It is an amazing organization and an incredible experience. This year, organizers adjusted the route and returned to the original trail - or as close to it as possible - a change from recent years.
Before I get to the ride, let me begin at the beginning. Our friend Joe Stubbs is married to a life-long member and current Director of Rodeo Houston and her family has ridden the Salt Grass each year for decades. After an incident with a horse several years ago Brenda no longer rides, but set up Joe last year to ride one day - the Monday ride.
Joe said it was great fun, leading Jerry and me to say we wanted to ride this year. Brenda made all of the arrangements, which includes joining the association, joining the Wagon, renting horses, getting hotel rooms, buying the proper attire and having it embroidered with the Wagon 7 logo. There is a dress code on the Salt Grass Trail Ride - you must wear a shirt with a collar, a cowboy hat and boots. Your membership "hang tag", with Wagon buttons, must be visible during the daily rides. You don't just show up with a horse!
To comply, Brenda took on the task of outfitting her crew of City Slickers. She also served as trail coach (we were clueless) and transportation manager. It's like a finely tuned machine of service and support vehicles moving in and out to, literally, get this show on the road.
The official jackets are Carthart - blanket-lined, fire-proof and stiff as a board when you first put them on. They are PRACTICAL, not a fashion statement, but they keep you very comfortable in the cold morning air!
Our initial plan was to ride Saturday - a "circle ride" in Brenham, take Sunday off and then pick up Monday morning in Chappell Hill for day three. Our horses were arranged through Dallas & Lisee Smalley, who we had ridden with in January at their ranch in New Ulm. Just before the ride, Brenda talked with a long-time trail rider who said we were CRAZY to miss Sunday and should try to secure "day two" horses - Brenda jumped into action and lined us up with Smokey Davis out of Fulshear because Dallas' horses were booked for Sunday.
The Circle Ride on Saturday was 8.2 miles and, like a circle, we began and ended at the Washington County Fairgrounds.
Here we are ... City Slickers on the loose! Joe Stubbs, me and Jerry. We arrived in Brenham, dropped our bags at the Holiday Inn Express and headed to the Fairgrounds. There wasn't much time for anything but signing releases, securing our credentials and getting in the saddle.
Jerry and I had good horses, but they were grazing machines. They had two speeds ... go and eat.
This is Cameron (Joe's son), Barkley, Jr. (Brenda's nephew) and Haley (Brenda's daughter)
We had a big group and it was fun.
Giddy up! Wagon 7 with 53 riders heading out.
I don't know how many wagons there were all together, but at least 19. There were hundreds of horses, which is an interesting situation. I've ridden horses since I was pretty young, but they've always been in a pasture or on a country road and have either been by themselves or with other "pasture buddies". Socializing horses is tricky business.
The Circle Ride on Saturday is "meet and greet time" for the horses and they're not always thrilled at the sight of another horse. As you're heading out you may see horses with a red ribbon on their tail ... that means they'll kick if you run up on them or get too close. Apparently, not everyone understands this - there are "newbies" on each ride. There are also many, many cocktails served from the wagon while on the trail!
Brenda and Poppy (her step-Dad) as the horses were leaving the Fairgrounds
Cameron, Barkley, Haley & Joe ...
Cowboy Joe ...
One of the funniest sights are all the "cowboys", riding down back country roads with the newest technology in their hands. I love this shot of Cameron with the sun glinting down on his iPhone! A traditional camera would be too bulky, so most folks just used their iPhones to take photos. This was a challenge for me because I was wearing riding gloves (it was cold and the reins will tear your hands up over a long day) so I didn't get as many photos as I might have.
Here we go - that's me in the back.
Cowboy Jerry ... he looks like a Texas Ranger, doesn't he?
"Roy & Dale" at one of our MANY stops along the side of the road. With a new route and all of the horses getting used to each other, we had a number of traffic related stops, four accidents (not in Wagon 7) and a potty-break. Trail Ride protocol dictates that you don't leave your fellow riders behind. The wagons move through a rest stop without breaking formation ... you move up and wait ... move up and wait ... as each wagon has an opportunity to make a pit stop or deal with whatever might have gone wrong. There are Scouts on horseback along the way who keep everyone informed of what's happening up and down the trail.
It was a great day and great weather. My horse, Hammer, was a good sport although he preferred to be in front and would have loved to break loose and run free. Of course, they don't realize how far they're going when you first start out and too much running early wouldn't make for a good finish at the end of the day!
We returned to the Fairgrounds over four hours later to find the Wagon Crew at our tent serving up BBQ quail, sausage, vegetables with dip and cheese and crackers. We thought this was dinner and had a delicious plate ... along with a couple of glasses of McAllen to ease the aching of our knees after so much time in the saddle. Purely medicinal, of course.
As I mentioned earlier, we were CLUELESS. This was just the snack. A couple of hours later, there was BBQ chicken, steak and all sorts of stuff, along with a band. Dining tables were moved off of the (rented) dance floor, a camp fire was started in the big pit and everyone had a great time. Of course, you all know that my bed time comes early and and since I was up at 4am and ran an hour before we even left for Brenham, I was beat. Can you say PARTY POOPER?
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