my "home on the range" story

[LazyJArabs@aol.com]

a.k.a., the ride that never was...

we didn't make it to the ride on friday as planned. got over the pass 
(i-90/snoqualmie) and in easton the trailer started rocking a little. nothing 
serious, at least not till cle elum. then all hell breaks loose. trailer and 
truck are bouncing. i look in the rear view mirror and see tail hair. linda 
and i feel a drag. i hear metal on concrete. we pull over and i get out and 
go look. tailgate/ramp is down. butt bar is sheared off from the outside 
wall. ariel is squealing and bucking/kicking up a storm. jake is being a 
trooper and is standing calmly.

we manage to get the ramp up and tied in place enough to get to the off ramp 
where we can at least get her unloaded safely. a woman in a minivan stopped 
to see if everything was okay and she offered to follow us off with her 
hazards on. we get to the offramp and ariel goes ballistic again. this time 
the ramp won't come down because one of the knots we tied with climbing cord 
is too tight to untie. someone else comes along with a knife (ours were 
buried in the truck somewhere). we get the ramp down and now she won't back 
out because on of the posts from the divider keeps bumping her on the leg 
when she backs up. linda manages to hold it over out of the way (with her 
head down by jakes legs, but he's a good boy and stands quitely through the 
whole ordeal). ariel slightly grazes me on the left collar bone, but i didn't 
feel a thing, linda and the 2 people that had the knife were all asking me if 
i was okay. i don't even have a bruise now, but i did feel some slight 
bruising saturday. we both should have put our helmets on in retrospect of 
course. ariel won't back out with me up at her head by the manger, so i have 
to climb half way in at her head and get the lead rope up over her back. then 
i go around back and lean up on her butt (she's not kicking at this point) to 
grab the lead rope to ask her quitely to back out. she scoots out fairly 
quietly. tail squishing and squirting and sqealig occasionally, she's got a 
srap on her left hock and a cut on her right hind coronet band. not lame at 
all.

so, we get the trailer closed up and secured enough to get to cle elum. i 
lead ariel the mile or so from the offramp to s&c trailer sales. we have 
called about 5 people at this point already, but when i get to the trailer 
place, i try everyone again. i get ahold of alayne and she got the first 
message i left. she said that matt's out hooking up the trailer. so, i give 
them directions and then we sit and wait. linda drives the truck and trailer 
into downtown cle elum to get a chain to put on the back of the trailer so we 
can get it and jake home.

matt and alayne show up around 6ish and we load ariel up. she's totally fine. 
quiet as can be. of course she's by herself, too. we get some dinner and then 
head back, those guys following linda and i. it's snowing all the way back 
over the pass. slow going because visibility was AWFUL.

we get home and i put ariel away and then follow linda and jake back down to 
auburn. we get jake out and he's fine. the trailer is thrashed, so she and i 
spent most of saturday driving around trying to get it fixed, which it still 
isn't.

anyway, no one was seriously hurt physically, but mentally and emotionally we 
are all still exhausted. *sigh* <g>

vet is coming out on the 16th and i am having a bunch of tests done. blood, 
thryroid, palpation and maybe a granulosis cell tumor test (gets sent off to 
ucdavis i guess). if they can't find anything, then i may be off to greg's 
(eliel) again or might ask buck (brannaman) some questions at the clinic on 
memorial day.

i hope your weekend was better than mine and linda's... <g>

liz & ariel
----------
Elizabeth Johanson & CA Royalty
Cascade Ridge Runners, PNER
Maple Valley, WA, USA
http://members.aol.com/lazyjarabs/


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