Adventures with Josette

There are days where life is just an adventure, that was yesterday when Josette and I went riding. Now first you must remember that the two of us have a way of making an adventure from the simplest things. It is the easiest thing for us to do.

It was just another day as we trailered out to the Owyhees to ride. We wanted to ride past Devils Gate out to Board Corral. I thought the sky looked a bit ominous but Josette pointed out that the wind was blowing the storm away from us. OK I said as I heard "rumble rumble" off in the distance. Meanwhile her gelding, Elvis, was protesting going that direction. He was doing purt near everything in his power to say "I am not going that direction". Thunder started trotting up the hill and Elvis came along too. We had to move off the road for a pickup filled with barking dogs, thank goodness theyw ere tied in there. No sooner did we trot half a mile and here comes motorcycles. So we got off the road again and waved and smiled as the boy came by on a bike, the dad came by on a bigger bike, and here came mom on a 4 wheeler. She was frozen stiff on that thing and wasn't going fast enough to keep up. We snickered and made smart remarks as we got back on the dirt road and trotted along.

Then I saw a big flash of lightening. It went horizontal over the hill, nothing downward at all, and it was a couple miles away. Josette said she didn't see it, but she saw the nest one. "OK lets take this trail here and go the other way." The wind had quit blowing and somehow the upper winds were swirling the storm our direction. I think this was when we decided that perhaps Elvis did know best afterall and we should have listened.

So we trotted off and headed down a big gulley that would circle us around back to the trailer. "WOW! Look at that." I said. There on a hillside was an old mud cone, all swirled about with different colors. It was cool. So we had to go check it out for a closer look. There was a huge washout behind it from previous storms and a tunnel through the hill where the water had flowed. The rain, thunder and occasional flashes of lightening ended our fascination with the hill and sent us back to the gulley for protection. There we stood crouched under our horse's necks, attempting to stay dry, while the storm passed over.

In between counting the seconds between lightening flashes and the thunder booms, we spotted some neat rocks in the gulley around us as we waited out the storm. After the danger of lightening was gone we mounted up. Now my saddle has a fleece tushy cush on it that was completely saturated, and so was I once I sat on it. :-)

We rode back to the trailer. The rain was hitting the horses in the face so naturally they wanted to go the other way. Water ran every where, the clay mud was slick and gooey. By the time we got to the trailer the sun was out and it was really beautiful. The curlew was yapping at us, must have had a nearby nest. We had to wait about an hour to drive out so we wouldn't get stuck. That's why you always keep refreshments and food in the horse trailer. There were still a few tricky spots but since I am writing this you know we made it out. :-)