri's back. So I keep trying to get him to slow up and give her some space, that just makes him mad and he trys to buck me off. Nice try but no dice. So we keep going and he is still crowding Smokey. By this time we are up on the side of the mountain and when I try to get him to back off he tries to buck me off again. I have no idea how I stayed on that time, Charles really gave it a good effort, I was sure I was going to roll down the mountain, I was just thinking about getting my foot out of the stirrup so I wasn't dragged and was looking for the softest place to land so I didn't die, and thinking tuck and roll, just tuck and roll!
Somehow I stayed on and we kept going up the mountain. Barry told me to forget the one horse length rule and just let him stay close to Smokey since it didn't seem to bother her a bit that we were so close. Charles was much happier but still ornery and when my dad's horse got too close to his tail he tried to kick him so I was almost thrown off again. 3 times that little sweetheart tried to get rid of me and 3 times I showed him I wasn't going down. It was then I said a prayer of gratitude for our horse Lucky, he was one mean stinker sometimes and he was always trying to buck us off when we first rode him, like he was testing us and you just had to show him who was boss and he calmed down and was a great horse. Charles must have been cut from the same cloth because after try #3 he gave it up and was fine for the rest of the ride. Thanks for the hang-on-for-dear-life lessons Lucky.
Meanwhile my dad's horse, Classy is giving him fits too. Classy is used to being 2nd in line behind the lead horse and wasn't too happy Charles got this honored spot. He is walking sideways down the trail and throwing his head up and down and my dad is really having a hard time keeping him in line. On top of that he is right behind me watching his daughter almost get thrown off and is thinking, what have we gotten ourselves into?
When we reached the top of the mountain we could see the backside had all been burned out and after riding down a little in the soft ash and the horses finding the tree root holes to step in and sink into, we decided to walk them down the rest of the way.
We had 3 more stops and it was really beautiful but kinda sad to see all the destruction from the fire. I guess it was a huge issue for the people in Featherville/Pine because the forest service could have stopped it but decided to let it burn and it got out of control.
When we reached the 1/2 way mark Barry and my dad traded horses and then Classy gave Barry fits the rest of the way home. He was such a stinker. Barry said he used to be a race horse and they over fed him oats or something and it fried his brain so when he gets it a snit it lasts for a long time, he can't let it go and calm down.
We got to the base camp and got the horses out. He had assigned us all a horse. I had Sir Charles which was the tallest horse. We are talking way to tall for a 5 foot 2 inch girl to get her foot in the stirrup and swing up on his back. I had to find a tall rock, stump or put Charles on a downhill slope every time I had to get back on, it was quite entertaining for the others I'm sure. Sheri got Smokey, a black and white paint who was the lead horse. My dad rode Classy, the horse Barry had won one of these races on 10 days before and Barry rode Mariah, a quarter horse who had never been on this trail before. Our 3 horses had all been on this trail and Barry was confidant they would be good horses for us.
So, off we go. Sheri on Smokey was leading then me, my dad and Barry brought up the rear. Barry's one warning was not to let them get too close to each other on the trail, keep them about a horse length apart so they wouldn't try to kick the offending horse and nail their rider in the leg. No problem, we could follow this one simple rule right?
Well, someone forgot to tell Charles he couldn't keep his nose right on Smokey's tail. Seriously, his head was almost touching Sheri's back. So I keep trying to get him to slow up and give her some space, that just makes him mad and he trys to buck me off. Nice try but no dice. So we keep going and he is still crowding Smokey. By this time we are up on the side of the mountain and when I try to get him to back off he tries to buck me off again. I have no idea how I stayed on that time, Charles really gave it a good effort, I was sure I was going to roll down the mountain, I was just thinking about getting my foot out of the stirrup so I wasn't dragged and was looking for the softest place to land so I didn't die, and thinking tuck and roll, just tuck and roll!
Somehow I stayed on and we kept going up the mountain. Barry told me to forget the one horse length rule and just let him stay close to Smokey since it didn't seem to bother her a bit that we were so close. Charles was much happier but still ornery and when my dad's horse got too close to his tail he tried to kick him so I was almost thrown off again. 3 times that little sweetheart tried to get rid of me and 3 times I showed him I wasn't going down. It was then I said a prayer of gratitude for our horse Lucky, he was one mean stinker sometimes and he was always trying to buck us off when we first rode him, like he was testing us and you just had to show him who was boss and he calmed down and was a great horse. Charles must have been cut from the same cloth because after try #3 he gave it up and was fine for the rest of the ride. Thanks for the hang-on-for-dear-life lessons Lucky.
Meanwhile my dad's horse, Classy is giving him fits too. Classy is used to being 2nd in line behind the lead horse and wasn't too happy Charles got this honored spot. He is walking sideways down the trail and throwing his head up and down and my dad is really having a hard time keeping him in line. On top of that he is right behind me watching his daughter almost get thrown off and is thinking, what have we gotten ourselves into?
When we reached the top of the mountain we could see the backside had all been burned out and after riding down a little in the soft ash and the horses finding the tree root holes to step in and sink into, we decided to walk them down the rest of the way.
We had 3 more stops and it was really beautiful but kinda sad to see all the destruction from the fire. I guess it was a huge issue for the people in Featherville/Pine because the forest service could have stopped it but decided to let it burn and it got out of control.When we reached the 1/2 way mark Barry and my dad traded horses and then Classy gave Barry fits the rest of the way home. He was such a stinker. Barry said he used to be a race horse and they over fed him oats or something and it fried his brain so when he gets it a snit it lasts for a long time, he can't let it go and calm down.
Sheri, Barry and Kathy
The last stop
It was quite the interesting ride and since we all survived and no one was injured we will have to do it again sometime! You never remember the boring rides right? That area is so beautiful and it is so nice to be out in the mountains with no one else around.
Sounds like an amazing and kind of scary day.
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