We lost the horses.. again

Rachel just told me that a couple of days here feel like a year in the real world. Especially this past week, so much has happened, it feels like it’s been ages since I went to the airport to pick up the new group. Remember how I thought 14 people was a big group? This week we had 17. They havebeen amazing though, helping out wherever they could and with every problem that came up. I honestly wouldn’t have survived this week without all the help and understanding. As it was, we had a really fun, busy week and it feels like I’ve known these people for ages.

Of course we did lots of riding. We went to Cowcamp where we went out to find racoons and hidden caves, I rode around bareback to check on everyone, Petra and I went looking for the missing cows and Doo taught us how to line-dance in the moonlight. The next morning we couldn’t find 12 of our 18 horses so we loaded all the tack and most of the interns in the truck and Paul, me and four interns rode out to find the herd. Eventually we found them just chilling on a hill, pretty far away from camp. We managed to wrangle them down a pretty steep slope and all the way back home.

We went to Wood River again and I drove the huge truck and trailer! And everyone survived! I even backed it up twice! It was actually pretty easy. The ride itself was great as well, we followed a narrow cow trail through a pretty dense forest with lots of low-hanging branches and little jumps down the slope. On Lisa’s last day we went out to look for our bull, who had escaped to the neighbours. We found them with the neighbours cows and had to wrangle all of them back home because he just wouldn’t move, not even when we rode into him with our horses. Trying to get him to move was so much fun though, I love working with the cows and riding with a purpose. We also went to float the river in Thermopolis with the new group, which I hadn’t done before but it was loads of fun! We almost didn’t make it out of the river because the current was so strong, it most have been a funny sight to see us struggling to reacht the shore.

On Friday, Dani and I went out in the morning to wrangle the horses. Most of them were already at the corral so we opened they gate and they were walking in when I realized that there was something in the other corral. The mare that we had kept in had had her baby! It looked like he was maybe one or two hours old and he was struggling to get up. Alice and Helen worked really hard to get him some milk and help him stand up but eventually we decided to take him to the vet, who gave him milk and an IV-drip. It looked like he was doing better, standing up and nursing, but unfortunately he passed away Saturday night. The vet thinks he suffered from oxygen deprivation during birth but she has no idea why he suddenly deteriorated and died..

In more positive news, we went to a wedding! MaeCile got married to Jim last Saturday and it was great. They both looked radiant, the ceremony was nice, the cake looked great, as did the flowers (bouquets made by the interns) and the best thing was that we could attend in our jeans and boots, definitely a first for me. Oh and I almost forgot about my encounter with the snake! I opened the tack room and was reaching for a brush when I realized there was a rattle snake right next to it. I slowly backed up and walked away while the snake slithered out of the tack room rattling it’s tale. I’m surprised at how calm I sounded calling for MaeCile and Paul, who chopped it’s head of with a lunge whip, at least it won’t be bothering us anymore ;)