XP, from North Platte, NE library

[guest@endurance.net]

Karen xprider@att.net
Hi everybody!  My email on the laptop seems to have gone kaput, but it is
still uploading photo sets right now to endurohorse.com.  If you go there,
type in "XP" (no quotations) and it should pull up all of the photos from
the XP.  After I'm done here today there should be several more sets, and
if I can I'll copy my posts over to the library computer and send them
that way.

Everything is going really well, the two days off have been great and we
are all ready to go another week.  The horses are doing well, I can't
believe how much they are eating, even more than I expected.  Barney got
back and we were able to weigh them, two weeks into the ride and Weaver
has gained weight <G>, Rocky is roughly the same, still up from his normal
ride weight so we're doing well.  They have adapted really well to the
conditions I think, and it'll only get easier as we go since it's getting
drier.  It is supposed to be cooler tomorrow, won't that be great!

I only know of a small handful of riders that have gone every single day,
and I'm not sure I know them all but heres my best shot:  Trilby Pederson,
MJ Jackson, Kayla Ramsdell and Pat Verhuel.  Nobody has done all the days
on one horse.  Kathy Thompson is trying on Zane Grey but was pulled the
first day for lameness then had another half day.  There are strong
opinions in camp about whether or not anybody should even be trying to do
this on one horse.  I will stay uninvolved on that topic.  :^P

There are still quite a large number of rigs and horses.  I know some
people have left, and others have left and come back again with fresh
horses.

The crews have gotten better organized at working together as teams, I
think.  They are getting water out for us three times a day, once before
lunch and twice after.  In addition to that the various crews are also
meeting riders in several places so we are getting a lot of water to
drink.  My guys have always been good drinkers and with us using lots of
electrolytes it's keeping them drinking well.  I really like those
Lyte-Now syringes, they are pretty handy (boy am I sick of mixing
electrolytes!).  We're sponging and hosing the horses off a lot too, and
that seems to really be helping keep them cool.  Plus I think we're
keeping their heart rates under 100 almost all day long, not exactly
breaking any speed records here.  lol   I think that all the green grass
they are eating along the way is really great for them too, they
constantly have food in their mouths.  They are even eating some of the
loose salt I'm puting out for them.

I think most of the horses around camp are looking pretty good.  Most are
like mine and nice and plump, eating and drinking well.  Some aren't, and
the riders are trying to get that figured out.  There are lots of rope
burns, gall and saddle sores that will have to get worked out.  I'm lucky
and don't have any of those, my horses biggest problem is that they hate
all the biting insects and are major wooses about that.  They love
everything else though.  Most of the horses here are pretty experienced,
so it's no surprise that they are all handling everything so well.  Riders
are taking days off if they think their horses need it, realizing that we
have a long way to go.

Dave Rabe was spotted riding a mule on Saturday.  <G>

My dog is okay, if my other posts go thru you'll read what happened to
her.  She impaled herself on a stick playing and had to have surgery on
Saturday after I finished the ride.

Other than that, everything seems to be going really well.  The Duck had a
huge semi of timothy brought in for the ride and it went quicker than you
could say "hay".  We're all in the fairgrounds, and have plenty of space.
The weather is gorgeous too!  Looking forward to riding again.....:+)))

Happy XP Trails,

Karen,
  in North Platte, Nebraska