The Sunday ride is 13.3 miles from the Washington County Fairgrounds to the Kopycinski Pasture just outside of Chappell Hill
We met Smokey and his team at 8am and were in the saddle by 8:30 ... my horse was named Eli and was very enthusiastic about getting the ride under way.
Here we are at the trailer and before I go on, I'll share a little bit about how this works. The horse owners have huge trailers that are stationed around the Fairgrounds. They saddle up, make stirrup adjustments and then you're on your own until the end of that day's ride. I felt a little guilty, after owning horses and taking the time to unsaddle and brush them out after every ride, to ride up to the trailer, tell the horse thank you and good bye and leave all the work to someone else. The owners say "that's what you're paying for". Both days, our horses were taken to larger pastures (or home) so that they could stretch their legs and relax before the next day's journey. Many trail riders own custom campers where they sleep in the front and the horses are either tethered to the trailer with food and water or spend the night in pretty plush accommodations inside the trailer.
Joe riding Flash
Jerry was riding Tex and as he mounted up, Smokey says "this is a good horse, but he doesn't like to stop ... ride him around a bit and if you don't like him, bring him back." Hmmm
Tex was a LARGE, strong horse and Jerry liked him - so off we went to join the rest of Wagon 7. I was happy to have a few minutes to ride around and get used to Eli before heading out on the road. 9am and we were called to line up.
Once all of the wagons and their riders are in position, the National Anthem is played - with excited horses whinning in the background - followed by a prayer. It felt great to be a part of the tradition and our knees felt fresh and flexible!
Wagon 7 is positioned near the front of the ride, but many, many wagons and horses were behind us!
Here we are on Old Chappell Hill Road ... site of the incident.
As we exited the Fairgrounds and headed out on the highway, Eli wanted to burn off a little energy and he really liked to be in the lead. We were ahead of Jerry and Joe, but Joe and Flash soon came trotting up beside us. We rode this way for some time with Jerry and Tex just behind us. As we were moving along, there were people on 4-wheelers who had come out to the road to watch and wave and from time to time we would pass things in the road ... hub caps, metal scraps ... but generally the Scouts had cleared the way. We were supposed to stay on the pavement - our horses were wearing metal shoes.
As we were moving along the road, I see a shattered windshield folded in half and laying just to the side of the road. Eli passed it without notice and Joe and Flash were on the inside, so he probably never saw it. Maybe a minute later, we hear a "thud", look back and see Jerry on the ground with Tex bolting across the street. A Scout grabbed Tex by the reins and as Jerry was getting up to his knees the Scout is shouting at him to "take your glasses off". Jerry told him he was OK and that he didn't hit his head, but the Scout was insistent on making sure he didn't have a head injury. I was concerned about his back and Jerry was concerned about Tex.
A woman Scout had taken Tex from the first guy and brought him to me and we pulled over to be sure Jerry was OK before getting back in the saddle. He said he had landed on his shoulder and it ached, but otherwise felt he was OK. He got back in the saddle and we took off. By this time, we were mixed in with the Desparados - Wagon 8 - and a Scout told us we could move around them and make our way back up to Wagon 7. Eli was thrilled and Flash and Tex were pretty excited too. Jerry, not so much. The trotting on the pavement was painful and he realized that it hurt when he took a deep breath. He persevered and from time to time would move his shoulder around to loosen it up.
Jerry said that he was trotting to catch up to us and was near the right side of the road he didn't see the windshield before Tex did and the next thing he knew Tex was rared up in the air and his back foot slipped off the pavement onto the shoulder of the road and that was it ... he was off. After we rejoined the Wagon 7 group, Jerry was the talk of the ride. One guy behind us said "I've never seen anything like it - he rolled off that horse and never even lost his hat!"
Here we are - the three amigos!
Jerry with Tex happily trotting along - with Joe just ahead of them.
As the miles wore on, Jerry figured out all of Tex's hang-ups ... he doesn't like to stop and wait and you'd better have something for him to do or he'll figit and back up and generally be a menace. He likes to have his head scratched and isn't shy about using your knee or another horse he likes as a scratching post. Just like Elvis, when he gets bored, he will walk up to another horse and put his face 1/4 inch from the other horse's face and look them directly in the eye. Like a little loving head-butt. Eli seemed to like this too so that's how we made the rest of the ride - with Jerry anticipating and managing his antics.
The funniest thing was watching these horses interact - sometimes a perfectly nice horse would walk by or come up to us at a stop and it was obvious that Tex HATED him. Bad vibes, I guess. Then another horse would come up and he would have no reaction. The one thing we were sure about was that he did not like having any other horse run up behind him - it made him nervous and he would turn and try to bite Flash.
Looking forward to Wagon 7 at a rest stop ...
As we neared what we thought was our lunch stop, the Scouts told us to ride six abreast - we were clueless - but as we turned the corner we relized we were riding through Chappell Hill and they had turned it into a parade ... sort-of. It was fun to see the little kids faces as the horses passed by. I'm sure I have the same look on my face when I see a horse! I wouldn't say we would win any contests for perfect formation, but in general we pulled it off.
Several miles down the road, we had another rest stop before turning into the Chappel Hill Fire Dept & pasture for lunch.
Brenda and Barkley, Jr. to the rescue! Just like real trail riders, when you stop for lunch you're still responsible for your horse - with nothing to tie him to. After being in the saddle for five hours, we wanted OFF and they held our trusty mounts while we wolfed down some delicious chicken salad and other goodies. One-by-one we led our horses to the trough for a cool drink of water. They enjoyed snacking in the pasture as we ate.
I have to say that Tex is "the Elvis" of horses. Jerry takes him to the trough and another horse puts his head in so he backs out and will not drink. Later I took him back and he stuck his head in, got a deep drink, rested and stuck his nose in again. At that minute, a horse on the other side accidentally dripped on his head and he was finished. What a personality this one has!
Here is Eli - looking much more tired than when we left Brenham!
Jerry with Tex and although his head is down, you can see that his withers (shoulders) are almost as tall as Jerry's shoulders. Big horse.
Getting Jerry back in the saddle after lunch was more difficult than after the fall - the injury was taking hold - he finished the ride and upon arrival at Kopycinski Pasture he even said he was going to ride the next day. Monday is 18.3 miles from outside Chappell Hill to Waller County Fairgrounds and after some consideration we said we'd ride until the lunch break and Dallas offered to pick up the horses from us there. We had a great mexican food snack, but the weather was turning colder and we'd had enough to eat so we took our patient back to the Holiday Inn Express for a good nights sleep.
Wishful thinking. All that fresh air - and cedar pollen - had done a number on Jerry's sinuses and he suddenly had a lot of chest congestion and a bad cough. SEVERE pain when he coughed. At that point, we made the decision to hang up our saddles for 2013 and focus on next year. Jerry saw an Orthopedic Doc on Tuesday and learned that he has a cracked rib - hence the pain. Things are better now that the cough has subsided, but he won't be playing golf for 4 weeks. We are planning to go back to New Ulm and ride with Dallas and Lisee to see the bluebonnets and we may even head out to Fulshear for a reunion with Tex. He was a spunky devil, but Jerry liked riding him!
Here is the route we would have completed on Monday ... next year we'll knock out three days!
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