The Journey Begins...

Eowyn researching the theory, that the grass always IS greener on the other side.... :)

Never having traveled further than 900 or so miles to a ride, Terri and I were unsure of a good time table to get from here (Trinidad/McKinleyville, Ca) to the ride start (St.Joseph, Mo). Good old Google Maps gave about 1,900 miles and 1 day, 6hrs as a driving time (what, they think you'll drive 24hrs straight through and then some?? Sheesh!).

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So what should we realistically plan for? We figured, to get to Bryce Canyon in Utah, or Grand Canyon in Az (the 900 mile trips), it takes us three days to do so without stressing us or the horses. One short day to the Redding area, then two longer days. So to go twice that distance, it would take 6 travel days. Then we had to figure in one, or several, rest days along the way, as we didn't want to just drive 6 days straight through. Then we also wanted to give the horses at least one rest day upon arrival in St.Joe. So we figured on maybe 10 days give or take, to figure in for travel and rest. This also gave us a good buffer, if things went wrong (like the truck breaking down and having to sit in a no-name town waiting for parts and repairs), and still get us to the ride in time for the start on May 24. So we decided to leave on Sunday, May 15.
Our first stop took us as far as Palo Cedro, Ca, just east of Redding. We were going to stay at our favorite vet (and equine dentist extraordinaire), Dr. Jen Powers of Above and Beyond Animal Care. She has been taking care of my horses for a few years now, and they have never looked, felt, and preformed better. We likely owe a good bit of our XP success to her excellent care of our critters, and if you need a large (or small!) animal vet in the Redding area (and she also travels to our area multiple times a year), look her up! She has a nice little practice and room for a few extra horses now and then (so she is our first eastward bound stop nowadays on the way to rides), and our ponies could get a last glance (and the ever important health certificate) by her, before going on their big adventure.
Part of the wonderful Above and Beyond team: Dr. Jen, her receptionist, and one of the techs (gawds, can't remember their names right now! But they are both wonderful ladies...actually, I think the entire staff is...estrogen city, but it makes for a wonderfully efficient and caring clinic!)

The "lameness exam" roundpen on the right, the "run free" one on the left, a nice setup down below the main barn and office and our overnight area as well.

There is also a shed row of 4 or 5 covered runs for extra stalls beyond the ones up at the barn.

The cast of equine characters on our trip:

Eowyn of course. :) As in every camp, no issues relaxing and sleeping. And usually fairly clean about her manure piles too....

"Casey's Time For Joy"....or just plain Joy. A 6yo KMSH/RMSH mare and the 'backup' horse for both Terri and I. Turns out she became 'Not-a-Joy' as the trip progressed, but you'll see that as we go along the blog. Cute and sweet girl, but not able to deal with the journey as well as the other two ponies. She was THE cleanest horse though. No matter where or how we were camped, she always pooped in one area, away from her food/water/sleep area.

And Oliver the wonder horse. With over 7,000 miles on him already, this Racking Horse gelding of Terri's, was the mentor for the other two on this trip. Easy to ride, easy traveler, nothing phases him. But sheesh... the MESSIEST darned horse EVER. He always pooped in his sleep and food area...sighhh.. and then would stand in it too! Yuck.

And here is our rig setup. The front tack room area was changed around MANY times on our rest days, as we figured out what worked or not, found better places for things, etc. But this is what we pulled into Dr. J's with....

Vital Vaults for the various pelleted foods (and we picked up a 250lb barrel of EGM feed pellets at Dr. J's, that went in here too...really! It did, I swear! ;)...), extra propane tank, wet feed buckets, various small things on the door....

...an 18 gallon water tank in the goofy corner, things with velcro on the wall carpet, and lots of stuff hanging from the tack hooks....

...Pads hanging from the side and ceiling bars, a large shelving unit on the back wall with all our booting supplies, vet supplies, extra tack stuff, repair stuff, truck parts, etc, etc.
With all that in front, there was no room for actual tack in there anymore. So Terri had our local trailer/welder guy make a rear tack compartment for the trailer. He used the saddle rack that was already in the front tack, and then made dividers that could come out if needed, etc. The saddle rack even swings out! He is a master at his craft :) All the saddle and grooming stuff went here, and bridles and such went on hooks on the dividers, as well as hooks on the main trailer door itself. Hay rack up top could hold up to 5 bales (3-stringer...7 of the 2-stringer) of hay, and has a 30 gallon water tank as well.


And the horse area... They now had to learn (except in the very front position) how to back out around the corner tack. They did so just fine (I have a 2-horse straight load trailer, so the backing principle was already there...just learning to turn a corner was new) and we just LOVE the new design. It is much easier having all the tack in the back.
So with the trailer all packed up and ponies ready to go, we left Dr. J's all set to drive into the Undiscovered Country... Next stop was to be Winnemucca, Nv, on I-80, which was a route we hadn't traveled before (we usually took Hwy 50 east through Nv to Az or Ut). There, we were going to meet up with Laney Humphrey, who was going to caravan to St. Joe with us.