Ghost Ranch Vacation

October 13: Day 1
Yeah! Vacation has finally gotten here and boy, are we ready to head out. We finished packing up this morning with about 1 ½ inches of snow still on the ground, but lots of sunshine and in the low 30’s. The horses had gotten an early breakfast and hay bags were in the trailer. They seemed happy to get to be on the road again, also. We hadn’t planned on leaving too early because we wanted to get into Ghost Ranch, NM (http://www.ghostranch.org/) about 6:00 pm so we could unload while still light, but not beat Elisa there by too much. She was at a seminar in Santa Fe for the day.

Typical for the start of a trip, though, we discovered we had forgotten the fence charger, but we were already almost out of the canyon, so decided to stop at Murdoch’s and see if they had a reasonably priced one, since we were planning on buying another just for trips. They did have one in stock and we left with a new fencer. Now to fuel up out on the highway and be on our way. We had a very nice day of travel; good roads and no storms, with the temp going up to the low 70’s along the way. Everything was going well until a PU pulled up next to us just before Colo. Springs and said our trailer door was open. It had popped open on Tel and I on our previous trip, too. We pulled over and strapped the door shut, very thankful none of our good tack had blown out and caused problems for other drivers. That turned out to be the adventure of the day.

We pulled into Ghost Ranch an hour late, 7:00 pm, and Elisa had gotten back early, so she met us at the entrance to her drive with just enough light left to walk the horses to a little pen just across the driveway from her house. Jesse was so anxious to get out of the trailer, she broke her lead rope backing out. I don’t usually tie her in the trailer as she loads last on voice command, but Bill had loaded her and tied her. When we undid the butt chain she thought she could just back out, so she did and just popped her lead rope in two. We decided she would be the first loaded for a few times so she could get a review of waiting in the trailer. We pulled out whatever we needed for the night, took in the grocery boxes to stash in the fridge, and parked the truck and trailer in a field down the way.

There is a very old mare (supposed to be 37) that lives at the Ranch and roams at will. She’s almost blind, has rickets, and looks pretty decrepit. She sure came to life when she thought she was going to have to share her space with the young punk! She’s a grulla like Ranger and he took a shine to her. They spent lots of time nosing over the fence. She was not particularly fond of Washoe; guess he was too young. I think Jesse was a take-it-or-leave-it; nothing to bother about. They took turns all night swinging between squealing and snuggling their butts together at the corner where the pens met. It made for interesting sleeping, because the coyotes would sing, then the old mare, who was very hoarse by this time, would squeal.