Gadget’s Airstream Chronicles

I was a little tired last night.  A long and exhausting day.  Of course, a good one.  But I left some things out I’d wanted to mention.

Saturday’s rodeo was my first rodeo ever.  This ain’t your first rodeo son, is it? Yup, it was!

The one thing that struck me at the rodeo had nothing to do with the bucking horses or bulls.  The working horses caught my attention, and I enjoyed watching them.

What do I mean by working horses?  I mean the ones that deal with the rowdy ones after it’s all done.  Two guys on horse back would round up the angry, kicking, jumping horses after “the ride” was over.  These horses were amazing.  Horse and rider would neatly manage the bucking horse right back into a gate.

Watching the working horses I could see they were all about management.  They’d shoot right up to a bull with their riders swinging a rope.  The horses didn’t flinch from their duties.  Pretty darned amazing if you ask me!  The blurry shot to the left is the back side of one of the working horses and it’s rider.  At the ready when someone gets bucked!

I can see how large herds of cattle could be managed by a few guys and their horses now.  With a horse like the ones I saw you could keep most anything in line.  Just amazing stuff!

Shifting gears - More horse talk.

Go figure, a horse heavy post.  In addition to the horses I watched on Saturday night I now want to talk about a few other horses I met yesterday.

As we were returning from Sycamore Canyon we rounded a bend in the road and came to a stop.  2 people on horseback were on the “road”.  2 additional horses were in tow carrying gear.  4 horses, 2 people.  They gave us a wave and we stopped to chat for a few.

The riders asked if we’d seen water up ahead.  They were doing an extended trip on horseback, and were looking for a water supply for their horses.  We’d seen nothing, and let them know.

We had seen troughs at the abandoned cabin a few miles up, and green water in the catchment system there.  Clearly people come up to ride in the area, and that seems to be what the catchment system was for.

The girl / woman (seemed awful young) mentioned that they’d heard of a creek not too far ahead.  We’d seen nothing, and let them know that.

Apparently the couple is crossing the country on horseback.  One of the pack horses had two plastic “Wal-Mart” style lawn chairs on it’s back.  We’d seen them in the morning camped on the Verde River, and now during the afternoon 17 miles from where we’d last seen them.  They were rugged looking, and clearly spend the bulk of their lives outdoors.  The man in the couple had leathery skin, and he was completely dust covered.  The woman was too.

I found myself wondering, “Is this a husband and wife or father and daughter?”  She seemed far too young to be a wife, and I expect she’s only recently out of high school.  What’s their story?  Riding to Colorado?  No major supplies?  Just a rifle on the man’s horse?  Plastic chairs on a horses back?  What’s that all about?

They said they were heading on to Colorado.  In 2002 they’d ridden from Washington state to the Southwest, and now their journey continued.  Once in Colorado they were going to ride the Great Divide.  Interesting trip for sure.  In the end, I was left with many questions about the nature of their trip, who they are, and if they were running from something, or like Thru-Hikers, just interested in a journey.  I sure hope they found some water for their horses…….

****By the way.  The last two photos are HDR experiments from yesterday’s shooting.  Not as cool as the courthouse, but interesting.  I’ll continue working with these photos and see what develops!  Pun intended.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 12th, 2008 at 9:32 am and is filed under Notes from Gadget, Photo of the Day, off road adventures.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.