Our recent visitor....

[Debbie]

Last Thursday Eldon and I saw a long distance horse and rider as we went to a hiking trail near Cannon Beach. They were doing the Pacific Crest Trail, and portions of the trail are gone, so they have to come onto the highway instead. By Friday noonish Joe and Bungee showed on our doorstep. Joe was a lot of fun to chat with because he's also a mushroom enthusiast

We offered them our 2 acre paddock with the field shelter so they could both rest and recuperate while waiting on friends to trailer them across the big scary bridge into Washington.



The friends are from British Columbia and they are Back Woods riding enthusiasts. This is the amazing rig they have. What a posh ride!



For much of the week, I've kept the girls out of their paddock to their barn, but I let them in to for fun a day ago, so they could say hi. They still have a lane between their own paddock and Bungee's ~ thankfully! Bungee is half Arabian, and used to be a stallion. He never got to try out the equipment, but he could say Oh La La! to the ladies

Bungee obliviously grazing.... I was very pleased how much topline he regained with just the grazing in that field.


The girls have charged into their paddock and noticed! We have left to right, Reigny (boss mare), Rita and Coco.... also known as Imma Gonna Kill Ya, Indifferent, and Ooooooh BABYMAKER!


Bungee decided to toss his head around trying to be the dominant horse on the block ~ a truly wrong move with Reigny good thing that lane was there!

This is the 'polite' picture of Reigny explaining life to Bungee and where he stands in Reigny's world order



Bungee takes fast note and says, "Yes Ma'am!!!"


Reigny ensures the ranks are paying attention too:



At this point I knew the girls would only continue to stir the pot, so I chased them back out into their big field and closed the gate to give a bigger buffer. Joe had been watching the whole thing and was shocked to know Reigny was 1. a mare 2. only 14.1 hands. He kept saying over and over how much bigger she looked. Well, yes, that's because she's an alpha mare and she was pretty pissed. Truthfully, she's still sulking that I touched some strange horse ( I gave a shiatsu to Bungee to help him recover faster from the trail). I'm only too glad Blossom and Dundee were shielded from view entirely. I know what Blossom would have thought, and fencing would not contain her!

This is Joe and Bungee



They are clearly devoted to each other. As much as Bungee likes women, he knows Joe is "Dad" and Joe takes such amazing care of Bungee.

Hope you enjoyed the pics

[nedales]

Fabulous tale Debbie--Isn't the Pacific Crest Trail the one that Wild was written about? Not sure I understand the rig part though--do the horses overnight in that thing on the trail? Really nice ponies all around!

[Debbie]

Oh, no horses don't overnight in the rig. That was their friends' rig that took them across the long bridge today so they could continue their journey on the trail in Washington

I've never read the book, the Wild. I only know the Pacific Crest Trail runs through our coastline here in Oregon. I vaguely know it runs from Canada to the terminus at the Mexican border, perhaps the other terminus is up near Alaska? The whole trail is suppose to be open to horse riders, but it's embarassing that sections of the trail are lost, and unrideable in places. It's not great, but at least they can come onto Highway 101 to get around those spots.

[harveydales]

Lovely pics, Debbie. I'd forgotten what a herd you have to take care of. They are all looking well, as is the visitor. Harvey would have been just the same as Reigny with a strange interloper suddenly appearing and attracting attention. It must be wonderful to ride a long trail like that and I can see why he needs plenty of back up!

[yanny]

Your horses are all gorgeous!!! I love Reigny; I adore duns/buckskins
It's lovely to see the bond between the endurance rider and his horse. So many people act like endurance is easy, boring/not risky enough or "just hacking"! I'd like to see some of the people I know who say those things bond with their horses in such a way. Especially a stallion. This is one of the reasons why I want to do endurance

[dalesnfellfan]

Lovely pics, that is some rig, is that a small car on the back of the truck? Em is the same, she still hasn't forgiven me for bringing Connie home and pulls some awful faces if I even look in her direction. Connie is starting to get the same now if I'm doing anything with Em, I hope they don't beat each other up when they eventually go in together when Connie has her shoes off.

Must have been really interesting having them stay.

[nedales]

Here's the book Wild (Cheryl Strayed)--a good fast read and recently a film (not as good but stunning scenery) and it is about the Pacific Crest Trail--on two feet. I can't even imagine how horses navigate the arid parts of this trail!

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild:_From_Lost_to_Found_on_the_Pacific_Crest_Trail

Edited to add in I did find the equine trail association for this trail--lost of good pix of what your two will have encountered Debbie! www.pcta.org/discover-the-trail/equestrian-center/

[Debbie]

Joe started in Eugene, Oregon with Bungee and hoofed it to Florence on the Oregon coast and began his slow progression North. Each night he would aim for one of our parks, or a place off the highway to set up his pop up tent and make camp. We do have various horse facilities and some of our parks are set up for horses overnight, but Joe said there were plenty of nights where he slept just off the highway, holding Bungee's leadrope.

For his part, Bungee realized where ever the blue pop up tent was, that was camp, his safe home base. He felt secure once the tent was up and Joe could leave him in whatever paddock in order to go into towns for supplies. Pretty amazing all in all since Bungee was untouched when Joe first got him.

The people who picked them up to take them across the Astoria bridge do this camping/riding horses for a living now. They are from British Columbia, Canada and the travel around, taking in the sights, and Kelly's even made a book to help other folks know where to plan their holidays with their horses.

www.campingandhorses.com/

Well spotted Andrea! that is indeed a mini car tucked in behind the cab of the semi. Ron used to be a professional trucker, so he's the one who manoevers this beastie on the roads and trails that they go. Their two boys are an amazing Paint stallion and a Paint gelding.  

[Debbie]

I hadn't seen the book, but I admire anyone who goes any portion of the PCT

[valerie n scout]

Cor that one amazing horse trailer, Its a "smart" car Richy used to drive one beautiful horses as always Debbie....mmm Bungee and Joe are rather nice x

[Debbie]

I never can tell one car from another, place a pony in front of me and I'll spend half a day trying to suss it's breeding however

As for Joe and Bungee, they're sweet and all, but I prefer Team Eldon and Dundee