Never A Dull Moment

"Never a dull moment!" is the unofficial motto of the Bitterroot Ranch, and oh man is it the truth....


On Sunday the new guests arrived (8 of them), and so did the rain... By Monday morning the showers had lightened up enough to allow us to move forward with our morning ride. I was told I would be leading my first ride! (Poll Creek Trail to Upper Gorge which I had learned the day I rode Lightening) I was on Buster, and would be leading the walk/trot ride. After a little bit of drama at guest evaluations (I don't think it would be appropriate to write here, though amusing...), I set off with a guest named Bob. Bob is a retired Air Force pilot, about 5'4" wakes up at 4:30 every morning, and is at the Bitterroot because his wife loves horses and he loves his wife. The ride was going quite well, Bob made it easy to keep up conversation, and was genuinely interested in all I had to say about the local wildlife and geology. Heading into a grove of aspen, Buster tipped me off to the presence of a mule deer by spooking gloriously at it. (Two days prior, he spooked at a BUTTERFLY..... and continued to spook as said beautiful butterfly as it flew around ahead of us on the trail...... so, needless to say, I was expecting such antics) Bob blissfully ignored Busters mild meltdown, and was ecstatic to see a mule deer up close. Luckily enough for Bob... not so luckily for Buster... further down the trail was a massive yearling MOOSE. I spotted the moose before Buster this time, and pointed it out to Bob... who tried unsuccessfully to snap a few pictures of it. Once I told Buster to walk on, he finally saw the moose..... and decided it was one of those rare dun paint horse eating moose found only in Wind River Country. He spun around on his hind legs and tried to take off in the other direction. I am quite used to rollbacks like that from polo, so he didn't unseat me... I just turned him back around and tried to push him forward again. After a short battle of wills (and many more spins backwards), which Bob found quite hysterical/impressive... I won, and Buster walked forward.... eyes bulging, and snorting all the way. I felt a bit bad, because he was actually physically shaking he was so frightened of the moose.... and it was quite clear he was only walking forward because I absolutely insisted he should. This is one of the many reasons I love Buster.... while he might be one of the more irrational horses I've met, he's not completely irrational... and he is also quite honest and trusting. He gives little warnings before he'll pull a big spook or act up at the canter, and the minute I correct him he goes along with it. He's a good boy, and with more rides spent at the lead I'm hoping to break his fear of whimsical insects, herbivores, and every other animate or inanimate object he eyeballs.



Throughout our ride, stormclouds spotted the far horizon, and on our way back from Upper Gorge the clouds rolled in. Bob and I made it back just as the rain began to fall, but the other ride was not so lucky. They rolled in 20 minutes after us, completely and totally soaked in the middle of a true Wyoming thunderstorm. We untacked all the horses as fast as possible, and set off for a nice hot soup lunch.


The rain cleared again for our afternoon ride. I was told I was taking Kate's spot caboosing Mel's ride, because Kate had been on the ride that had gotten drenched in the morning. I was riding Wajir, a very hot little bay arab mare who had thrown Kate the week before. Mel said she wasn't usually like that, so off we went. Wajir was great to start. She has a fantastic floaty trot and an unbelievably smooth canter. Unfortunately, huge dark storm clouds at the south end of the valley followed us as we climbed higher into the Absarokas. Before we knew it we were in the middle of a thunderstorm--rain and hail coming down in buckets, wind whipping across the sage. Mel turned us right around, and we set off for home as fast as possible (...trotting when the footing was good). Wajir remained good natured throughout the ride home, taking the storm in stride. Then we reached the top of the Bench, and Mel suggested that we should trot the rest of the way back to get there faster.

We set off at a trot across the old dirt airplane runway at the top of the bench... pointed towards home, Apache acted up a bit ahead of me... and Wajir took that as a signal to take off. She galloped off for a few strides, and then I pulled on the right rein to turn her into the sagebrush and slow her down..... but unlike Lightening (with whom that had worked perfectly), she decided she wasn't having it. She took off bucking, and I sat two of the biggest bucks I've ever experienced (for a little mare... she gets some HIEGHT) and then she spun back to the right... and in a split second I was flying through the air and landed in the mud-- my head whiplashing into a rock, and Wajir took off at a mad gallop towards home.

Mel pulled up the rest of the horses. The guests on the ride were beyond freaked out. Thunder rumbled overhead, and I sat up... to see Wajir come to a stop at the fence on the other side of the bench. Mel walked over to me with a concerned look... "Well, nothing is broken..." I said, and I stood up. I was completely soaked, and the left side of me was covered in mud. I had scrapes all across my lower back from where I had slid. Once I had convinced Mel that I wasn't seriously injured, she set off to get Wajir. I then had to console the guests, and tell them I really was OK. My ankle was rolled, my lower back scraped, and my head hurt a bit... but I hopped back on Wajir and we continued home.

I took a nice hot shower... and that was when I realized I had a concussion. My head ached, I was dizzy, a bit nauseous, and there were multiple sparkly dots in both of my eyes. My bosses and fellow staff members told me they'd be more than willing to drive me to the hospital in Riverton (1 1/2 hours away), or to have me helevacted out..... comforting. I spent the evening in a daze, with people constantly talking to me or poking me to keep me from falling asleep in the staff kitchen. But in the end, I just had my cabinmate Emma wake me up twice that night... and I woke up! So that was good. and I'm completely fine now.... head, back, ankle... all is well.

The thunderstorms have continued in full force. I had the day off from riding on Tuesday, but hopped right back on today... riding Peanut out to Butch Cassidy's with Richard in the lead....

Thus is life at Bitterroot Ranch. Truely, never a dull moment.