Thursday, Nov. 14, 2013 - First Ride Day at Ouachita National Forest

Set the alarm so that we could get out at a decent hour (these short days require it!) though several things delayed us and it was 12:30 by the time we hit the trail. Clio's back foot seems to be fine, but we wrapped it up just in case. We headed out the #3 trail east, with boots on, thank goodness, because it soon became clear that the trail was mostly rocks, roots and muddy ruts. The terrain was nice, and the grades moderate, the forest mostly evergreens with some deciduous trees. Usually in a pine forest there are roots, but their inconvenience is generally offset by a nice pine-needle covered dirt trail, but here that is not the case. Rocks, rocks everywhere, though not quite as dense on the trail as the one we took last week in Robbers Cave. On the good side, the trails were well marked, using painted blazes, good signage, even the occasional "You are Here" placard on important intersections, so fortunately it's difficult to get lost. Of course, we always strive to achieve the difficult, and we did, in fact, miss a turn, but the cross country climb was almost a trail, certainly one that had been traveled by many horses previously, and had a lot less rocks on it, so it was actually easier than the trail itself. It wasn't long before we ran back into the right trail (my GPS kept us going in the right direction), and we arrived back at camp by 3:00. Apollo was his usual brilliant self, though I could tell he was getting frustrated with the footing after awhile, and Clio's leg was none the worse for the wear, fortunately, no damage done. Shortly after getting back, we disconnected the horse trailer from the van and I ran back into Heavener to pick up some groceries, as well as oats and wormer for the horses. Clio still doesn't seem to be putting on as much weight as we'd like, we can only think it's because the last wormer didn't do the job completely, so I got the strong stuff, and we gave that to the horses when I got back. Oddly, we found a bunch of ticks on her (and a few on Apollo), which I've never seen before. Usually ticks don't seem to bother the horses, but she had quite a few on her, though they looked like they were in the later stages of their life cycle. We took them all off and smashed them with a rock, so that was that. Settled down for the evening after putting their winter blankets on, though tonight we didn't put them in the trailer like we had the last two nights, because it was only supposed to be getting down to the low 40's, a good 20 degrees above the last two nights. Warming up for the weekened, all the way into the upper 70's!

Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2013 - Another Work Day

Another day like yesterday, working on the computer, reading, fending off the cold. The horses came out of the trailer for the day, back in for the night, another short walk, etc.

Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2013 - A Quiet Day

Glad there's a good cell phone signal here, I managed to get online and do a lot of overdue work. Spent the day working and Hubby reading, while Clio was recuperating. We took a short walk with the horses and dogs, and Clio doesn't seem to be limping at all anymore, and her swelling seems to be gone, as well as most of the heat, so hopefully we'll be riding in a few days. With a forecast of temps in the low 20's, we put them in the trailer overnight to keep them out of the hard freeze. Unseasonably cold, apparently we're experiencing typical January weather, it's usually in the 60's at this time of year. Just our luck!

Monday, Nov. 11, 2013 - Travel Day to Cedar Lake, Ouachita National Forest, OK

Despite not bothering to set the alarm because it was such a short trip today, we were up fairly early, had some oatmeal for breakfast, packed up, stopped at the dump, and had a leisurely drive to Heavener, Oklahoma, where we stopped at Marvins supermarket for groceries, and the feed store for some hay for the horses (they had nice bales, although with wire, something we only ever see in Oklahoma for some reason), then arrived at camp aby 1:30. The camp hostess wasn't much help, but we met her husband up in camp and he was quite helpful. We had to park for a few minutes while they were taking down a tree in loop F, but meanwhile we checked out the other loops, and walked around loop F as well, and finally settled on a long site at the back end of the loop. Behind us was a pull-thru site off the road, but other than that we were pretty isolated. We quickly got the horses in their respective corrals, filled the RV with water, hooked up to electricity, discovered a cell phone signal good enough to run my hotspot (yeah!), and set up the satellite dish. That was the most challenging as there were a couple of branches in just the wrong position, but eventually Hubby found a spot where he could get a good enough signal, at least for the time being. By the time that was resolved, and the horses were fed and blanketed for the night, it was getting dark, and we were ready to settle down!

Sunday, Nov. 10, 2013 - Robbers Cave Hike

After confirming that Clio's leg was better but a long way from rideable, we took a drive down to the actual Robbers Cave that this State Park is named after, and my little dog Billy and I climbed up to the cave and around all the rocks. Hubby only went about 100 feet of steep uphill before he sat down with old Marina dog and waited for our return. An interesting rock pile with a famous history of being used by robbers and marauders, with one area used as a "stone corral" for their horses, which even had a hitching post for those who dared to ride out here. Billy enjoyed jumping and sniffing and greeting the many dozens of other people who were climbing the rock with us. After a while we went and found Hubby again, then decided to run down to the stable to see if they had found the missing gray mare yet, but they hadn't. They had a good lead, though, as someone up the road had just been by to tell them they had heard what sounded like a horse in their field, though they didn't keep horses, so there's still hope. Apparently there's a fence around the whole park, but it isn't always secure around the entire perimeter. Nevertheless, I can't imagine she'd go that far from home, it's just not in their nature to go any further than the nearest grass and water hole. While we were there, I asked about hay, and spoke to a guy who said he had just passed a sign with square bales for sale, so we got directions and took a ride down. The hay looked okay, but the barn would be impossible to reach without disconnecting the pickup from the RV, and frankly, that's too much of a hassle. Plus the bales were very heavy, and wrapped with wire as well, which I don't generally like because it makes them hard to handle, and the guy was old and using a cane, obviously disabled, so no help there. We thanked him and headed back to camp, where it wasn't long before we were feeding the animals and settling down for football.

Saturday, Nov. 9, 2013 - The Best Laid Plans Don't Always Work Out

Knowing we wanted to take a long ride today, we set the alarm for 8:00, had our quick Nutrisystem breakfast bar and coffee, saddled up and headed up the lawn toward the trail head by 9:30. Hubby immediately notice his mare Clio was limping, so we stopped and examined her more fully, discovering some bad swelling on her back right fetlock, so we quickly changed our plans and headed back to camp. Just an experiment (since our horses have never been apart), I took Apollo to the end of camp to see if there was any possibility I could take a short ride alone (not that I'd be alone, the trails were packed.) That turned out to be impossible, as soon as Apollo realized Mama wasn't with us, he struggled with me all the way as we headed back toward the campsite, pawing the ground (even though he was pointed in the right direction) and jumping sideways and just generally throwing a tantrum. I managed to keep my seat (fortunately, since we were on tarmac, and dozens of eyes were watching me), and eventually we managed to sidle down the road, even though he kept pulling as if I was taking us in the wrong direction. By the time we got to the bath house I couldn't hold him anymore, and he took off at a gallop up the road back to the campsite. Unfortunately, he didn't stop right there, he passed Mama, went out into the yard a ways and then tried to buck me off again. I managed to hold on okay, and got him back to his halter, where he promptly settled down to his usual calm self. We unsaddled and put them on the anchors for a while, had a snack, then Hubby got busy with the slide out repair. Seems one side isn't opening fully on the bottom, so it's a tiny bit cockeyed. After several attempts, it didn't seem to matter what he did, it wasn't a lot better, but he did make the cables even, so he's hoping that during our next drive they'll jiggle into place and be a bit more even. Hey, we can hope, right? Settled down for an evening of television.

Friday, Nov. 8, 2013 - Rest Day

Spent most of the day working on my interview project, while Hubby read, then spent a little time on the slide out. He had noticed it wasn't performing a complete seal at the bottom even when it is all the way out, and also noticed a loose bolt on the cable, so he spent a little time reading the manual I had download (barely a cell phone signal here, but enough with my booster for internet, fortunately-though I had to up my gigs twice this month to keep up with all the use I've been adding!), then trying to make some adjustments. In the end, he couldn't quite get it, so he packed it in for the night, promising to get to it on Sunday before our Monday departure.