A note from Hope

Hi Karen: Thanks for sending your exciting posts from XP 2001. Made me start reminiscing about the GAHR of 1976. The things I see as different We did not have GPS, CELL PHONES, LIVING QUARTERS TRAILERS and NO COMPUTERS OR INTERNET. In place of GPS we had Larry Lewis who went out on his motor bike and marked the next days trail. I don't know of anyone getting lost. He was super and nothing would have gone right without him! CELL PHONES? what's that don't think they had been invented yet. LQ Horse Trailers, no such thing. Some had Campers in back of their Pickups. I had a Shell and the back was where I kept hay, grain,water clothes etc. No room to sleep there so I slept on a cot in my two Horse Trailer with a Horse tied on each side. Easy Boots had just been invented and Easy Care gave us all a set of 4. Bless them! Alas I did not have time to learn how to put them on! I don't think the various farriers knew much about them at that time either. When we could find a KOA site we would go there for a hot shower otherwise it was the bucket. I bet you don't have the GREEN Latrines! That trailer followed us from Frankfort New York to Cal Expo in Sacramento! I tried to call my daughter once a week. Sometimes I sent a letter to my Boss who was also my Sponsor. After weeks went by we were out of touch with most everything going on in the world and we did't care, we just wanted to RIDE and never wanted it to end.

Things I see as the same:WEATHER, SCRATCHES, NICE PEOPLE ALONG THE WAY,CREWS AND FREINDSHIPS, SITES AND MEMORIES YOU WILL ALWAYS CHERISH. We had Weather too, lots of rain and almost every Rig had to be towed out of a field one day. The Farmer send his 10 or 12 year old boy to do the Job! Kids learn how to drive tractors on farms as they don't need a drivers license. After towing out several rigs he disappeared. Said he had to go and get more oil for the tractor. He came back and finished the job! Do we have Kids like that today? In Kankakee, Ill. we had a Tornado alert. That was scary. I put both of my Horses in the trailer and took shelter in a Club House where the camp was. The brunt of the storm passed us by. As for Scratches we had plenty. One day we rode on a freshly oiled road. Every horse had oil on all four legs. Our wonderful Vets told us all to get that stuff off or else. After some discussion it was decided that cheap vegetable oil was the best remedy. That night my horses got VEGT OIL LEG BATH. Unfortunately some Riders did not do too good a job and got scabs on their horses legs. I found out early that prevention is certainly worth a pound of cure. From then on every nite I washed all eight legs with horse shampoo (wonder blue) and dried them off. I then applied good old Destin regular on the heel pastern area.This will prevent scratches. Neither of my horses ever had scratches the entire trip. One of my horses (Pirate Loot also called "Hud") was a Albino with all pink skin. Both of my horses finished sound at the very end in Sac. I put Vinegar in the grain mix every day to ward off bugs. Seemed to work. We did't have a lot of choices for electrolytes in those days but I got some tablets from my Vet at home before I left Calif. I gave each one a tablet a day. My nose was getting very sun burned so I started riding with a painters nose filter. Yes and always long sleeves.

Take lots of pictures and try and keep some notes if you are not too tired at the end of each day. Most of all have Fun! Bye Hope