It was walking into the hoodo’s and seeing my parent’s fear as they walked over the scary cliff area.  I stopped worrying about this area and forgot that it was scary too long ago.  It was seeing how they thought it was worth it when we got there! 

It was going to sheep eater cliffs in the spring.  The torrents of cold rushing water could almost block out anything.  

It was taking my parents to canyon and seeing how excited people are who haven’t seen it before; reminding me of just how awesome it is!  

The park is amazing.  My family is great.  I know the horses out here better than most anyone.  My friends are also great!  

Story about the horse I worked with at home to keep us on the horsey topic:  

My adventure with Romeo and Bill

Sometimes it isn’t about helping the horse as much as it is about helping the person understand their horse! 

I just want to start out by saying that I am NOT a horse training.  I am just that horse girl from Eureka road who likes to help people with their horses. 

I was home for a bit of time this spring.  I decided to leave my winter gig early and I still had quite a bit of time before my summer job was starting, so I went back to the place where I grew up.  It had been a rough winter and I was rather down about so many silly things.  At home I didn’t really want to ride.  I didn’t want to take riding lessons.  I was burnt out from horses and riding.  It wasn’t my escape anymore. 

After I was home for probably close to a month, I saw an ad on craigslist from someone is my area looking for a horse trainer for their three year old standardbred gelding.  My horse confidence was at an all time low.  I had myself convinced that I was not good with horses.  I didn’t even want to learn more at that moment, but I have a weak spot for helping people and a weak spot for standardbreds.  Growing up, so many different people taught me so many different things about horse training and care.  I like passing on that knowledge.  I like teaching.  So, I replied to the ad.  I made it very clear that I am not a trainer, just a girl who likes the animals and likes to help.  The owner of the horse, Bill, decided to take me up on my offer… and that is how this short, eventful journey began.

My first encounter with Romeo had me a little bit frightened.  When you would walk up to his stall, he would go to the back of it.  When you went in with him he would get as far away as possible by backing up in circles in the stall.  He would keep his head away from you and not even look in your direction.  More frighteningly, he would turn his hindquarters into you as you approached him.  A ten by ten stall is not a large enough area to get out of the way is he had chosen to kick.  At that moment I was in over my head.  His owner said that he was able to halter Romeo, so I left the stall and left it to Bill to catch his horse.  Once the halter was on Romeo, he was slightly more handleable.  He didn’t like his face to be touched and he was very touchy about his belly and hind end being worked with.  I did a bit of groundwork with him inside the barn just to make sure he was decent about giving to pressure, then we took him out into the pasture to work him.  He tended to lean into pressure because his owner would hold him and lead him by his halter.  He had no freedom of moment at all. 

After we moved outside, he quickly learned that I meant business.  He quickly picked up how to direct and drive in a circle.  I would ask him to circle in the direction I wanted him to go at the gait I wanted him to travel at.  When I was ready to stop, I would ask him to swing his hindquarters to the outside of the circle to stop and face me.  He liked to crowd when he got nervous, so I also taught him to back up right away.  My boss in Yellowstone, Carrie, taught me to back up a horse by crouching and looking at their chest, the area you wanted to move back, then reinforce your body language with a swinging rope, then back that up by popping the horse with the rope in the chest.  It took Romeo a little bit to understand what I meant, but he got it after a bit. 

By the end of the first day of groundwork, we had a horse that was much more comfortable being handled on the ground.  At the end of the lesson, I was petting Romeo near his back leg and he kicked in my general direction, so as a reflex I smacked him on the butt and continued doing what I was doing.  He seemed to really get that message! 

The next day when I went out to work with him, he showed much better behavior in his stall.  He was still backing up a bit, but he didn’t turn his butt at Bill at all.  He was much happier about being caught.  I made sure to describe exactly what I was doing to Bill as we worked through it.  I wanted to teach both of them at the same time.  I wanted them to understand how to work with each other. 

Yellowstone...

It was one of those days where I was having a bad day.  Perhaps even a really bad day.  My boyfriend and I had decided that we wanted to be just friends a few days before.  I was frustrated at my boss just that morning.  Early that afternoon I had accidentally almost burnt down one of the buildings on the farm I work at.  BAD DAY!  To make myself feel better, of course after getting an ice cream cone at my favorite local coffee shop, I went into Yellowstone for a hike out to my favorite place in the park.  At least my favorite place that you can get to in a short evening hike.  It is a section of extinct terrace that was brought down in large boulders in earthquakes a long time ago.  It is a barren area filled with large white rocks, sparse vegetation, and populations of small critters and birds with mountains on the horizon.  

On this day, I just wanted to go up there to sit on a large white rock… a rock larger than any of my problems and write in my journal.  My hike out there was easy and fast.  I was going too quickly to see if there was much wildlife.  Some people run from their problems.  Apparently I walk quickly away from mine.  By the time I got up there I started to relax.  Cloud cover was moving in and a gray sky fit my mood entirely.  The wildflowers in the muted light looked mysterious rather than cheerful like they had the day before.  I selected a rock that was up to my standards and made myself comfortable.  Even the mosquitoes sensed my confused, cloudy mood and left me alone.  As I reached into my bag to bring out my journal, pencil, and set of colored pencils, a sound in a nearby tree captured my attention.  I watched a lovely, brave woodpecker climb up the tree in front of me.  Not the least bit worried about this girl in a tie dyed t-shirt sitting in front of him.  

I got some great writing and drawing in on that rock. I paused while coloring a small horse sketch, and looked up to see a Pika lift its head up and scamper forward behind another rock.  The shape of its ears caught my attention.  They were such a perfect shape.  After writing for a bit longer, a movement next to me made me turn.  Of course I focused on the movement too slowly to see what caused it, but there was a cheerful yellow bird sitting in the tree that the woodpecker had once occupied.  The movement next to me again had me focus on it, and this time I watched a small mouse scurry under the rock I was sitting on.  I was beginning to feel like I was having a “snow white” kind of day.  

My walk back to the trail head and consequentially my car and the modern world cemented in my feeling of the Evening.  The natural world was telling me that everything was and is ok. I took my time on this walk back.  After a beautiful view overlooking a waterfall, I entered a forested section of trail. Of course there were either small squirrels or chipmunks playing on almost every log.  At this point in my hike I had started singing out loud and more than likely off key.  If nothing else, I have learned in my time in Yellowstone that when hiking alone in bear country, it is rather good to make some noise even if it is off key.  A bit deeper into this forested section of trail, a rabbit jumped out across the trail in front of me.  This was not the type of bunny that we have back in Pennsylvania.  It wasn’t the fat lazy type that spends all of its time eating.  This was a large, lean, powerful creature with a darker body and white feet that powerfully propelled itself across the trail to safety.  It was beautiful treat to see it move with it bunched power.  Still while singing rather loudly I walked up on a mule deer next to the trail.  The two of us stopped and looked at each other for a bit.  The pretty lady stood there pondering why I was there that time of the evening for a bit before deciding to move a little bit further off.  There she stood, seemingly not the least bit concerned about me and my singing. 

I reached the trail head soon after seeing the deer.  I drove back home and back to a beautiful pink and orange sunset over my favorite mountain.  Bad feeling, sadness, and fear from the day receded.  Nature had given me a hug the best way it knows how.  My soul remembered what is important to it, nature, beauty, life, friends.  Even when things are bad, there is potential for happiness if I know where and how to look.  Here I may have to look under a large white limestone rock.  In Pennsylvania I may have to look to the bottom of a shallow pool in a swamp.  Nature and escape from the modern world are the reasons that I love the backcountry so deeply.  Those are the reasons that I love to share the backcountry with others.