loadin' up 4 of the horses tomorrow (Fiancee and I have 6 together) and hauling them to the Cascades near the Oregon/California border, camping by Mt McLaughlin in the Rogue River/ Sky Lakes Wilderness area just S and W of Crater Lake.
My fiancee's cousin, cousin's wife and 3 kids will be meeting us there, we're camping at some of the many horse camps with corrals at the campsites. My mare, Peach and my fiancee's old Morgan mare Gizzy will be packing kids around. We don't have enough horses for everybody to ride at once, but the 2 youngest kids are boys, quite young, so the grownups will take turns doing other things with the kids while some of us go out on all-day rides.
I have been running around like crazy getting everything ready, Gizzy included - she is semi-retired and can be real crabby when left alone for so long. She is BOMBPROOF but used to be a lessons horse so she can be pretty 'sour'. I have been working her, plus my green horse/training project Shelly, getting them both ready for the ride. Shelly has never been on real trails in the high country, but I believe she is ready for it, she has come so far in her training and confidence lately.
Gizzy has a bad shoulder that gets better with stretching and light work, which is why she is semi-retired and used for packing kids around. She still LOVES to go! Keeping her stretched, rubbed down, and giving her a little Bute seems to keep her comfortable. We won't use her for any of the long rides. She is also barefoot, just doesn't get used enough to shoe. I have EZ Boots, so I spent 2 hours the other night fiddling with her feet, getting them trimmed and filed and getting the EZ Boots fitted. I HATE EZ Boot Epics, actually everything made by the EZ Care company is a huge pain, they are just so much work to get on. But, after putting pads in them and fiddling with the cables I got boots on all 4 feet. The problem with the darn boots and Gizzy is she has spade-shaped hooves that take a 00 shoe (which can be hammered and shaped) but they are too wide for a 00 EZ Boot and only fit into an 0 EZ Boot with a lot of filing and cussing. Then the EZ Boot is too long and too high, so pads have to be used to fill in the gaps.
Anyhow, I think we are all ready and should have smooth sailing for the trip down there and the long weekend!